Trans drama spreads its wings

摘要

The first episode of timely new ITV drama Butterfly, written by RTS award-winner Tony Marchant and made by the Manchester-based Red Production Company, was given a screening by RTS North West at the Lowry, Salford, in early October. The three-part drama, which is full of warmth and humour, tells the story of an ordinary family faced with an extraordinary situation. Eleven-year-old Max identifies as a girl, and, as the ticking clock of puberty begins and Max's belief that he's in the wrong body intensifies, the fractured family - mum, played by Anna Friel, and dad, Emmett J Scanlan -must unite to help Max find a way forward. During the Q&A which followed the screening, BBC Radio 5 Live's Nihal Arthana-yake asked the key creatives about Butterfly's topicality and the responsibility of creating a drama around a sensitive issue that has never before been fully explored in a UK television drama.