Maxine Duffy is 11, on the cusp of puberty, and certain her body is a mistake. Her mother Vicky has protected the social transition for years, but the deepening distress brings Stephen, the father who walked out three years earlier, back into their Manchester home, igniting a custody battle disguised as concern. Across three 44-minute episodes, creator Tony Marchant keeps the camera tight on the domestic frontline: GP appointments, playground whispers, a suicide attempt that lands Maxine on a paediatric ward where a nurse quietly removes the plastic ID bracelet bearing the wrong name.
Marchant wrote the scripts after sitting in on support-group sessions run by Mermaids, the UK charity for trans youth, and the detail shows: the terror of the first bra fitting, the way Vicky’s hand hovers over the “girls” tick-box on a school form, the grandmother who still calls Max “he” because “I’ve said it for eight years, love.” Callum Booth-Ford, 12 at audition, gives a performance of unforced stillness; every hopeful upward glance at the word “she” guts the room. Anna Friel is all frayed nerve endings as Vicky, while Emmett J. Scanlan’s Stephen swings from tender to territorial without ever becoming a simple villain, and Alison Steadman supplies brittle comic relief as the nan who buys pink glitter trainers then panics at the till.
Broadcast over consecutive Sundays in October 2018, the miniseries drew 2.8 million overnight viewers for the opener, became the most-requested title on ITV Hub that year, and arrived on Hulu in the US within weeks. An NHS gender-clinic psychologist publicly criticised the suicide scene as “irresponsible,” yet Susie Green, the Mermaids CEO who script-consulted, noted the storyline mirrored her own daughter’s path. Awards followed: RTS Best Mini-Series, BAFTA nomination for Booth-Ford, and a rebuke from the Children’s Commissioner for the postcode lottery that still governs trans adolescent care in Britain.
Production Details
ITV1 / 1 Season / 3 Episodes / 2018
Created by: Tony Marchant
Writer(s): Tony Marchant
Producer(s): Louise Sutton
Main Cast
Emmett J. Scanlan as Stephen Duffy
Callum Booth-Ford as Maxine Duffy
Anna Friel as Vicky Duffy
Millie Gibson as Lily Duffy
Alison Steadman as Barbara
Sean McGinley as Peter Duffy
Amy Huberman as Gemma
Lola Ogunyemi as Molly
Gemma Paige North as Sally Jameson
