Butterfly, UTV, Sunday at 9pm
Is it possible that gender identification disorder is the real human rights issue of our time?
Same sex marriage and language rights may be top of the political agenda, but I suspect that the damage being done to people who feel they have been born in the wrong body is of a greater order.
In some ways it has the feel of the campaign for gay rights in the 1980s and 90s. There is society rejection, clandestine meetings, medical questions, upset (and sometimes exclusion) from families and a lack of clarity in the law.
New ITV drama Butterfly has set out to explore some of these issues and in particular how they apply to a child.
Eleven-year-old Max is on the cusp of puberty and has been exploring his possible identity as a girl for a number of years. His dad Stephen has already left the family home unable to cope with the idea that his beloved son may be his daughter.
Max’s mother Vichy took psychological advice when he was five which suggested he may grow out of it and to allow Max(ine) to be a girl at home but to halt that behaviour at the front door.
Max is routinely bullied, particularly at his new second level school, and this only gets worse when, seeing him alone, his older sister encourages his to join a dance routine the girls are practising in the playground.
He comes home wet from school one day because he didn’t want to use the boy’s toilets.
His mother puts the obvious points to him, such as, 'it doesn't matter what toilet you are in' and 'close the door of the cubicle and do your thing.'
But Max explains, not unreasonably. “I want to be normal … I want to feel like I belong in there (toilets).”
Things come to a head when Max attempts suicide when he sees his mother getting ready to go on a date with a new man and it’s suggested to us that Max blames himself for, as he sees it, the destruction of his family.
His dad Stephen (Emmett Scanlan) decides to return home at this stage to see how he can help, although he still can’t accept that Max may be mentally female.
Ahead will be the incredibly difficult decision around whether to give Max hormone blockers to prevent the onset of male puberty.
Callum Both-Ford, in his first major television role, is entirely convincing as Max, but there are problems with Butterfly.
The acting is a bit sketchy and the characters somewhat one dimensional. For instance, all we know about Vicky is that she is deeply concerned about her son and wants to help in any way she can. Stephen, on the other hand, is the stereotypical uncommunicative male who reacts with violence to a situation he doesn't understand.
Nevertheless, this is an important subject and deserves to be aired on prime time television and thereby encourage discussion and debate
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Strictly Come Dancing, BBC 1, Saturday at 7pm
An extra two-million people tuned into Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday night (more than the entire population of Northern Ireland) to see Seann and Katya dance the Charleston.
After the pair (both of whom had other partners) were photographed in a drunken kiss, the BBC ratcheted up the PR machine, reporting the reckless kiss on television, radio and online.
High-fives must have followed at the Beeb when the ratings figures showed Strictly had cemented its already large lead over ITV's X-Factor. Presumably everyone involved will have been presented with a souvenir copy of their public service charter.
