Must Watch reviews Tom Daley: Illegal to Be Me

Wednesday 10 August 2022, 7:46

Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan review Tom Daley: Illegal to Be Me.

BBC One share the journey of Olympic athlete Tom Daley as he visits the most homophobic countries in the Commonwealth to explore why gay athletes are facing extreme persecution.

Hayley says "I like the focus on actual tangible change; how putting rainbows on things is nice but unless it’s backed up by actual change it’s completely meaningless"

Despite the name of the show it's very much not just about Tom Daley and I really respect the fact that he goes out into the world to speak to people. He goes out to Pakistan, he goes to Jamaica, he finds other people to hear their experience of being an LGBTQ+ athlete as well as talking about his own. And he does talk about his own experience in a very candid way: it’s heartbreaking to hear him talk about being 12 years old and knowing he was gay and hating himself for it, and hating how he spoke and how he walked, and being afraid of how others might treat him. This is going to be the very sadly relatable part of it, and it’s paired with footage of him at the time so it really hammers home how he was just a little boy with the weight of centuries of bigotry and hate on his shoulders.

I think the documentary is really well done, and I like the focus on actual tangible change; how putting rainbows on things is nice but unless it’s backed up by actual change it’s completely meaningless. He spoke to lots of university professors, one of them being Carla Moore, a lecturer in Jamaica who specialises in race and sexuality. She was explaining the history of homophobia in her country, what happened to the enslaved people, and what part the British played then that is still seen in the homophobia today. She made a very good point: she said it’s no good to just keep pointing at these countries in Africa and saying ‘this is terrible’ without acknowledging the part that the British played, and then saying ‘what happens next?’. Because if you’re just saying ‘this country is terrible’ it’s underplaying the work of local advocates and activists are doing.

In this documentary they also briefly touch on how people like to say ‘don’t bring politics into sport’, but I think Tom Daley is right to use the Commonwealth Games for this purpose. The Commonwealth Games is a sporting event built on politics, the countries that are competing because politics bound them to the empire. So I think what Daley did - flying the flag in what was once the heart of that empire - is a great place to start. Right now, Daley’s work is in getting the message across the world to people who are watching this on TV. I think it’s hugely important because so many people are watching this.

There's an enormous amount of information in this hour. I really didn’t expect it to be so complex and so well done. I think it’s great work.

Scott says "I do really admire how this documentary is not just finger pointing, but also highlighting activists from these countries who are making a valuable difference"

It’s incredibly powerful. There are many testimonies from people in these countries where it is illegal to be gay that just stuck with me; athletes talking about being the subject to an acid attack, or have been stabbed, or have been ostracized from their family, or know queer friends of theirs drowning themselves in drugs and alcohol, or even with a partner, and then their partner being forced to marry somebody else of the opposite sex because their family may feel so ashamed, or even fearing the sporting authorities representing their own country finding out about their sexuality.

This is the thing that you have to get your head around. If I was experiencing homophobia here I would go to the BBC and tell them that this is happening. Adversely, these people fear for their lives in case the institutions representing them find out about their sexuality, something they cannot change.I kept thinking about my own life and my own queer friends, my own people who are LGBTQ+, and the things I take for granted in regards to the fact that I am able to be on here and talk about being gay and what I’ve been up to, and it not be a thing in the slightest, because I’m allowed to do that without consequences. And here are people who spend their entire life thinking about these consequences.

I do really admire how this documentary is not just finger pointing, but also highlighting activists from these countries who are making a valuable difference.