Miriam: Death of a Reality Star review – heartbreaking insight into the murky world of early reality TV

Were the early years of the 21st century really such a toxic cesspit of misogyny, homophobia and other Stone Age prejudices? That is the consensus that has slowly emerged across the past decade – first via the many documentaries about the public humiliations visited upon Britney Spears and now with the heartbreaking and gasp-inducing Miriam: Death of a Reality Star (Monday, Channel 4, 9pm).

“Miriam” was Miriam Rivera, a Mexican-American transgender model and aspiring celebrity. Having had a tough upbringing in Mexico, she dreamed of stardom – which made her ripe for exploitation by the makers of reality series There’s Something About Miriam.

Some may dimly recall the programme, which aired on Sky in 2004. It was a sort of proto-Love Island, larks-in-Ibiza affair in which six likely lads vied for the affections of Rivera. The “twist” was that Miriam was transgender – or, as a stomach-turning narration from the series itself put it, “as much Steve as Eve, as much Arthur as Martha”. It’s hard not to be speechless.

Even in 2004, the show was a disgrace. That same year, a trans woman won Big Brother – made by the same producer, Endemol, which created There’s Something About Miriam. There was, without question, a lot of ignorance around trans issues. But that did not excuse the exploitative way in which Miriam’s sexuality was framed – or the glee with which the six contestants were manipulated.

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“Most people at that time had no real concept of trans or just saw it as ladyboys or crossdressers or transvestites,” said Gareth Smith, a psychiatrist and mental health adviser whom producers drafted in toward the end of filming when it dawned on them that the series might prove problematic.

He dubs it “cruelty” television. “Unethical, ridiculous, horrible and disgusting,” he says, pointing out that “Miriam seemed to be the punchline of the joke. But it wasn’t a joke. Because it was Miriam and her life. And these boys who didn’t have the option to consent.”

Rivera died in 2019, and her death will be addressed in episode three. If there’s a flaw with this otherwise conscientious and thoughtful first instalment it’s that she is largely a cipher: we don’t have any real insight into her feelings about the show or the deception she had signed up to. She is a blank space at the centre of the film.

The focus is instead on the wildest nature of reality TV in the early 21st century. Desperate to cut through the glut of Big Brother copycats, programme-makers would go to any extremes. When they went too far the result was There’s Something About Miriam.

Two of the six contestants agreed to be interviewed. Toby Green was the only one to suspect Miriam might be trans: when the producers caught wind of this, he was voted off. But everyone else was happy to vie for her affections. “I did find Miriam very attractive,” says another participant, Aron Lane. “It’s hard to say I didn’t.”

The series created a huge controversy at the time, with the contestants going to court to try to prevent its broadcast. In a statement that appears before the credits, Sky said that There’s Something About Miriam had been “removed from all platforms many years ago” and “has not been reflective of Sky’s attitudes gender identity or inclusivity for a long time”.

The good news is that a show such as this would never be made today. But abhorrent views about trans people proliferate on social media – and of course, anything that exists on the internet will seep into reality eventually.

“The top line was six guys try and date the woman of their dreams and discover she is a ‘man’,” says one of the producers. “The word ‘man’ has been used – we have to own this. Otherwise, we will never learn. We were not using words like trans. We know differently now.”