Why are there still no openly gay footballers in the Premier League? Watching Rylan: Football, Homophobia and Me, the day when football finally becomes a space in which a gay player feels safe to say who they are looks closer than ever, yet still so far away.
In an efficient and effective documentary that works calmly through one strong argument after another, the first bullseye is the act of presenting the programme itself: yes, Rylan Clark, once a camp novelty on The X Factor and now a gleaming, razor-styled host of chatty radio, trashy reality and This Morning, is a football fan. Why wouldn’t he be? “I come out of Stepney Green,” he says, surveying the pitch during a West Ham United match. “If you cut me open I bleed claret, with a bit of blue.”
