When we think of Tan France, we picture his style, poise and how he empowers strangers on hit Netflix makeover show Queer Eye. Starring alongside Jonathan Van Ness, Karamo Brown, Antoni Porowski and Bobby Berk, France completes the fun-loving group as the stylist extraordinaire.

He’s regularly on our screens instilling confidence and concocting dream outfits that leave many in (happy) tears and looking at themselves in a newfound light. But in his new BBC Two documentary, viewers can prepare to see France in an entirely new and enlightening way.

Tan France: Beauty And The Bleach aired last night on BBC Two (27 April) and is now available to watch on BBC iPlayer. It follows the presenter as he uncovers the truth behind skin bleaching, why people do it, his own personal connection to the beauty trend, as well as hearing personal anecdotes from celebrities including Kelly Rowland.

Upon airing, viewers were quick to take to social media to express their praise for such an “important” show:

Fans of France’s were pleasantly surprised to see him in a more candid (and emotionally honest) fashion:

More than anything, though, the documentary provided incredible insight into a topic that hasn’t widely been spoken about on mainstream television:

In the documentary, we learn that France first bleached his skin at the age of nine. And at the heart of his fascination with the practice is a widely held belief that having a lighter skin tone directly correlates to your success, wealth and status. Where does this thinking stem from? Well, France uncovers that, at least for him and many other people of colour, it comes from within your own community. 

For many people from ethnic minorities, colourism persists and France explains in the documentary: “Lighter means beautiful, darker means unattractive.

“And it was everywhere – it was in the movies we’d watch, which were Bollywood movies. There were always beautiful, light-skinned people who were the stars of these movies.”

France discusses how he tried skin-bleaching cream when he was nine and then, admitting it for the first time in this documentary, that he bought and tried it again when he was 16.

Although the cream hurt when applied, he persisted in using it because he wanted his skin to be lighter. “I thought, ‘What trouble’s my skin going to get me into today?’ and so at nine, I was already making grand plans to bleach, to do all I could to be as non-Asian as possible.”

Having to accept his own identity in the majority white area of Yorkshire where he grew up was hard and, as he explains, “the one thing that was a constant as a child? Being aware of my skin tone.” 

France’s family is Pakistani and he explains that his family spoke English but also Urdu and Punjabi at home. Children at school criticised him for the way he spoke, as well as his appearance, smell and skin colour. “I was ashamed of my ethnicity. Yeah, I was ashamed of my colour,” he says.

“I think for most Caucasian people, they don’t have to think about their skin. I can’t imagine that’s much of a consideration at any point when they wake up in the morning. But for me, that was something I thought about every day when I woke up.”

In the documentary, France also speaks to Daniel, who was a self-confessed “addict” to skin-bleaching. He shows France shocking images of his skin peeling and the red after-effects from using such products.

France reflects: “Our experiences are very different. I want to understand that you cannot conflate the Black experience with the brown experience but, when we strip it down to its core, it’s our own people saying that we are not worthy unless we are light-skinned. It’s a message that if you’re not white enough, you will not succeed.”

Speaking to former EastEnders actor Bunmi Mojekwu, she discusses how the role came with a lot of Twitter backlash that underlined her darker skin complexion. All of them, she explains to France, came from other Black people. She says: “It does hurt a little bit more when it comes from inside the house – it does.” 

Throughout the documentary, France manages to weave in these ever-present colourist ideals with his own upbringing in South Yorkshire. It’s a past that he is still yet to come to terms with and growing up in Doncaster “always felt hostile”, he explains. As well as racism, he also faced internalised racism coming from the ‘aunties’ and elder women on the peripheries of his family.

He reveals that they had “horrible” names for people they knew who were darker in skin complexion. Conversations around marriage prospects and whether someone was going to get a good job were “ever present” in France’s life – but they all revolved around the shade of someone’s skin. “It’s not how smart you are, it’s not how kind you are, it’s ‘Are you light enough to be taken seriously?’ That screws you up.”

Getting beaten up at the age of five, though, was France’s most formative moment when he first realised that the colour and shade of his skin was something that could negatively impact his life. He says in a more emotional closing moment of the documentary: “It is, without a doubt, the moment that made it so clear to me – I’ve got to do something about my skin colour. If I don’t do something to be less Asian, they’re going to kill me. 

“For me, the desire to bleach as a kid was self-preservation. It was absolutely about survival. It was making sure that I could get home from school as a child without being attacked.”

The candid documentary is an important look into how colourism can impact someone’s life so heavily, even someone as seemingly confident as France. That’s what makes this tonight’s most important thing to watch.

Tan France: Beauty And The Bleach is now available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

Images: BBC