Mhairi Black: Being Me Again | Preview (BBC Two)

In this highly personal film, former SNP MP Mhairi Black talks about her life in depth as never before.

As a twenty-year-old, she was elected as MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South in 2015, becoming the youngest person since the Reform Act of 1832 to take a seat in the House of Commons. She defeated former Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander by almost six thousand votes - and all before she had completed her politics degree at Glasgow University.

Mhairi was part of a Labour-voting family, but in the lead up to Scotland’s independence referendum in 2014, she and her dad threw themselves into the Yes campaign. The young activist stepped up and began making speeches at rallies but when the campaign was lost, she said it felt like a death. A few months later, with a General Election on the horizon, she was encouraged to stand.

From the beginning of her political career, Mhairi attracted attention. Her maiden speech in July 2015 went viral, but not all the scrutiny was positive. She was trolled as soon as she was selected as a candidate and the online abuse continued after she took her seat in the House of Commons.

On the surface she dealt with it, but behind closed doors it began to take its toll. In 2017/18 she was signed off work for three months, a period she has never talked about publicly in detail before. During this period, she was eventually diagnosed with ADHD, a diagnosis which she says changed her life.

The documentary also includes exclusive interviews with her wife Katie, father Alan, goes behind the scenes at the House of Commons, and follows her as she steps on stage for the first night of her sell out stand-up show, Politics isn’t for Me, at the Edinburgh festival fringe.

Mhairi Black: Being Me Again lands Sunday 9th March on BBC iPlayer.