EXCLUSIVE: Producers behind the BBC‘s Lost Boys & Fairies are hopeful that the heartwarming show can re-spin narratives around adoption, as they reveal they are working with White Lotus star Will Sharpe and Censor director Prano Bailey-Bond on new projects.
Welsh playwright Daf James‘ debut premieres Monday and This is England alums Bekki Wray-Rogers, Jessica Brown Meek and Libby Durdy, who run the show’s production outfit Duck Soup Films, said nuanced representation was integral to the story about a gay couple adopting for the first time.
Wray-Rogers is an adopter and said she wanted to turn the tables on previous representations of adoption in TV and movies.
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“The trail of adoption so far has very much been about people being stolen away and that’s not really what it is,” she told Deadline. “People should know that adoption is a really great thing and there should be this recognition that people are all a bit flawed but can use their trauma to become really good adopters.”
Social workers who have viewed previews of the show have “been very excited that you get to see lots of different perspectives,” added Wray-Rogers.
Durdy said: “Not to sound saccharine but this [show] highlights the need for compassion. All our families are made up in completely different ways and compassion is very key in our understanding.”
Starring Sion Daniel Young(Slow Horses) andFra Fee(Rebel Moon), James’ TV debut follows Gabriel and Andy. They long to adopt a child and to do so they must convince their social worker Jackie (Elizabeth Berrington) that they’re up to the task. But Gabe is masking his demons: the effects of decades of shame having grown up in a society that overwhelmingly treated being gay as a sin, a shame which Gabe is still processing.
The show has been gestating for years – Channel 4-backed Duck Soup launched in 2015 and Lost Boys is its first project on air – but the team, who worked on Shane Meadows’ indie smash This is England before launching their production company, were never in a rush. They met James in 2019 as part of the BBC writers room and connected immediately with the authentic nature of the show based on James’ personal experiences, having adopted three children with his husband.
“It is not actually a true story but took time and Daf had to dig deep,” added Wray-Rogers. “This was his first big BBC commission. He was a theater writer and some of what is in there is based on other stuff he’d written but to translate that and find the right way to tell this story to a mass audience at 9 p.m. on BBC One takes time.”
With this in mind, Wray-Rogers stressed that James always wanted the series to reach as many viewers as possible. “Once we got traction we were trying to tailor it to that wide audience,” she said. “We would be in script meetings and he would say, ‘I want to make sure this story works for our next door neighbor and isn’t just talking to an insular bubble’.”
That universality is cemented by the backing of the BBC and Brown Meek heaped praise on the nation’s public broadcaster, which she said connected with Duck Soup’s desire to tell stories from authentic voices such as James’s.
Working with Will Sharpe
Duck Soup, James and BBC Film are now exploring an idea that came out of discussions whilst developing storylines for Lost Boys & Fairies, although the team were tight-lipped on what these storylines entail.
“Topics and themes came up when we were in development and it is about finding those stories,” added Wray-Rogers. “This comes out of the trusted relationships we build with talent.”
Next up for Duck Soup is Dance School, a Channel 4 series from ADiscovery of Witchesscribe Lisa Holdsworth. The Rocks-esque show about an eclectic group of dance students will likely come out next year and has been called a “a heart-warming portrayal of the hardships young people are increasingly exposed to” by ex-Channel 4 drama boss Caroline Hollick.
The team also revealed they are developing a movie for Film4 directed and co-written by White Lotus star Sharpe, which will be co-written by John Donnelly. Sharpe has been highly in demand since his White Lotus breakout both in front of and behind the camera – he directed episodes of triple-BAFTA winning Olivia Colman-starrer Landscapers amongst others – and next up he can be seen in Joey Barton’s Amadeus TV series and Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle.
Duck Soup is also working with Bailey-Bond, who made Sundance-winning horror pic Censor starring Niamh Algar, on an adaptation of a short story by Kelly Link. The Welsh director is writing with Brad Birch.
