Script to Screen: Lost Boys & Fairies

Fra Fee and Sion Daniel Young star as Andy and Gabriel, respectively, a gay Cardiff couple on the path of fatherhood after they adopt their first child

Lost Boys & Fairies is set to become UK broadcaster BBC One’s first primetime bilingual English/Welsh drama. Creator Daf James tells Nick Edwards how the show made it to the screen.

Wales is one of the rare countries that has not only remained largely immune to the tumult that has taken place across the global scripted sector but is actually thriving like never before, and Lost Boys & Fairies, from creator Daf James, may prove to be jewel in its crown.

Act One: Genesis

The series follows singer and artiste extraordinaire Gabriel, who is immersed in Cardiff’s queer culture scene, and his partner Andy, as they adopt their first child. Gabriel’s journey of self-discovery means he must try to repair his relationship with his father before he can be a good parent to his seven-year-old, Jake.

“I wanted to tell this story because I hadn’t seen adoption represented authentically on screen, nor my queer, Welsh experience on primetime television before,” says James. He wrote his first play because “I hadn’t seen myself, or my own experience reflected in drama before.” Now he wants to apply this to TV.

“When I was a kid, TV was a magic box. It was so powerful. It hasn’t lost any of that power and magic for me.”

After Daf’s first theatre play, Llwyth, he was asked to write on the school-based Welsh language TV show Gwaith/Cartref (Home/Work), created by Roger Williams. “It was a brilliant environment to start learning my screenwriting craft. The tone of the show suited me: an ensemble drama, with great characters and a satisfying balance of humour with emotion.” He wrote on that series for four years.

Lost Boys & Fairies, however, marks James’ first original screenplay for the BBC (BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Drama) and the first production from Leeds-based indie Duck Soup Films, which was backed by the C4 Growth Fund in April 2021. It is also BBC One’s first primetime bilingual English/Welsh drama.

“We found Daf through the BBC Writers Room scheme,” says Jessica Brown Meek, co-founder of Duck Soup Films. “As soon as we read his pilot for Lost Boys And Fairies we knew both he and it were special,” she says. The creative commissioners within the BBC felt the same way.

“The script went very quickly right to the top,” Brown Meek says, with full financing achieved when All3Media International (with whom Duck Soup Films has a first-look deal) came on board, shortly followed by Creative Wales.

For Maartje Horchner, EVP of content at the distribution firm, the collab was a no-brainer. “The script absolutely blew us away. We laughed and cried out loud, even in our open office.”

Act Two: Production

The scripts were developed across a 12-month period during Covid. “We would have our script meetings over Zoom,” says James. “We all went through so many things personally during that time, that we became very close. I need these types of relationships to enable me to go to these places in my writing. It’s not just a case of script-editing and feedback; it’s a case of creating an environment within which I could courageously speak my truth,” he explains.

Like their Welsh colleagues, being outside of London means Duck Soup Films are highly attuned to representing the authenticity of a place – perhaps, a result of many years of seeing their own home town barely represented on screen and when done so, from a London perspective. Yet clearly being based outside of Wales was something the Leeds-based production company had to address, which it did partly with the help of Welsh producer Adam Knopf and the establishment of a local team.

“When I was a kid, TV was a magic box. It was so powerful. It hasn’t lost any of that power and magic for me” Daf James

“The wealth of local talent in Wales has shone bright,” says Brown Meek. “Across the board, we have been blessed with a hardworking, friendly and passionate crew from heads of department all the way through to work experience.”

Casting was no mean feat. A world-class Welsh-speaking performer (from a specific cultural background) who could deliver humour, plummet emotional depths, and who could also sing (music is an integral part of the show and James is also musical director) was required to play the lead Gabriel.

So, for this role they turned to Sion Daniel Young, who went to the same Welsh-language school as James, comes from the same cultural community, and his first acting gig was in Llwyth, James’ debut stage production.

“He played an innocent Welsh-speaking gay teenager in that drama. That too was a very personal play. There’s a beautiful poetry in that. The cyclical nature of things.” Members of the local queer community had roles as supporting artists (particularly playing club goers at ‘Neverland’ where much of the action takes place).

Direction, meanwhile, was entrusted to James Kent (MotherFatherSon, The White Queen) “whose body of work speaks for itself,” says Brown Meek.

Maria Doyle Kennedy (top) and Sharon D. Clarke (above) also star in the series, which explores themes such as “love for your chosen family”

Act Three : Impact

Clearly, Lost Boys & Fairies’ themes of queer culture and parenting are ground-breaking and ambitious, especially for a primetime BBC One drama. “I’ve always been interested in the tension between queerness and the mainstream and how you might craft a story with minority perspectives for as wide an audience as possible,” says James. “What’s been so brilliant about working with Duck Soup Films and the BBC is I haven’t had to compromise my vision. I’ve been encouraged to tell my story authentically.”

However, what may be a valuable unique selling point in some markets may make it a more challenging proposition in others (particularly in more traditional or conservative cultures).

“In certain areas of the world it will always be difficult to sell programming with certain themes,” says Horchner. “Although to me, the themes are very broad about love and acceptance. Loving someone for who they are regardless of what the world thinks. Fighting for something you truly believe in and sharing that love with someone who desperately needs it. Love for your chosen family (in this case the queer community) and love for family no matter how complex that love is. It seems to me there is so much in this anyone can identify with.”

Universal themes such as these are the perennial qualities of successful TV drama historically. Horchner points to It’s A Sin, which her company also represented, as an example of a ground-breaking drama that became one of the most successful shows in recent years.

The realisation of this project has been so close to James’ original vision that working on it has been “like walking through my dreams,” he says.

Hopefully, it will fulfil his social ambitions too: “This story also really matters to me because I’m a huge advocate for adoption. Adopting has been one of the most rewarding (and challenging) things I’ve done. In Wales alone, there are currently hundreds of kids waiting to be adopted. Adopting changed me profoundly as a human and as an artist. I see the world differently now, through my children’s eyes. Their stories are now part of my story too.”