Features / television
New BBC comedy drama puts Bristol school on small screen
A new six-part comedy drama series explores class, race and power against the backdrop of Bristol’s most exclusive school.
Boarders on BBC Three follows the lives of five underprivileged Black students from inner-city London who win scholarships to an elite boarding school called St Gilbert’s.
Filming took place in August 2023 at a private school in leafy Clifton which charges £15,480 per term for sixth form boarders.
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Daniel Lawrence Taylor, who plays Gus, a mentor for Jaheim, Leah, Omar, Toby and Femi, was inspired by a true story he read in the Financial Times
The series was inspired by an article in the Financial Times about five Black children from east London who won scholarships to Rugby School.
“It really resonated with me,” said creator and executive producer Daniel Lawrence Taylor, who spoke to Bristol24/7 while Boarders was being filmed.
“I grew up in south London but went to Royal Holloway in Surrey, which was very white and very middle class.
“It was a real culture shock to me and there were lots of parallels between my experience and experiences of the five boys who went to Rugby.”
Lawrence Taylor also plays Gus in the show, a staff member who runs a charity which helps facilitate the school in enrolling five inner city Black kids, after a video of a group of students attacking a homeless person goes viral.
Stepping out of London and into a world they can only describe as something out of Harry Potter, the characters in Boarders experience the highs and lows of boarding school.
They learn about themselves, their identity and what life on the other side looks like.
“What happens when young black people enter these institutions and how do you deal with it?” Lawrence Taylor asked.
“That’s why I wrote about five characters, because we all entered these spaces in different ways – some people assimilate, some people rebel, some are opportunistic. So it felt right for drama and comedy.”
Studio Lambert, the production team behind the new series who also make The Traitors for the BBC, looked at a few schools across the UK before deciding on the school in BS8.
Its boarding houses, grand library, sports grounds and traditions were seen as a perfect fit for the opulent private school aesthetic in Boarders.
“There are also so many productions filming in Bristol at the moment so it was kind of a no-brainer to set up shop here,” Lawrence Taylor added.
Aruna Jalloh as Femi with Myles Kamwedo as Omar, who studied drama at UWE and grew up in Bristol
Lawrence Taylor is joined by cast members Josh Tedeku as Jaheim, Jodie Campbell as Leah, Myles Kamwendo as Omar alongside Sekou Diaby as Toby and Aruna Jalloh as Femi – the latter who are both making their screen debuts.
Kamwendo, a 22-year-old former UWE Bristol student, told Bristol24/7 he made sure to show the cast around while they were filming in Bristol, including visiting the city’s vintage and second-hand shops, and taking them on nights out.
The Boarders cast say the series grapples with difficult subjects in an entertaining way, and all five of them agree Lawrence Taylor has rendered characters with complex layers.
Diaby said: “It’s quite a thought-provoking and deep subject but it’s shown in such an entertaining and funny way.”
Boarders will air on BBC Three on Tuesday at 9pm and is available to stream on iPlayer now.
All photos: BBC / Studio Lambert
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