Boarders, the brand-new comedy drama created by Bafta-nominated Daniel Lawrence Taylor (Timewasters), is now available on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer after filming at The Bottle Yard Studios and on location in Bristol and the South West last year.
The six-part high energy series, produced by Studio Lambert (The Nest, Three Girls) in association with All3Media International, follows the lives of five talented black inner-city teenagers navigating their way through an alien world – the British public school system.
The main filming site for the series was in Clifton, and our colleagues Bristol Film Office worked closely with Studio Lambert to provide nearby production offices and parking for the crew during the five-month shoot. Filming for interiors also took place on sets built at The Bottle Yard.
As well as assisting with locations, Bristol Film Office liaised closely with the production team to connect it with local crew talent including Bristol company Latent Pictures which runs a paid development programme for underrepresented filmmakers. Around 90 crew members worked on the production per day, 70% of which were regional crew, with more than 55% from Bristol and the South West.
Read more about the shoot and what the producers had to say about their time filming in Bristol, in this Film Office article.
Following a problematic viral video involving a student, Jaheim (Josh Tedeku), Leah (Jodie Campbell), Omar (Myles Kamwendo), Toby (Sekou Diaby) and Femi (Aruna Jalloh) are offered sixth form scholarships to St Gilbert’s, one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious schools, in an attempt to rehabilitate its image. They soon find themselves in a world they can only describe as something out of Harry Potter, surrounded by lush playing fields, cloistered grandeur and complex social rules which they must decipher quickly in order to survive. They will go on a journey as they learn about themselves, their identity and what it’s like to live alongside the one percent – which they discover is nothing like life as they knew it.
Boarders is created and written by Daniel Lawrence Taylor, with episodes written by Emma Dennis-Edwards, Yemi Oyefuwa and Ryan Calais Cameron, and script edited by Missy Howard. It is directed by Ethosheia Hylton and Sarmad Masud and produced by Ali MacPhail. Executive producers are Daniel Lawrence Taylor, with Susan Hogg and Madeleine Sinclair for Studio Lambert and Nawfal Faizullah and Ayela Butt for the BBC.
Boarders is now available as a boxset on BBC iPlayer. Episode one aired on BBC Three on Tuesday 20th February and further episodes will air weekly.