Whether it is Doctor Who pretending to be in London, King Arthur in Avalon, or Jayde Adams in… Totterdown, we love any TV show with a Bristol connection. And the latest BBC Three brand-new comedy-drama, Boarders, has the city flowing through its whole production – which was filmed entirely in Bristol and the South West last year.
Created by Bafta-nominated Daniel Lawrence Taylor (Timewasters), Boarders is now available on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer. The six-part high-energy series follows the lives of five talented black inner-city teenagers navigating their way through the British public school system. Touching on topics of race, class, and so much more, the Guardian called it “as full of talent as Skins.”
The main filming for the series was in Clifton, while other Bristol locations that feature include Ashton Court, Carolina House on Dove Street, Redcliff Hill, Stokes Croft and St Nicholas Market. Further afield, filming took place at Chavenage House near Tetbury and in Weston-Super-Mare. Interior filming also took place on sets built at The Bottle Yard Studios.
On top of 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.
23-year-old Jojo Bossman from Bedminster in South Bristol, a Camera Trainee on Boarders, said: “Boarders was definitely the most diverse show or feature I’ve ever worked on, which was wonderful. It was a really significant milestone for me in that it was the first long form job created by and starring Black people I’ve worked on.”
What is Boarders about?
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, February 20 and further episodes will air weekly.