A few years ago, a group
of under privileged but intelligent pupils spent a period at Rugby public school
and it is that as well as his own experiences as a black pupil at a mostly
middle class, white University that inspired writer Daniel Lawrence Taylor to
pen Boarders. I would doubt
though whether a lot of the scenarios depicted in this lively and occasionally
riotous series actually happened which is a good call that pulls the series
a\way from being too over earnest. Set over three six-episode series, Boarders
charts the varying experience of five bright sixth formers who are plucked from
urban surroundings by an outreach programme and placed in the somewhat rarefied
country atmosphere of St Gilberts
school. It’s a place with a raft of traditions, some formal school activities
with Latin names, others exuberant and often weird student traditions. The
narrative tries to cover each of the pupils equally, their different journeys exploring
all the possibilities of the experience.
