As filming begins on the BBC’s adaptation of William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies‘ from multi-BAFTA award-winning writer Jack Thorne (His Dark Materials, Help, National Treasure, Enola Holmes), the UK broadcaster has revealed the cast for the drama.
‘Lord of the Flies’ is the story of a group of young schoolchildren who find themselves stranded on a tropical island with no adults, following a deadly plane crash. In an attempt to remain civil, the boys organise themselves, led by Ralph and supported by the group’s intellectual, Piggy. But Jack, who is in charge of signal fire duty, is more interested in hunting and vying for leadership and soon begins to draw other boys away from the order of the group and, ultimately, from hope to tragedy.
The cast, many of whom are making their professional acting debuts, were auditioned following an open casting call, with no prior acting experience necessary. The process was led by multi-award-winning casting director Nina Gold (Game of Thrones, The Power of the Dog, Baby Reindeer).
David McKenna will play Piggy alongside Winston Sawyers as Ralph, Lox Pratt as Jack, Isaac Talbut as Simon, and Thomas Connor as Roger. Noah and Cassius Flemyng have been cast as the twins Sam and Eric, with Cornelius Brandreth as Maurice, and Tom Page-Turner as Bill, alongside an ensemble of more than 20 other boys playing the desert island camp’s “big ‘uns” and “little ‘uns”.
Somewhat surprisingly, given how well-known the book is, this version by Jack Thorne is the first time ‘Lord of the Flies’ has been adapted as a TV series, although there have previously been film adaptations. The series promises to stay truthful to the original novel’s setting, being in the early 1950s on an unnamed Pacific island. However, Thorne’s adaptation delves further into the book’s emotive themes – human nature, the loss of innocence and boyhood masculinity. Each of the four episodes is titled after a character at the core of the story – Ralph, Piggy, Simon, and Jack – offering a subtly different perspective on the boys’ collective plight and manner in which they cope with their predicament. The series is being made with the support of Lord of the Flies author William Golding’s family. Marc Munden (Help, The Sympathizer) directs the drama.
“I still can’t believe we have been given the opportunity to film this beautiful book,” said Thorne. “The first few days shooting show that our cast are extraordinary and that Marc is finding a whole new visual language in capturing the wonders of them and the beauty of Malaysia. He is an incredible storyteller. It is all so exciting.”
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies was first published in 1954 and was Golding’s first novel. Although it was initially slow to sell, it soon became hailed as a “modern classic” for its parabolic themes of morality, civility, leadership, and society. Today it has sold well over 10 million copies and is widely taught in schools across the UK. Golding won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983.
“We’re delighted to pass the conch to Jack Thorne, Marc Munden and this exceptionally talented young cast of stars in the making, who are telling this timeless story in such an epic and emotionally poignant way,” adds Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama. “Lord of the Flies is British storytelling at its finest and most thoughtful, and there is no better home for its first-ever television adaptation than on the BBC.”
It’s also been announced today, that multi-Oscar winning composer Hans Zimmer (Dune, Planet Earth, The Lion King), will co-create the series’ original score with multi-Emmy nominated Kara Talve (Tattooist of Auschwitz, Prehistoric Planet) for Bleeding Fingers Music.
“Marc is a visionary. It is a privilege to witness his skill in working with our young actors as he brings Jack’s scripts to life,” said Joel Wilson, Executive Producer for production company Eleven. “The visual language he has developed with Mark Wolf, our cinematographer, would be a thing to behold in any environment. Here, capturing our excellent cast in the jungle, mountains and beaches of Malaysia, it is extraordinary. Hans has already shared his first sketches for the score, which are hugely inspiring. We are honoured to be working with him. I’m writing this as I watch our cast of more than thirty boys (between the ages of five and thirteen) file up our mobile Jetty onto the beach, feeling delighted we made this happen.”
Commissioned by the BBC, the four-episode series is an Eleven and One Shoe Films production backed by Sony Pictures Television for BBC iPlayer, BBC One in the UK and Stan in Australia. The series is written by Jack Thorne, directed by Marc Munden, and produced by Callum Devrell-Cameron (Sex Education, Hanna). The executive producers are Joel Wilson and Jamie Campbell for Eleven, Jack Thorne for One Shoe Films, Marc Munden, Nawfal Faizullah for the BBC, and Cailah Scobie and Amanda Duthie for Stan.
‘Lord of the Flies‘ does not yet have a premiere date but will air on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK. If you want to keep track of this or any other show, you can add it via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when it gets a UK premiere date.
