Posh people are weird with their private school rituals, double or even triple-barrelled names, complaints about the expensive upkeep of their ancestral homes and their penchant for red trousers. There are perks, of course. For one, it seems going to Eton makes the odds of being a future cabinet member as likely as winning the toss of a coin. So, when a social outreach programme offers the five Black underprivileged protagonists of BBC Three’s comedy drama Boarders the opportunity to attend the elite private school St Gilbert’s, they take it – and set themselves up for glittering futures.
Of course, there is a catch: their inclusion is part of the school’s PR strategy to save its reputation after a video was leaked of some of its students mocking a homeless man while spraying vintage champagne in his face. As the leader of the outreach programme (played by show creator Daniel Lawrence Taylor) says to St Gilbert’s stuffy headteacher: “You know it’s bad when even the Daily Mail called it the great British shame.”
The five young gifted students who arrive at St Gilbert’s for sixth form have very different personalities and face disparate challenges. Tough but talented Jaheim (Josh Tedeku) is quick to anger and becomes an immediate target for the floppy-haired poshos. Politically engaged Leah (Jodie Campbell) objects to gentrified coffee shops, the offensive portraits of the enslaved that line St Gilbert’s halls and the idea that she should refer to the head teacher as “Master”. Sweet geeky Omar (Myles Kamwendo) loves nothing more than comic books and the idea of joining a secret society, so much so that he is willing to deface the sports field and throw himself into a bin. Proudly Nigerian Femi (Aruna Jalloh), with his overbearing family’s eccentricities and his sunny personality, has the most seamless transition into the school’s student population. Finally, there is the entrepreneurial Toby (Sekou Diaby), the slickest and cleverest of the bunch, who learned to speak Japanese fluently in order to better enjoy Yasujirō Ozu films, as well as having picked up Farsi to facilitate haggling with the Iranian owners of a shop selling trainers.
Initiated as official “Gilbertines”, they face not only bizarre rites and rituals, but being bullied, underestimated and objectified (Jaheim’s love interest, Beatrix, introduces herself with a straight to the point: “I’ve never seen a Black penis before”). But while the opening episode sets up high stakes around graphic assaults and expulsion, the rest of the series enters a cosier rhythm – with the grotesque villainous elite who initially terrorised our central cohort reduced to quirky weirdos with daddy issues and a penchant for treating visits to their classmates’ homes as poverty tourism. The programme’s move into lower stakes, going from our characters being horrifically traumatised to wanting to win interschool robot wars competitions or figuring out how to impress their love interest’s snooty parents, is a wise one. St Gilbert’s may be a wonderful opportunity for them on paper, but when presenting a group of young people this savvy and smart, it would be wholly unconvincing to keep them in an institution that was consistently abusive. The shift from “the poshos might kill you” to “the poshos are problematic and silly” allows more of the comedic talents of the ensemble to shine – and includes some truly adorable moments of heart-soaringly sweet young love.
As befits the subject, the surrounding elite aren’t generally as compelling as our central ensemble and, much like Skins did almost two decades ago, the show comes to television with a potential cavalcade of future stars. Particularly strong are Campbell, Diaby and Tedeku (whose on-screen charisma rivals that of a young Daniel Kaluuya), each of whom make their characters a knot of contradictions, with a strong sense of identity but an undeniable longing to be accepted by those around them.
Supporting player Assa Kanouté also distinguishes herself as one to watch. She plays Leah’s roommate, Abby, and begins the programme as the prototypical bitchy mean girl, with the dynamic between the two being little more than well-landed zingers. But as the series continues, Abby becomes one of its most intriguing characters, whose relationship to race, class and St Gilbert’s itself proves the most complicated of all.
Rather than getting bogged down in conflicts about race and class, by the final episode, the show becomes so broad that these are just one element of life at St Gilbert’s for our young Boarders. It’s a fun, funny and complex coming-of-age story that encompasses all the mess and joy of youth, where few people ever really feel that they fit in. They may be surrounded by grand buildings and growing up around privileged oddballs, but the talents of the young characters and actors are what truly shine.
• Boarders aired on BBC Three and is available on BBC iPlayer.
