{"id":43841,"date":"2024-01-15T18:09:39","date_gmt":"2024-01-15T17:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1960559"},"modified":"2024-01-15T19:56:31","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T18:56:31","slug":"is-boy-swallows-universe-on-netflix-based-on-a-true-story","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/is-boy-swallows-universe-on-netflix-based-on-a-true-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Boy Swallows Universe on Netflix based on a true story?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The tragic but uplifting story is inspired by real events. <\/p>

By Molly Moss\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 15 January 2024 at 17:09 PM<\/p>

\n\n

Journalist Trent Dalton\u2019s debut novel Boy Swallows Universe<\/a> has sold close to a million copies and swept up numerous accolades since its release back in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, a seven-part Netflix series based on the best-selling novel has landed on the streamer, following 12-year-old Eli Bell (played by Felix Cameron and Zac Burgess<\/a>), a child navigating the outer suburbs of Brisbane in the early 1980s.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eli is determined to make the most out of his life, despite the odds being stacked against him: his mother (played by Phoebe Tonkin) is a recovering drug addict, his step-father (played by Travis Fimmel) a drug dealer, his mentor Slim (Bryan Brown), a national record-holder for successful prison escapes, and his older brother, Gus (Lee Tiger Halley), a clairvoyant with selective mutism.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, is Dalton\u2019s book, and by correlation the TV show, inspired by a true story? Read on for everything you need to know.<\/span><\/p>

Is Boy Swallows Universe based on a true story?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It might seem like an unlikely true story, but Boy Swallows Universe<\/a> is indeed inspired by real-life events.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The book is semi-autobiographical, based on Trent\u2019s own childhood in Queensland with a troubled mother and a stepfather who was a heroin dealer, and is a \u201c50\/50\u201d blend of fact and fiction<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Much like Eli in the series, Dalton was also babysat and mentored by a convicted murderer.<\/span><\/p>\n

On publisher HarperCollins\u2019s website, Dalton, who is also a journalist, explains<\/a> how the book is him \u201ctaking all my own secrets this time and turning them as respectfully as possible into a novel\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

He writes: \u201cThe key characters all draw on the people I love most in the world. <\/span>The most beautiful and complex people I\u2019ve ever known, and I never even had to walk out the door of my house to find them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to give the world a story. To turn all these crazy and sad and tragic and beautiful things I\u2019ve seen into a crazy, sad, tragic and beautiful story.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Felix\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Felix Cameron as Eli Bell and Phoebe Tonkin as Frances Bell in Boy Swallows Universe.<\/span><\/figcaption> Netflix<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

He continues: \u201cThe research was really remembrance. Remembering all those years when the world around my small family crumbled.\u00a0 When people we loved were being taken away. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen things we thought true were being turned false. Heads were being slammed into fibro walls. Dangerous people were knocking on doors at daytime. And when that world of ours crumbled \u2013 the world of prisons and small-time suburban crime \u2013 and my brothers and I went to live with my father who I never knew, that world we knew was replaced with a new world of a Brisbane Housing Commission cluster swirling with a hundred social issues \u2013 alcoholism, unemployment, domestic violence, generational social curses \u2013 all of which I would later write about as a journalist.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking about how the book reflects his own mother\u2019s life story, he adds: \u201cThe book doesn\u2019t say a tenth of what\u2019s she\u2019s been through and, in turn, my admiration for her, for coming out the other side of those things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Is Slim Halliday a real person in Boy Swallows Universe?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Bryan\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Bryan Brown as Slim Halliday in Boy Swallows Universe.<\/span><\/figcaption> Netflix.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Yes<\/strong>, Arthur \u201cSlim\u201d Halliday is one of the few characters who is actually a real person in both the book and the TV series. <\/span><\/p>\n

He was <\/span>best known as the Houdini of Boggo Road thanks to his six attempts to escape prison, two of which were successful. He was also a convicted murderer.<\/span><\/p>\n

He died at the age of 77 on 29th June in 1987.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking to the <\/span>Townsville Bulletin<\/span><\/a>, Dalton said of Halliday: \u201cHe\u2019d let me turn the wheel and honk the horn. I loved the guy. He was the funniest, kindest old bloke.\u201d<\/span><\/p>