For many LGBTQ+ viewers, however, it\u2019s the show\u2019s remarkably visceral handling of gay shame that will resonate the most.<\/p>\n
Anyone who grew up in the \u201980s will undoubtedly identify with the fear immediately instilled in Gabe (Sion Daniel Young) on watching Margaret Thatcher\u2019s Section 28 speech and those doom-laden AIDS awareness ads in which a booming John Hurt warned, \u201cDon\u2019t die of ignorance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The scene where young Gabe is spanked by his father Emrys (William Thomas) simply for trying on a dress will strike a chord with anyone punished while growing up for challenging, whether intentionally or not, the heteronormative norm.<\/p>\n
Based on Welsh playwright Daf James\u2019s own life experiences, Lost Boys & Fairies repeatedly flashes back to such formative moments, explaining why Gabe is by far the most troubled half of the show\u2019s central couple.<\/p>\n
While Andy (Fra Fee) is a well-adjusted, practically saintlike figure with a respectable nine-to-five and a penchant for domesticity, Gabe is a recovering drug and sex addict who only ever seems comfortable in his own skin while belting out ballads at the local gay bar.<\/p>\n
![\"Gabriel](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/05\/bbc-lost-boys-abnd-fairies-5ebff54.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"Lost")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>The differences between the aspiring adoptees are apparent from the opening moment in which they\u2019re interviewed by kind-hearted social worker Jackie (Elizabeth Berrington), disagreeing on marriage, paternity leave and, perhaps most notably, the gender of the child they want to adopt.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoys are nothing but trouble,\u201d Gabe reasons. And he\u2019s speaking from experience.<\/p>\n
As a schoolboy, he had his head flushed down the toilet, was taped to the cubicle doors alongside the word \u2018fairy\u2019 and inflicted with so much general trauma that it still impacts him decades on: anyone picked last in PE will understand how even a simple kickabout with Jake (Leo Harris), the seven-year-old foster kid who makes him completely reevaluate his adoption wish list, can reduce the grown-up Gabe to a quivering wreck.<\/p>\n
Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Andy still has plenty of childhood baggage himself, namely being abandoned by his father for a new family, yet he does have at least one supportive parent (a scene-stealing Maria Doyle Kennedy).<\/p>\n Having lost his own mum to a brain haemorrhage from a young age and his dad to religious repression, though, Gabe has had to struggle with his queer identity alone.<\/p>\n That\u2019s an experience which manifests itself in increasingly dark ways. The terrifying Satanic figure, which bursts through the teenage Gabe\u2019s bedroom walls whenever he has same-sex impulses and briefly pushes the drama firmly into hide-behind-the-sofa horror territory, may have been a figment of his imagination.<\/p>\n But the descent into substance abuse and reckless sexual activity \u2013 glimpses of a cocaine-fuelled orgy and a truly nightmarish chemsex session suggests the two were intertwined \u2013 is, sadly, the all-too-real way he tries to keep such demons at bay.<\/p>\n Gabe\u2019s national identity has also proven to be a barrier in accepting who he is.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t feel like I could be queer in Welsh,\u201d he tells Andy. \u201cPlus, I don\u2019t like the Welsh words for gay. Gwrywgydiwr \u2013 man gripper \u2013 makes me sound like a JCB.\u201d<\/p>\n Although we later learn in a fascinating linguistic lesson that he\u2019s misunderstood the term, his refusal to send any adopted child to a Welsh-speaking school still makes sense.<\/p> This inherent need to distance himself from anything which compounded his shame also applies to Gabe\u2019s relationship with his father, a man of few words whose initial concerns about the concept of gay adoption only deepens their rift. When Emrys tactlessly argues, \u201cEvery kid needs a mother,\u201d you can almost hear his son\u2019s heart shattering into a million pieces.<\/p>\n It\u2019s little wonder Gabe continually questions whether he has, or even deserves, the ability to offer a vulnerable young kid love when that\u2019s something his own childhood was so devoid of.<\/p>\n However, even when supported by his alternative father figure, veteran drag queen Fanny Ample (Arwel Gruffydd), he still struggles with acceptance, both from himself and others. (\u201cWe used to be attacked by straights for being too queer. Now the queers are attacking us for not being queer enough.\u201d)<\/p>\n It\u2019s only when Gabe is forced to deal with another major tragedy, and one which threatens to send the otherwise balanced drama into grief porn territory, that his cycle of shame shows signs of abating. Of course, by this point, any sympathy may have been eradicated altogether.<\/p>\n Indeed, while Young delivers a brilliantly nuanced performance, Gabe isn\u2019t a particularly easy character to root for. He\u2019s prone to spitting his dummy out at the merest sign of conflict and he continually puts his needs as a performer and partygoer above his roles as partner and prospective parent (his recklessness in the final episode \u2013 a particularly tough watch \u2013 will be a bridge too far for many).<\/p>\n But neither is he a lost cause, his natural ability to communicate with others and sardonic humour no doubt the kind of qualities that attracted Andy, while the determination to better himself proves he desperately wants to overcome his insidious inner voice.<\/p>\n Premiering at the start of Pride Month, Lost Boys & Fairies isn\u2019t exactly a celebratory experience. But anyone who\u2019s ever internalised similar feelings should find plenty to relate to and, after much soul-searching, a sense that it really does get better.<\/p>\n All three episodes of Lost Boys & Fairies are now available to stream on BBC iPlayer. Episodes will also air weekly on Mondays at 9pm on BBC One.<\/strong><\/p>\n Check out more of our\u00a0<\/strong>Drama<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0<\/strong>TV Guide<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/strong>Streaming Guide<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to find out what\u2019s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0<\/strong>The Radio Times Podcast<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n Daf James’s ambitious adoption drama explores the issue like no other show before. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":52534,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/why-lost-boys-fairies-is-tvs-most-authentic-depiction-of-gay-shame-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/why-lost-boys-fairies-is-tvs-most-authentic-depiction-of-gay-shame-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/why-lost-boys-fairies-is-tvs-most-authentic-depiction-of-gay-shame-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/why-lost-boys-fairies-is-tvs-most-authentic-depiction-of-gay-shame-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/why-lost-boys-fairies-is-tvs-most-authentic-depiction-of-gay-shame-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/why-lost-boys-fairies-is-tvs-most-authentic-depiction-of-gay-shame-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/06\/why-lost-boys-fairies-is-tvs-most-authentic-depiction-of-gay-shame-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Daf James's ambitious adoption drama explores the issue like no other show before.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/52533"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
![\"Gabriel](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/05\/Sion-Daniel-Young-as-Gabriel-d4f103e.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"Lost")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"Gabriel](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2024\/05\/lost-boys-bbc-529e79e.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413\" "\\"Lost")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"