Boys have adventure of a lifetime filming Lord of the Flies

For a group of young actors, filming a new BBC drama thousands of miles away in Malaysia was the adventure of a lifetime.

The boys, then aged between five and 12, spent several months away from home shooting Lord of the Flies, which has been adapted for TV for the first time.

Based on an original novel by William Golding, it follows a group of schoolboys stranded on a tropical island after a deadly plane crash.

More than 7,000 boys initially applied to an open casting call by multi-award winning casting director Nina Gold.

The chosen group of 30 boys filmed on mountain tops and in the jungle, mangroves, waterfalls and beaches on a remote island off Langkawi, which they travelled to by speedboat.

When not filming or being tutored, the boys spent their time swimming in the sea and their hotel pool; fishing, exploring local waterfalls, playing pool and even staging their own talent show.

Seven-year-old Fred Jones, from Manningtree, Essex, who plays Johnny in the show, said it was an amazing experience, even when a cheeky thief ran off with his breakfast.

"A monkey broke in the hotel restaurant, climbed down a pole and stole my croissant and omelette," he said.

Wildlife enthusiast Fred, who had just turned six at the time of filming in the summer and autumn of 2024, enjoyed spotting scorpions, snakes, monkeys, monitor lizards, eagles, hermit crabs, geckos and flying lemurs.

He described his favourite scene in the show.

"I filmed it with my friend Beau and we were in this cave, trying to catch lizards," he said.

"They were called mudskippers and they were really hard to catch."

Beau Thompson, eight, from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, said finding out he had been cast as the character Philip was "mind-blowing".

He also encountered the local wildlife.

"The food in Malaysia was really nice and I got to see these monkeys; they're called dusky leaf monkeys. They're so cheeky – they once stole my banana," he said.

Beau was also able to learn some new skills.

"Off the set, I learnt how to swim and then how to dive," he said.

"Then on-set I did this really cool scene where they had these rain sprinklers and we had to run through it – we did it five times."

Blake Williams, 14, from Basildon, Essex, said he made "friends for life" on the show.

"It felt incredible to finally get that call that I'd got in and get to go out to that island," he explained.

"I am so glad it happened as it has been such a wonderful experience.

"Watching it back and seeing myself on screen has been totally amazing – seeing all that work come to life – but I can't help but cringe sometimes.

"I also laugh when my family, and especially my brother and sister, shout my name every time I appear on screen."

For many of the boys, it was their first professional acting job. They were working in difficult conditions, in dense rainforests and exposed beaches in extreme humidity.

They had no adult actors on set to learn from, and lots of sunscreen and insect repellent was required.

Director Marc Munden said he had to initially remind the younger ones not to look at the camera, but they soon got the hang of it.

He wanted to capture the children playing naturally.

Fred told BBC Essex he did not realise he was being filmed some of the time and was "surprised" when he watched it back.

Many of the boys were "really serious" about their work and learned a lot from each other, said Munden.

"We were mostly starting from square one, and that threw up all sorts of challenges, but also joyful surprises," he said.

"They learned that they didn't have to present a character and say the lines like you might in a school play; that the character came out of what they were doing.

"They watched each other act, learning from one another, and everyone tended towards a higher level of performance as a result of that."

Rafael de Belligny, 13, from Maldon, Essex, said he felt very lucky to have been chosen for the project.

"I think it was almost a year from the first audition tape to when we actually started shooting," he said.

He enjoyed exploring Langkawi in his downtime and playing with his friends on the beach.

"One of the things I liked the most about Langkawi were the waterfalls - they were super-impressive. We hiked up one just after some really heavy rain.

"With some of the other boys we built a fort on a little island just off the shore from the hotel beach – that was great fun."

His favourite memory from the experience was after filming, when all the boys would go back to the hotel and jump in the pool.

"It was hard sometimes but getting dressed up every day, and spending months in the tropics with 30 of my friends was so much fun," he said.

"It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

All episodes of Lord of the Flies are available now on BBC iPlayer, and the series continues on Sunday at 21:00 on BBC One.