'INSPIRING VIEWERS WOULD BE A TRIUMPH'

Writer Daf James draws on his own experiences of adoption as part of a gay couple for this emotional new drama starring Sion Daniel Young and Fra Fee as prospective parents

- LAUREN MORRIS

Welsh playwright Daf James brings his own knowledge of trying to adopt kids as a gay man to the drama Lost Boys And Fairies – something he never imagined would happen when he applied for a BBC writing initiative five years ago.

Daf, who began his career putting on Welsh-language plays and performing as his alter ego Sue, was accepted into the BBC Drama Writers Programme in 2019. He began developing what would become Lost Boys And Fairies after being paired with various production companies.

“It was a bit like TV speed-dating, it changed my life,” he says. “I wanted to be an actor first and foremost and a composer. I wasn’t interested in writing, I didn’t know anyone who wrote, I didn’t know it was a job or an option. I didn’t write for telly until I was 31.

“When it came to writing the pilot for Lost Boys And Fairies, I went, ‘This is what I want to say and this is how I want to say it.’”

The three-parter stars Slow Horses actor Sion Daniel Young as Gabriel, a “queer artist extraordinaire” who begins the process of adopting with his long-time partner Andy (Les Misérables’ Fra Fee) while dealing with his traumatic upbringing and the strained relationship with his dad. The story was inspired by Daf’s real-life experience of adopting three kids between the ages of two and five with his husband.