BBC One has adapted William Golding’s classic 1954 novel Lord of the Flies into a new miniseries and just dropped the first trailer. The book has been adapted for film three times since its publication and also inspired the Emmy-nominated TV series Yellowjackets (renewed for its fourth and final season this year). This BBC miniseries apparently has the support of the Golding family and is expected to hew quite closely to the novel.
(Spoilers for the 1954 novel below.)
Golding was inspired to write Lord of the Flies by a popular, pro-colonialism children’s novel called The Coral Island, whose central theme was the civilizing influence of British colonial efforts and Christianity on a “savage” people. Golding wanted to write a book about children on an island who “behave the way children really would behave.”
In Lord of the Flies, a British airplane evacuating a group of young boys from war-torn England crashes on an isolated, uninhabited island. A boy named Ralph finds a conch shell and uses it as a horn, commanding enough respect for the boys to look to him as their chief. Initially, Ralph’s leadership helps the stranded boys establish sufficient order to survive and keep a signal fire going, thanks to the lenses in Piggy’s glasses. But that tenuous order soon begins to fray, with the community splitting into two tribes, the second led by the wilder Jack. Violence inevitably breaks out, resulting in the deaths of two of the boys. Eventually, the survivors are rescued by a British naval ship, and the boys are forced to confront the “end of innocence.”
Lord of the Flies has remained relevant ever since its publication as a cautionary, if cynical, tale about how social hierarchies can break down into tribal violence, although it should be noted that a real 1965 incident with stranded Tongan boys exemplified the exact opposite effect. Lord of the Flies is a novel, not a sociological treatise. But its broad cultural influence is undeniable. Stephen King even named his fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine, after Jack’s mountain camp in Lord of the Flies.
Winston Sawyers stars as Ralph in the BBC miniseries, with Lox Pratt playing Jack and David McKenna playing Piggy. The cast also includes Ike Talbot as Simon; Thomas Connor as Roger; Noah Flemyng as Sam; Cassius Flemyng as Eric; Cornelius Brandreth as Maurice; Tom Page-Turner as Bill;’ Rafael de Belligny as Robert; Freddie Lee-Gray as Percival; Beau Thompson as Philip; Fred Jones as Johnny; and Lake Coleman as Boy with Birthmark. In addition, more than 20 other young boys were cast (many with no acting experience) to play the camp’s “big ‘uns” and “little ‘uns.”
Lord of the Flies debuts in the UK on BBC One on February 8, 2026.
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