Lord of the Flies (BBC1)/Making of Lord of the Flies (BBC4)
The sheer emotional power of the child actors in Lord Of The Flies has been so overwhelming, for the past few weeks, that I’ve never stopped to wonder how on earth this remarkable drama was filmed.
How does a production crew take more than 30 boys, aged five to 12, to a remote Malaysian island and film them as they act out one of English literature’s best-loved and most surreal stories?
With great difficulty, it turns out. It wasn’t just the heat, the torrential rain, the flies and the huge distances involved that made this an almost impossible task, as an hour-long documentary revealed, after the final, shattering episode aired.
‘It’s like herding cats,’ wailed one location manager, trying to marshal a party of Big’uns and Littl’uns (the older and younger boys) up a beach while the cameras rolled.
One of the lads was carrying a handheld electric fan, a modern convenience that looked incongruous in this 1950s setting. Others were zipping off in all directions.
With the children required to do 15 hours of school studies a week, filming was even more restricted – hence all the shots, between scenes, of lizards, crabs and coconuts. At least they don’t have to do maths lessons.
The director, Marc Munden, collared a trio of mischief makers to prepare them for their next scene, when fear and hysteria grips the boys’ camp.
‘I want you to be really, really crazy,’ he explained. Pointing at a Littl’un called Jake, he added, ‘I’ve seen you being crazy.’ Jake grinned from ear to ear.
Filming was difficult with the young cast, who had to complete 15 hours of school studies a week
Director Marc Munden collared a trio of mischevious Littl’uns to ‘go crazy’ for some scenes
‘It’s like herding cats’ one location manager wailed
Millions of viewers have been marvelling at the sheer intensity of the performances. The murder of Simon, in last week’s episode, and Piggy’s slow death before the other children were rescued, has been harrowing.
But it’s still a surprise to discover how seriously the boys took their roles. Lox Pratt, who played Jack, and Winston Sawyers, who was Ralph, talked eloquently of how they made scenes more vivid by incorporating their own reactions.
It was quite a shock as well to realise that, in real life, Winston has an American accent. I would never have guessed that, from the way he caught the postwar, middle-class RP (received pronunciation), well spoken without being as posh as Jack.
David McKenna, who was a revelation as Piggy, described how he landed his part at the audition. The casting agent had a trick question: ‘If you were stranded on a desert island, who would you want to be stranded with and why?’
‘I would want to be stranded with the West End cast of Les Mis,’ David shot back. ‘Because, you know – who else?’
What a perfect answer.
I remarked, in my review of the first episode, that we’ll be seeing a lot more of young Mr McKenna. Now, he’s shown that he’ll shine on chat shows, too.