--- title: "Lost Boys and Fairies" year: 2024 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/lost-boys-and-fairies" fi1m_id: "lost-boys-and-fairies" imdb_id: "tt21084712" tmdb_id: 255117 wikidata_id: "Q125988993" fi1m_score: 76 critics_reviews: 2 published: "2026-10-07T20:11:17.793492+00:00" updated: "2026-10-07T20:11:26.052229+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Lost Boys and Fairies (2024) Created by Daf James · 57m · Drama ## Identity Lost Boys and Fairies - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/lost-boys-and-fairies - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** lost-boys-and-fairies - **IMDb ID:** tt21084712 - **TMDB ID:** 255117 - **Wikidata ID:** Q125988993 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21084712/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/255117, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q125988993 **Fi1m score: 76** · Critics: 2 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* Drag numbers, a social worker with a clipboard, and more grief than three episodes should be asked to hold > Daf James’s three-part drama about a Cardiff club singer and his partner adopting a small boy is bold, loud and often moving, and the adoption process is drawn better than we have seen on television. It also piles on more sorrow than it can carry. ## Synopsis Cardiff, the present day. Gabriel (Siôn Daniel Young) sings at Neverland, a gay club run by Berwyn (Arwel Gruffydd), who performs there as Fanny Ample. Gabriel’s partner Andy (Fra Fee) is an accountant, steadier than he is, and the two of them want to adopt. They are matched with Jake, a seven-year-old boy in foster care, and the first episode follows the assessment that stands between them and him. Claire (Sharon D. Clarke), their social worker, needs Gabriel’s whole life on the record: the drugs, the clubs, the men, the years he would rather not revisit. Back on the farm, his father Emrys (William Thomas), a chapel man who speaks Welsh and little else, has never said the word gay out loud. Gabriel’s mother is dead, and she keeps turning up in his head mid-song. ## Review Gabriel (Siôn Daniel Young) sings in sequins at a Cardiff gay club called Neverland. His partner Andy (Fra Fee) does accounts and keeps the house. They want a child, and the first of Daf James’s three episodes, all directed by James Kent, is about what it takes to be allowed one: forms, home visits, and a social worker who needs to know everything Gabriel did before he was sober. *Lost Boys and Fairies* is a musical about adoption and a drama about addiction and a memory play about a dead mother, sometimes within a single scene. We admired its nerve and we recommend it. We also think it would be a better series with a third less in it. The adoption material is the best thing here, and the thing we had not seen done properly before. Claire (Sharon D. Clarke) is not an obstacle and not a saint; she is a professional doing a difficult job with a notebook, and Clarke plays her as someone who has heard every version of the story and still listens. The interviews in the couple’s living room are written with real care for how the process works, what it asks of people and why it asks it. When Gabriel has to say out loud what he used to do in club toilets, and Andy has to sit beside him and hear it again, James lets the silence do most of the work. The boy they are matched with, Jake, is seven and watchful, and the scenes of the two men learning to be in a room with him are small, awkward and true. Then the music starts. Gabriel’s numbers on the Neverland stage are staged as full productions, coloured light and dry ice, and Kent cuts between the stage and the kitchen or the farm so that the song comments on whatever Gabriel cannot say in prose. Peter Gregson’s score underneath is strings, mostly low and slow, and it is at its best when it stays under the dialogue rather than swelling up to meet the stage. Some of the numbers land. Some of them interrupt a scene that was doing fine on its own, and we found ourselves waiting for the lights to come back up so the people could carry on talking. What got to us most was not on the stage at all. Emrys (William Thomas), Gabriel’s father, is a farmer and a chapelgoer who speaks to his son in Welsh and has never once managed the sentence Gabriel needs from him. Thomas plays him with his hands and his hat and almost no words, and a scene of the two of them in a kitchen, both looking at the table, moved us more than any of the songs because nobody was trying to move us. Young is good throughout, loose and funny in the club and wound tight everywhere else, and he is best opposite Thomas. Fee has the harder job, the steady one, and makes Andy’s patience look like a decision rather than a default. Around them the cast is strong and underused. Arwel Gruffydd’s Berwyn, the club’s owner and its resident queen Fanny Ample, is the one grown-up in Gabriel’s old life and gets about a scene an episode to prove it. Maria Doyle Kennedy and Elizabeth Berrington are both here, both welcome, and both sent off before we had finished enjoying them. Shaheen Jafargholi’s Celyn, a younger performer at Neverland, is given a thread the series seems to forget. The problem is accumulation. By the end of the second episode Gabriel has been given addiction, a dead mother, a father who cannot speak, a childhood in chapel, a history in sex clubs and an adoption panel, and the third episode adds a turn we will not describe. Each strand is handled with feeling. Together they leave the series no room to breathe, and the fantasy sequences, which are meant to open things up, more often make a plain scene harder to read. We were moved, and then we were tired, and the tiredness is a flaw in the writing rather than in us. Against other recent British drama about gay men’s lives it holds up well, and it is braver than most about putting a man’s worst nights on the record and still asking us to hand him a child. At three hours it is not a long commitment. Watch it over two nights rather than one, and keep a tissue and a certain scepticism to hand; you will need the first more than you expect and the second more than the series would like. *Fi1m score 76, published 7 October 2026.* ## What the critics say With only 2 reviews in so far, the early word is warm. Both critics find Lost Boys and Fairies moving and unusually bold, and both note that its mix of humour, music and heightened style asks a good deal of the viewer. The i Paper’s Alim Kheraj admits some of its experimental turns baffle him but praises the fearless way it draws its queer characters; The Guardian’s Rebecca Nicholson calls it extravagant and emotionally demanding, yet says it holds together with panache, and singles out its nuanced account of the adoption process. Neither has serious reservations beyond the style, and the spread between them is narrow. ## Straight answers **Is Lost Boys and Fairies worth watching?** *Lost Boys and Fairies* is worth watching, and we scored it 76, for anyone who wants an adoption drama drawn with unusual care and does not mind drag numbers breaking into it. The scenes with the social worker and the father are its strongest, and the series would be better with a third less sorrow in it. Watch it over two nights rather than one. **How long is Lost Boys and Fairies, and what is it rated?** *Lost Boys and Fairies* has episodes of about 57m. It is a drama series. **Where can I watch Lost Boys and Fairies in the US?** *Lost Boys and Fairies* is streaming on BritBox, The Roku Channel, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV in the US, and it is also available to buy from Amazon Prime Video. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How does Lost Boys and Fairies compare to The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert?** *Lost Boys and Fairies* is a three-part Welsh television drama about grief, addiction and adopting a small boy, while [*The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert*](https://film.one/film/the-adventures-of-priscilla-queen-of-the-desert) is a road comedy that plays its drag, difficult father and little boy for warmth. The series is the braver and the sadder; the film is the easier company and the lighter evening. Choose the series for feeling, the film for fun. **What should I watch after Lost Boys and Fairies?** After *Lost Boys and Fairies*, try [*The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert*](https://film.one/film/the-adventures-of-priscilla-queen-of-the-desert) (1994, Fi1m 81): Drag, a difficult father, and a small boy, played for warmth. Then [*The Kids Are All Right*](https://film.one/film/the-kids-are-all-right) (2010, Fi1m 80): A same-sex couple’s family tested, without music, and with a sharp script. ### Reviews we read (2) - **The i Paper**, Alim Kheraj (80/100, inferred): Kheraj finds the series deeply moving and refreshingly bold, despite some baffling moments in its experimental style. He praises its fearless portrayal of queer characters and its blend of humour and music. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/lost-boys-fairies-review-3084560) - **The Guardian**, Rebecca Nicholson (75/100, inferred): Nicholson finds the series extravagant and emotionally demanding, but says it mostly holds together with panache. She particularly praises its illuminating, nuanced portrayal of the adoption process. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/article/2024/jun/03/lost-boys-fairies-review-a-beautiful-gay-adoption-extravaganza) ## Details - **Created by:** Daf James - **Creator:** Daf James - **Director:** James Kent - **Writer:** Daf James - **Music:** Peter Gregson - **Producer:** Adam Knopf - **Cast:** Siôn Daniel Young as Gabriel; Fra Fee as Andy; Sharon D. Clarke as Claire; Maria Doyle Kennedy as Sandra; Elizabeth Berrington as Jackie; Arwel Gruffydd as Berwyn / Fanny Ample; Shaheen Jafargholi as Celyn; Mali Ann Rees as Llinos - **Runtime:** 57m - **Release (the US):** 3 June 2024 - **Genres:** Drama - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3P4ZEg1gkY ## Where to watch in the US - BritBox: streaming, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Apple TV: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy, sd *Checked 2026-10-07.* Also available in: AU, BG, CA, CZ, FR, GB, HR, HU, PL, RO, RS, SI, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *It's a Sin* (2021): Another British series that puts gay men’s whole lives on screen, grief included - *The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert* (1994), Fi1m 81: Drag, a difficult father, and a small boy, played for warmth — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-adventures-of-priscilla-queen-of-the-desert.md) - *Hedwig and the Angry Inch* (2001): A stage act used to say what the performer cannot say offstage - *Big Boys* (2022): Grief, coming out and a dead parent handled with jokes and real tenderness - *The Kids Are All Right* (2010), Fi1m 80: A same-sex couple’s family tested, without music, and with a sharp script — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-kids-are-all-right.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/lost-boys-and-fairies