Lost Boys and Fairies writer’s pride over ‘queer’ adoption drama

Filmed in and around Cardiff with some characters speaking both English and Welsh, the drama could not mean more to James, a Welsh speaker.

“It’s not only a queer story… it is a bilingual show on primetime BBC One,” he said.

“That’s a massive triumph not just for me personally but also for the BBC.”

Eight years ago James and his husband adopted two children under the age of six and have since adopted a third.

“When anyone becomes a parent their life changes drastically and dramatically, but when you’re a parent to adopted children and two arrive at the same time and they have lived through early life trauma… it’s parenting plus,” he said.

James’s mother had died less than a year before he became a parent and he found himself dealing with a wave of emotions.

“Even though I felt like I’d done my grieving, when you become a parent you suddenly see who your parents were through a completely different prism.”

For James, writing became a form of therapy.

“I thought it would make for a beautiful story but I also write in order to process my emotions and what I’m going through,” he said.

He went on to develop the drama with Duck Soup Films as part of BBC Writersroom’s TV Drama Writers’ Programme 2019 – the scheme now known as Pilot.