Season two of one of the funniest British TV shows is out now and it’s safe to say Daniel Lawrence Taylor has done it again. Taylor is the creator of “Boarders,” for which he is also the executive director and a writer for the series. The series is the perfect blend of comedy, drama and authenticity, which is why viewers were clamoring for the second season. Taylor isn’t new to this either; he created the show “Time Wasters” and in 2018, Taylor was named as a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit, cementing himself as one of the best in the business. Taylor was our guest on Director’s Chair where we got deep about his hit series.
How has your journey as a writer and actor shaped the stories you want to tell?
Along the journey, I think I’ve learned a lot of things. It’s funny. It’s like art is very much real life. I think being in this industry is a lot like the institution I portray in “Boarders.” And I think going from university going into “Time Wasters” to eventually get into “Boarders,” I think there’s a lot of parallels that have taken place that actually end up in the show, and those themes of how much of yourself you can bring into these spaces and how much you have to leave at the door. Plus the perceptions of you as a black man and all of these things. So I think the journey has been quite interesting to say the least. But in saying that, it’s also been an absolute joy. I think I’ve been able to work with the most incredible people, and I think I’ve been given the most amazing opportunities, and I feel like I’ve delivered on those opportunities as well.
What was the light bulb moment that made you want to make “Boarders”?
I suppose it was like so the whole thing came off the bat of a newspaper article, and it was about five young black kids that got a scholarship to a private school in England. And the themes just really resonated with me. And resonated with me because I didn’t go to boarding school, but my university was predominantly white, predominantly middle class, so I was definitely a fish out of water. And I just love that fish out of water story. And I really wanted to show an audience what it’s like stepping into this, into these weird institutions, but also how as individuals, we all enter these spaces differently. And even though it’s in a boarding school, I kind of wanted to kind of show it’s like, it’s not just about the education system, it’s about all institutions, really, and we all navigate them in completely different ways. And there’s no right or wrong answer. I just put them in this space and kind of have an audience, kind of see how they navigate it, but at the same time, I wanted to do it through an entertaining lens. So I use comedy, because I really wanted to show how like fun and enjoyable blackness is. So, you know, that was why I wanted to do “Boarders.”
What can we expect in season two?
Oh, there, yeah, there’s definitely like some secrets are revealed, which almost like threatens one of our characters to be completely ostracized. There’s a big fight between two of our characters as well that really shakes things. Femi, he actually finds his new talent. But his parents have a big question mark over it. So yeah, there’s a lot, there’s a lot of conflicts, but there’s also a lot of new friendships formed, and friendships broken. There’s new love interests, some love triangles as well. Season one was very much culture clash, fish out of water, them trying to survive. Series Two is very much about them embedding themselves more into this world and starting to make deeper connections with people but also starting to learn about who they are and who they can move with and who they can’t.
