Lord of the Flies: William Golding’s classic gets a ‘stunningly good’ TV adaptation

Piggy (David McKenna) — David McKenna ‘will steal your heart as Piggy’

(Image credit: BBC / Eleven / J Redza)

Many of us haven’t read William Golding’s 1954 novel “Lord of the Flies” since school, and can only remember a few details – “the conch, the war paint, Piggy’s glasses”, said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. This BBC One adaptation – the first made for television – “delves deeply and reverently into Golding’s text”, and the results are “stunningly good”. The tale of boys reverting to a feral state after they are stranded on a tropical island unfolds over four episodes, each of which is told from the perspective of a different boy. David McKenna, a 12-year-old from Northern Ireland making his debut here, “will steal your heart as Piggy”, and the rest of the performances from the young cast – who filmed in the Malaysian jungle for weeks – “are a marvel”. It all makes for a “first-class example of an adaptation done right, and of television breathing new life into a familiar story”.

This “excellent” adaptation was written by Jack Thorne, of “Adolescence” fame, and it returns to that drama’s “theme of developing masculinity”, only now with a “1950s spin”, said Rhik Samadder in The Guardian. Still, aside from the period language, it feels “painfully” contemporary: “think of it as ‘Adolescence: Origins’”. The series is “brilliantly executed”, agreed Deborah Ross in The Mail on Sunday: it is “lushly and vividly filmed”, and there is “brutality and viciousness”, as well as a “tenderness” that catches you out (“Oh God. Poor Piggy”). But while I was engrossed, I must say I was also “praying for it to be over”. It’s “terrific, and I will never, ever watch it again”.