‘Bleak’ Channel 4 reality series slammed for ‘child abuse’ controversy resurfaces after Lord of the Flies
It led to hundreds of Ofcom complaints and mass backlash
Lord of the Flies has sparked a search for a ‘lost’ Channel 4 reality series – one that was so controversial, it’s no longer available to stream online.
The BBC’s adaptation may be new, but everyone knows the story. After their plane crashes, the surviving schoolboys find themselves on an uninhabited island in the Pacific. With no grown-ups around, they try – and fail – to maintain order.
It makes you think: what would happen if you left kids to fend for themselves? Would they run riot and fail to look after themselves, or would they surprise us?
Well, over 15 years ago, Channel 4 set out to deliver an answer – with troubling results.
Lord of the Flies fans try to find Boys and Girls Alone
Boys and Girls Alone aired on Channel 4 in February 2009. It had an intriguing premise: 10 boys and 10 girls, aged 8-12, were left alone for two weeks without adult supervision.
They stayed in separate cottages in Cornwall, and adult crew members would only step in in exceptional circumstances.
As an idea, it’s clearly inspired by Lord of the Flies. The result… was also a bit like Lord of the Flies (nobody died, thankfully).
Whether it was bullying, children helplessly crying on camera, or fighting, it was – as one Redditor put it – “pretty bleak”.
Ofcom received hundreds of complaints (including from the NSPCC), and children’s author Michael Morpurgo signed a letter to Channel 4 accusing the show of “child abuse and cruelty”.
Surprisingly, Ofcom ruled in the broadcaster’s favour, noting it had “employed an extensive range of measures and procedures”.
While parents and crew members also defended the show (one mum said the fears about the kids being traumatised were “ridiculous”), it did lead to serious change.
Soon after its release, ministers ordered a review of child employment laws for the first time in more than 40 years.
Is there any way to watch Boys and Girls Alone online?
Boys and Girls Alone was once available via Channel 4’s on-demand service. However, it’s since been taken down, and you can’t stream it anywhere else legally.
There are a few clips on YouTube, but without a physical release or another streaming platform having it in its library, it looks like we’re out of luck. That means it qualifies as lost media… unless someone finds it.
Interest in the series has been reignited by Lord of the Flies. Interestingly, seven years prior, Channel 4 also aired Boys Alone, a similar show in which a group of boys were left to look after themselves for five days.
“The boys quickly singled out the boy with the gentlest personality and made a rule that none of the others were allowed to speak to him,” one Redditor recalled.
“They went full feral very quickly,” another commented. You can watch it on YouTube now.
One of the participants did a Reddit AMA in 2023. “It got a lot of hatred because it was like… Lord of the Flies,” they wrote.
“They should have taken more action when we were in troubling times like when we were eating the worst things.”
Read more: Lord of the Flies BBC cast includes Harry Potter’s new Draco Malfoy and unexpected cameos
