Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.“Why do you want to adopt?” It’s a question that most people going through the rigorous adoption process would have prepared for. But when it’s put to prospective father Gabriel, it elicits a stream of unfiltered confessions. “Because I’m bored of the mundanity of life. [Because] I’ll become less angry and bitter and I’ll have no choice but to grow up caring for someone other than myself.” Or at least so he imagines himself saying, before settling on a more anodyne response.The question of why people choose to have children and how that momentous decision reshapes relationships is central to Lost Boys and Fairies, an honest, heartfelt three-part BBC drama. Inspired by Welsh writer Daf James’s personal experiences, it follows a Cardiff-based gay couple on an adoption odyssey that will not only see them become parents, but also gradually come to terms with their own troubled childhoods.For the sad-eyed, mellifluous-voiced nightclub performer Gabriel (Sion Daniel Young), the emotionally invasive interviews with the social worker (Elizabeth Berrington) are akin to “therapy without the therapy”. Flashback scenes reveal the uncomfortable truths and traumas that he’s initially unwilling to acknowledge: growing up with a distant, disciplinarian father (William Thomas); coming of age in public toilets and drug dens where he hoped to escape his internalised shame.It was his partner Andy (Fra Fee) who saved him. A saint in the guise of an affable accountant, he too has known abandonment and pain. But where he sees adoption as a way of revising the past, Gabriel harbours fears of repeating it.Both parts are written with a keen appreciation for the depths of human feeling and performed with rare authenticity and emotional eloquence. Complexity can also be found in the treatment of sensitive issues. The show never shies away from how coldly bureaucratic, and even cruel, the adoption process can be. At an “activity day” attended by the couple, prospective parents jostle for the attention of the children in care. The scene initially finds dark laughs in the adults’ competitiveness before recognising how these events give false hope to children who have already endured so much.After agonising over their choice, Gabriel and Andy gain custody of a sweet but troubled boy and their own relationships is pushed to its limits. While the struggles of first-time parenthood are universal, Lost Boys foregrounds queer perspectives. There are meaningful considerations of how Gabriel’s sense of identity is complicated by entering a heteronormative familial dynamic and societal expectations that one of the couple “be mum”.The series thoughtfully layers its themes and emotions over the first two episodes, only to then allow contrived plot development and maudlin sentiment to dominate the final chapter. Instead of delicate poignancy, we get punishing tragedy; instead of natural interactions, we get big moments of despair, closure and a mawkish montage set to “Mad World”. If this ultimately leaves the viewer more weary than teary, it’s not enough to undermine the bittersweet brilliance that comes before.★★★★☆Episode one airs on BBC1 on June 3 at 9pm; all episodes available on BBC iPlayer
