Boarders review – this private school satire is absolutely packed with future megastars

Fun, funny and full of messy joy, this coming-of-age comedy drama about five Black students in an Eton-like institution is a treat – and as full of talent as Skins

Posh people are weird with their private school rituals, double or even triple-barrelled names, complaints about the expensive upkeep of their ancestral homes and their penchant for red trousers. There are perks, of course. For one, it seems going to Eton makes the odds of being a future cabinet member as likely as winning the toss of a coin. So, when a social outreach programme offers the five Black underprivileged protagonists of BBC Three’s comedy drama Boarders the opportunity to attend the elite private school St Gilbert’s, they take it – and set themselves up for glittering futures.

Of course, there is a catch: their inclusion is part of the school’s PR strategy to save its reputation after a video was leaked of some of its students mocking a homeless man while spraying vintage champagne in his face. As the leader of the outreach programme (played by show creator Daniel Lawrence Taylor) says to St Gilbert’s stuffy headteacher: “You know it’s bad when even the Daily Mail called it the great British shame.”