Boarders’ second season is finally here, with all six episodes of the new outing available on BBC iPlayer.
Jaheim Marsham (played by Josh Tedeku), Leah Dulverton (Jodie Campbell), Omar Palmer-Grace (Myles Kamwendo), Femi Adebeyo (Aruna Jalloh) and Toby Staithes (Sekou Diaby) are back for another challenging term at St Gilbert’s.
After securing scholarships at the prestigious boarding school, their first outing was fraught with challenges from romance to racism, making the drama one of the most complex new British shows of the 2020s.
Season two takes things up a notch with fierce acting headmistress Carol Watlington-Geese (Niky Wardley) determined to make their next term a living hell.
The show’s creator and writer Daniel Lawrence Taylor has promised the new instalment will completely shake things up for the core group.
“You can expect to see quite a lot of substantial changes this series,” he teased.
“In series one, it was about them being fish out of water in this very new experience.
“In this new series, I feel like they understand the world more and if anything, they want to be part of that world now too.”
Throughout the first season, the crew forged new friendships while also making some enemies. There was even some romance in the air, but not without some jealous exes in the mix as well.
Boarders second season will find the group more integrated into the student body, so the majority of the conflict will come from the new head, who is replacing Bernard (Derek Riddell) after the disaster last term.
“They’ve adapted to it and now you get to see them enjoy themselves more,” Taylor explained. “We still have the clash of cultures shown but it is not as prevalent now.
“There is a nice transition to now see them embedded within the school a little bit more in series two.”
Season two is also introducing a whole host of new characters to shake up the dynamics at St Gilbert’s and at home, including Wunmi Mosaku as Jaheim’s mum, Grace, Cara Theobold as writer Jude, plus special guest stars Alan Cumming and Natalie Cassidy.
Madeleine Sinclair, creative director for Studio Lambert, added: “Devonyé, played by Kendra Brown is fantastic and she brings a really different energy.
“She’s very enthusiastic which some people can find a little annoying but it always comes from a good place! She’s a really fun character to have in the mix.”
While Jaheim star Josh Tedeku summed up the new series with one word: “Weird!”
There’s no excuse to tune in to the smash-hit returning comedy, with a fresh crop of six episodes now available to stream for free.
Boarders is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.