Boarders creator Daniel Lawrence Taylor: "TV has taken a step back, but a lot of us have pushed through and shown that we can tell our stories well"

What started off as a series that Daniel Lawrence Taylor wrote very much for himself has turned into Boarders continuing to grow in success, attract big stars in its guest cast and now, making quite the emotional final farewell.

That's right, Boarders has come to the end of its line and at three seasons long, in a TV landscape that often can't guarantee whether a popular series will even get a renewal these days, Boarders has continued to be a jewel in the BBC's comedy crown. While the news of the show ending is a bittersweet moment for fans of the series, those final episodes of Boarders map out an all too relatable time in all of our lives as we kiss goodbye to uniforms and seeing your classmates everyday, ready for the excitement that adult life – and for many, university – will bring.

It's a full-circle moment for our five boarders in question; Femi (Aruna Jalloh), Leah (Jodie Campbell), Jaheim (Josh Tedeku), Omar (Myles Kamwendo) and Toby (Sekou Diaby). Where season 1 saw them as first entering the prestigious halls of St Gilbert's, now we're seeing them trying to contend with the scary prospect of the future, relationships, exams and more. Essentially, it's a fitting place to leave Boarders seeing as they'll not actually be in boarding school anymore.

But was this three-season arc and leaving them as they go their separate ways always the plan for the comedy-drama?

"If truth be told, I kind of live series to series. When I started series one, I think it was so odd in some ways, I was kind of just writing it for me. It was good that I drowned out the outside noise and I was just writing something very much for me. Then subconsciously and consciously, obviously, I was writing it for people like me as well," Taylor tells me.

After seeing how much the series resonated with the audience, it was only then that Taylor recognised he was onto a winner. Riding that wave of praise took him into season 2 where he continued to think about how he'd continue to build this series that he started.

"Then when we got to series three, it was like: 'I think this is actually a good time to wrap this all up now'. In that moment, I was just like, 'I have to make sure that I give these characters a really wonderful send off.' As you watch the series, they may not necessarily get to where you think, the characters may not get to necessarily where they think they'll get to, but I think there's a real light at the end of the tunnel for all of them."

One of the major changes this season is the fact that Jaheim – who for many viewers is seen as the group's leader and centre of the series – isn't actually in it all that much. After the season 2 cliffhanger of being offered a study abroad place in the US, there's some back and forth at the start of season 3 as Jaheim keeps his true decision a secret from his friends.

While it's a decision that'll likely garner plenty of reaction from fans initially, it's one that I personally loved. Don't get me wrong; Jaheim's arcs throughout the first two seasons formed much of the tension. But removing a show's central focus is not only a bold move, but is one that allows for the other leads to really shine – and that they do.

The lack of Tedeku this season did "really help" the amount of room there was to play with the other lead character's stories, Taylor tells me. "It definitely gave a bit more breathing space to develop their stories. I think in terms of jumping into each individual character, I think we had a really strong foundation of the first two series. So when we were stepping into that third, it was really about seeing them in spaces that we've not necessarily seen them before."

The "pressure cooker of that final term of GCSEs" is a period of time that many of us often forget but was, rather hilariously, a defining era of stress for many. It was that environment that "helped ramp up the drama" for Boarders's final hurrah.

"Putting Femi in a love story because we've not seen any of that before and doing that within the pressures that he's under from his family. Meanwhile, Leah was always about 'fight the power', whereas now it's like, 'I've actually got to put that on hold, because I've got to fight this bigger beast', which is my career and where I'm heading to," Taylor explains.

For many adult Londoners who have watched the show, the resonance with Boarders comes when compared with our higher education experiences, where many of us left the cocoon of the capital for smaller towns and cities where we were often in the minority. So, has Taylor never thought to continue on the story into university?

Taylor laughs to himself when I pose the question, saying: "Wow, you know what? I haven't. But now that you say that, maybe I should!"

Although Boarders is a show that is targeted at a younger demographic, it's one that has clearly struck a chord with the grown folks among us. It's that focus on institutions that Taylor believes has resonated with many, also speaking of the health care and police systems.

"It's a reoccurring theme. Even if I don't necessarily run with Boarders again, I think that kind of institutional racism, that aspect, will always be current in my work because I think people have responded to it really well. As an audience – and this is not just for Black audiences, but for all audiences – is that when it comes to your type of racism that's just thrown at you, at the street, it's very black and white. But institutional racism, it's so complex.

"A lot of the struggles that the characters go through are caused by characters like Bernard [Derek Riddell]. Meanwhile, Bernard has a Black child. When you play with those aspects, it really makes people lean forward – I think that's why it's it's had such a big audience from all ages and all races. It's because we're able to actually see on screen the levers and pulleys that we don't tend to normally see."

Taylor says racism is such a hilarious topic to him because "it's so stupid", making it quite the comedic playground to work with in a way. "Even though it's so entrenched within society, it's not really based on anything solid," he tells me. "And I think being able to look at that, poke fun at that, it's so much fun and it's great to watch. When I'm making Boarders, my intention is never to teach anyone anything. It's just about me, just showing life on screen and then it's up to an audience to take what they want from that."

In preparation for our chat, I tell Taylor that his 2018 BAFTA Breakthrough statements are something that his past self would surely be proud of. At the time, Taylor said he's “particularly proud to be writing the kind of Black characters rarely seen on television and you hope to inspire and provide opportunities for Black actors”. Also best known for his creation and starring role in Timewasters, I ask Taylor whether he thinks the TV landscape has changed at all in the time since his 2018 comments.

"It's funny, I feel like we were moving forward. But there does seem to be a sense that we've taken a step back. When the Black Lives Matter movement kicked off and people became aware of the struggles that Black people have in Britain or just around the world, institutions and stuff, I think there was a sense of excitement but also embarrassment and lots of elements that made a lot of – not just the television industry, but all industries look at themselves, like, 'What are we doing for diversity? How can we improve it?'.

"I think there was a really big push. I get the sense people are a bit like, 'Oh, we've done that now' or there's not that much importance put on it. Or if they've not done something, no one's going to necessarily call them out on it. I think that has allowed people to take their foot off the gas a bit."

Taylor describes the shift in the push for diversity as "tricky and a bit worrying", saying that from looking at the past, it's clear to see that it's hard to get people to listen. "It was sad that it took someone dying at the hands of police for people to suddenly become aware of the issues that Black people face," Taylor says, referencing the murder of George Floyd in 2020 that reignited global conversations about racism. "I hope that it won't need something that extreme to happen again, for us to take notice."

It marked the biggest push for diversity in plenty of industries, especially for TV and the kinds of stories that commissioners realised weren't being platformed. It was the biggest push Taylor had witnessed in his time in the industry but even as he approaches this post-Boarders era of his career, he admits that "nothing has changed".

"There's quite a sadness to that," he says but also remains hopeful at what series creators like himself have managed to achieve. He mentions Adjani Salmon and Michaela Coel as just two examples of Black writers who are "creating platforms for other young Black creators, writers and performers".

"I think, even though the door is slowly shutting, enough of us have stepped through to keep pushing at it. So in that sense, even though I talk about in a sad way, I think there's hope within that. Because I think a lot of us have pushed through and shown that we can tell our stories – and we can tell them well," Taylor explains.

Next up for Taylor is embarking on a major new deal with Studio Lambert, with Boarders having marked the first drama from the production company to go beyond one season. While they may be best known for shows like The Traitors or Gogglebox, Taylor will once again be working with Studio Lambert for a first-look deal.

Taylor may have to remain tight-lipped for now, but the series creator does underline Studio Lambert as a company that he already trusts, after they gave him the freedom to do what he liked with Boarders. The goal for the next project? Well, it's simple. "Still Black stories at the forefront but I think, if anything, bigger scale and just exciting, different," he smiles.

It's a bittersweet goodbye to Boarders, I offer to Taylor, as the series clearly resonated with many and almost seems to bowing out on a high. Over the course of three seasons, Boarders has had genuine fans of the show join the cast, including Alan Cumming, Rufus Jones and Wunmi Mosaku, who Taylor initially pitched to his casting director as a bit of a pipe dream, thinking that there'd be "no way we're going to get her".

The final season 2 result was several poignant scenes with Mosaku's Grace and Jaheim, as the pair navigated a rocky mother-son relationship. At the time of being on set, she was talking about Sinners, but little did they all know that she would go on to be Oscar nominated for her resulting performance.

As is the process of completing any series with filming and post-production, it's been a whirlwind for Taylor, with little chance to stop and take stock of the fact that this is the end of Boarders. The final scenes of this third season encapsulate the sadness and hope that we can all attest to feeling on our last day of school, beautifully captured in an extended scene as the five leads and Taylor (in his role as mentor Gus) all drive back to London in a minibus together.

Taylor explains that the final note he wanted to leave Boarders on was one underlining friendship and how the course of life can change. "When I watch back the series, I smile a lot. I think it's because I've shown a journey of characters that were very alien to a world and in some way, shape or form, have made it their space, even though they're still challenging a lot of things," Taylor says, when I ask him what he wanted viewers to be left with.

"I can pinpoint all the moments of my life where I've gone against troubles, where it was to do with race or class or these other -isms that I've experienced. But at the same time, it is home. It's where I want my family to be, it's where my friends are and as complex as it is, it's home sweet home.

"I want an audience to go, 'You can go through so much, but you can find your people and you can find that sense of home'. That home doesn't need to look perfect for you to love it, though."

Boarders season 3 is now available to stream on BBC iPlayer along with seasons 1-2.

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