Somewhere Boy review — Channel 4’s quietly moving series delivers eloquent performances

Don’t be fooled by the short, sitcom-length episodes — Channel 4’s new original series Somewhere Boy is no laughing matter. Don’t be discouraged by the premise either, which promises a grim account of abuse and alienation. It’s a painful story, yes, but one told with uncommon sensitivity and warmth.

Developed by writer Pete Jackson (not that one), the eight-part drama follows 18-year-old Danny (Lewis Gribben) as he’s reborn from his life-long, womblike existence in a remote hideaway with his oppressively protective father. It’s the death of the then-infant Danny’s mother in a car accident that leads desperate widower Steve (Rory Keenan) to deceive his son with the pernicious idea that the world outside their door is a wasteland full of literal monsters. Steve’s death in the opening scenes finally releases Danny from that hideous lie.

This may all sound a bit fabulist, but Somewhere Boy is surprisingly rooted in the everyday once Danny is taken in by Steve’s guilt-ridden sister Sue (Lisa McGrillis) and her family. A few slightly contrived culture-shock scenes aside, little of dramatic note happens at first. A new life is embraced in small moments — breathing in fresh air, buying a suit, ordering a drink at a pub. Guidance on being “normal” comes via Danny’s similarly aged cousin Aaron (Samuel Bottomley), who provides invaluable lessons in how to trade insults with “friends” online, vacantly watch porn and be aloof.

Having been raised on wholesome romances and schmaltzy records, Danny is bemused by Aaron’s apathy and crude cynicism. Time and again his naive questions and comments reveal him to be an innocent savant, with more sensitive instincts about human interactions than his performatively surly cousin. The point that Jackson seems eager to make is that Aaron is figuratively as trapped as Danny was — his true self held captive by the expectations of a toxic lad-culture that so patently ill-suits him.

Yet despite the obvious social observations that underpin the narrative, the characters rarely feel functional or inauthentic. It would have been easy to turn Danny into a cipher for trauma or play up his oddities. Instead, Gribben gives a delicate, emotionally eloquent performance; his wonder is transmitted with a broken smile, the lingering weight of his lonely upbringing sits in his permanently hunched shoulders. Bottomley adeptly hints at the concern and affection that the uncommunicative Aaron holds for Danny.

While the two cousins’ burgeoning friendship is quietly moving, there are other more directly heart-rending moments throughout. Some take place in the narrative present, as Danny grapples with the truth about his mother’s crash, but many are found in the flashback sequences which gradually reveal how Steve conditioned his son to believe in the reality he created, and how the latter eventually came to doubt him after years of togetherness.

In a bold choice by Jackson, Steve isn’t just characterised as a controlling bully but as a disturbed father acting out a horribly disfigured but genuine sense of doing right by his child. That he truly seems to love Danny is perhaps the most devastating thing about this brilliantly textured story.

★★★★☆

All episodes available now on All4

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