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24
Feb
The Harrogate 'little 'un' appearing in BBC’s Lord of the Flies
“I was just gobsmacked”, Bon Cooper tells the Stray Ferret.
The Harrogate schoolboy is reminiscing on the moment he found out he had landed a role in BBC One’s Lord of the Flies – a take on William Golding's iconic 1954 novel.
Bon was in the car with his mother, heading to an acting class at his agency in Shipley, when they received the good news.
But despite landing a role in the major production, the nine-year-old actually fell into acting by chance, when a casting director struck up a conversation with him on the tube in London.
How I got into acting is quite a funny story… I was talking to someone on the London underground. Afterwards, she came up to my parents and said she was a casting director. She told my parents I 'had something' … that was around two years ago.
Danielle Treanor, Bon’s mother, said the family were put in touch with Articulate Agency – a Shipley-based casting agency and drama school – which landed him the audition for Lord of the Flies.
Jack Thorne's TV adaptation tells Golding's story of a group of young boys who become stranded on an uninhabited island, and descend into chaos.
Bon inserted a local nod to the island in his audition tape. He explains:
We filmed the audition tape in the Valley Gardens because I wanted it to be jungley.
Every time I do a self-tape, there is always a line that I can’t say! That happened this time… we must’ve tried it about 30 times.
But Bon impressed the casting team and was invited down to London to do two in-person auditions.
He was one of 30 successful boys to be cast, which had been whittled down from 7,000 auditionees.
Bon (back left) and the other little'uns. Credit: BBC/Eleven/Lisa Tomasetti
Filming in Malaysia
Bon was cast as one of 12 'little ’uns' - the youngest of the boys to be stranded on the island.
He told the Stray Ferret:
I was just going to my acting class and they called - it was really unexpected. Me and mum just squeezed each other... there were no words spoken after they told us [I’d got the role].
Before Bon and his parents knew it, they were flown out to Langkawi in Malaysia to film during the summer of 2024.
The family spent three-and-a-half months there but some actors were abroad for six months.
Each morning, the family would wake up at 5am before getting Bon’s costumes prepared.
Bon said the children would be lathered in mosquito repellent and suncream, before taking a 30-minute boat to a remote island where filming took place.
Lord of the Flies was shot during monsoon season, and Danielle said the weather was so severe at times filming would be halted for several days.
But this didn't deter Bon, who clearly loved his time on set:
Everything was just so amazing. The people were so nice and there were lots of amazing animals… we saw two different types of toucans and even flying lemurs.
The first episode of Lord of the Flies aired on BBC One on February 8. But how did Bon feel when he saw himself in the series for the first time?
Goodness gracious…mental. I felt mental. My stomach turned – there was such a feeling in my stomach. I just thought: ‘wow’.
Bon (left) in the Lord of the Flies trailer. Credit: BBC
Danielle described the entire experience as “surreal”, and said she is extremely proud of her son.
“We didn’t get to see it [being filmed]. We went to a premiere in London but we are seeing it all at the same time [as everyone else]. I couldn’t quite believe it when we saw the trailer - I'm just so impressed by the boys", she added.
Bon loves acting – that much was apparent when he spoke to the Stray Ferret – but he said his “real passion” is debating, and he has hopes of one day becoming a lawyer.
Since shooting Lord of the Flies, Bon has featured in a number of other productions, including The Tenth Planet – The Red Sister alongside Kevin Spacey.
The final episode of Lord of the Flies airs this Sunday at 9pm on BBC One. You can stream the entire series on BBC iPlayer now.
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