It’s “the innocent time” of the 80s. A young, attractive Chemistry teacher, Miss Sally Anne Bowen, joins a boys school. All the 900 plus schoolboys are filled with joy. But the 14-year-old Gareth (a pseudonym) becomes the Lucky Boy. The teen-age schoolboy falls in love with Miss Bowen. Sounds like an underage, light-hearted school drama? Except it’s more serious than that.
Tortoise Media’s new investigative podcast series Lucky Boy is about Gareth (now in his early 50s) remembering his ‘first love’, a 27-year-old, young, flirtatious teacher fancied by every boy. He still remembers her with some warmth; boys from his time think of him as the ‘lucky boy’ and so did Gareth. In fact, up until his 40s, he was proud of his first love. But something triggers this lucky boy, who is now the father of 14-year-old himself.
Tortoise’s new four-part podcast series follows the story of him recalling and, at times, understanding his childhood. Was he dating or groomed? Was it about him being a lucky boy or an actual victim of abuse? Narrated by ex-BBC reporter Chloe Hadjimatheou, the series carefully and empathically treads into ideas like who is allowed to be a victim and a perpetrator. And if abuse perpetrated by a young, beautiful woman really is abuse, why are we so dismissive when the sexual abuse victim is male?
Many moments lingered. Especially moments like Hadjimatheou questioning Gareth about his first sexual encounter as a 14-year-old boy, if he knew what he was doing and his confused responses. Or her talking to his mother, who confronted the school about his child’s abuse but to no avail. While others, like Miss Bowen taking the young Gareth out in a pub for drinks or showing him adult magazines, talk about the nuances of their relationship through Gareth’s hazy memories.
Memory is an elusive thing. Hadjimatheou interestingly weaves this aspect into the series.
Where almost everyone involved (except Gareth) does not recall any of this. Moreover, the peppy background music captures the tone of the series—set in the 1980s. The setting also gives us a sense of time, when child abuse was a new idea in the US and paedophile activists were a thing.
Lucky Boy is a simple story of a guy in his fifties on a crusade to understand and act on the abuse he faced as a schoolboy. The podcast’s uneasy balance, background music and “trick” use of memory make it more than a teenage school drama or a story of abuse. It’s a story of a life derailed by a teacher-schoolboy relationship.