William Shakespeare - The Christmas No.1 Story TV - Lord of the Flies 1963 & William Golding - Sunset Boulevard 1950 - Hannibal 2000 - The Man Who Knew Too Much 1956 - Whole Lotta Sole 2011 - William Golding - Faulks on Fiction TV - Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life 1983 - Lewis Carroll - J O Halliwell - Noel Coward - Robert Falcon Scott - Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Charles Dickens & Great Expectations 2012 - Thomas Hardy - James Joyce - Razzle Dazzle 2007 -
This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy,
This senior-junior giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid. William Shakespeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost I ii 192
At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel,
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. William Shakespeare, As You Like It II vii 143
Bring forth men-children only;
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males. William Shakespeare, Macbeth I vii 72
1969 Rolf Harris: Two Little Boys. The Christmas No.1 Story, BBC 2012
What are all your names? Lord of the Flies 1963 starring James Aubrey & Tom Chapin & Hugh Edwards & Roger Elwin & Tom Gaman & David Surtees & Simon Surtees & Nicholas Hammond et al, director Peter Brook, Piggy
His name’s not Fatty. His real name’s Piggy. ibid. Ralph
If we don’t lose our head, we’ll be all right. ibid. Ralph
After all, we’re not savages, we’re English, and the English are better at everything. ibid. Jack
We might stay here until we die. ibid. Piggy
A snake thing. Ever so big. We saw it. When we was hiding in the jungle in the dark. ibid. Piggy
I tell you there isn’t a beast. ibid. Ralph
Bash her in! Kill the pig! ibid. all
I don’t believe in no ghosts. Ever. ibid. Piggy
Who thinks there may be ghosts? ibid. Ralph
The rules. You’re breaking the rules. Because the rules are the only thing we’ve got. ibid. Ralph
Why are things going wrong like they are? ibid. Ralph to Piggy
I gave you food and my hunters will protect you from the beast. Who’ll join my tribe? ibid. Jack
You’re a beast and a swine and a bloody bloody thief. ibid. Ralph to Jack
Which is it better to be? A pack of painted savages like you are, or sensible like Ralph is? ibid. Piggy
You’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all we’re not savages. We’re English. And the English are best at everything. So we’ll have lots of rules. And when anybody breaks them … William Golding, The Lord of the Flies
Mad About The Boy. Sunset Boulevard: A Hollywood Story 1950 starring Gloria Swanson & Erich von Stronheim & William Holden & Nancy Olson & Fred Clark & Lloyd Gough & Jack Webb & Franklyn Farnum et al, director Billy Wilder, inscription in card case
You’re a very unusual boy, aren’t you? Hannibal 2000 starring Anthony Hopkins & Julianne Moore & Gary Oldman & Ray Liotta & Frankie Faison & Giancarlo Giannini & Francesca Neri & David Andrews & Francis Guianan et al, director Ridley Scott, Lecter to boy
All I want’s my boy. The Man Who Knew Too Much 1956 starring Doris Day & James Stewart & Bernard Miles & Brenda De Banzie & Ralph Truman & Daniel Gelin & Mogens Wieth & Alan Mowbray & Hillary Booke & Christopher Olsen et al, director Alfred Hitchcock, Stewart
But you do have something that I want. Not want – have to have. I want that wee boy of yours. Whole Lotta Sole 2011 starring Brendan Fraser & Colm Meaney & Martin McCann & Yaya DaCosta & Michael Legge & David O'Hara et al, director, boss to gambler
Now the villain was to be an even more unlikely figure, one who initially looks like an angel in Paradise. At first sight it would seem an idyllic setting. An island deserted apart from a handful of innocent schoolboys. Yet it was here that William Golding proposed to look evil straight in the face. And that face belonged to perhaps the most shocking villain in British fiction – a twelve-year-old choirboy called Jack Meridew. Faulks on Fiction 4/4: The Villains, BBC 2011
Patient: Is it a boy or a girl?
Obstetrician: Now I think it’s a little early to start imposing roles on it, don’t you? Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life 1983 starring Graham Chapman & John Cleese & Terry Gilliam & Eric Idle & Terry Jones & Michael Palin & Carol Cleveland & Patricia Quinn et al, director Terry Jones
Speak roughly to your little boy,
And beat him when he sneezes;
He only does it to annoy,
Because he knows it teases. Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
What are little boys made of? J O Halliwell, Nursery Rhymes, 1844
Mad about the boy. Noel Coward, song 1932
Make the boy interested in natural history if you can; it is better than games. Robert Falcon Scott, last letter to wife 1913
Schoolboys are a merciless race, individually they are angels, but together, especially in schools, they are often merciless. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Come along, boy! Boy! Great Expectations 2012 starring Jeremy Irvine & Helena Bonham Carter & Ralph Fiennes & Robbie Coltrane & Jason Flemyng & Holliday Grainger & Ewen Bremner & Sally Hawkins & David Walliams & Olly Alexander et al, director Mike Newell
I’ve a pretty large experience of boys. And you’re a bad set of fellows – behave yourself. ibid. Coltrane
You are a human boy, my young friend. A human boy. O glorious to be a human boy! ... O running stream of sparkling joy to be a soaring human boy! Charles Dickens, Bleak House
‘Don’t you be afraid of hurting the boy,’ he says. ibid.
In the third-class seat sat the journeying boy,
And the roof-lamp’s oily flame
Played down on his listless form and face,
Bewrapt past knowing to what he was going,
Or whence he came … Thomas Hardy, Midnight on the Great Western
‘There is not much that I can do,
For I’ve no money that’s quite my own!’
Spoke up the pitying child –
A little boy with a violin
At the station before the train came in, –
‘But I can play my fiddle to you,
And a nice one ’tis, and good in tone!’
The man in the handcuffs smiled;
The constable looked, and he smiled, too,
And the fiddle began to twang;
And the man in the handcuffs suddenly sang
With grimful glee:
‘This life so free
Is the thing for me!’
And the constable smiled, and said no word,
As if unconscious of what he heard;
And so they went on till the train came in –－
The convict and boy with the violin. Thomas Hardy, ‘At the Railway Station, Upway’
The door opened quietly and closed. A quick whisper ran through the class: the prefect of studies. There was an instant of dead silence and then the loud crack of a pandybat on the last desk. Stephen’s heart leapt up in fear.
Any boys want flogging here, Father Arnall? cried the prefect of studies. Any lazy idle loafers that want flogging in this class?
He came to the middle of the class and saw Fleming on his knees.
-- Hoho! he cried. Who is this boy? Why is he on his knees? What is your name, boy?
-- Fleming, sir.
-- Hoho, Fleming! An idler of course. I can see it in your eye. Why is he on his knees, Father Arnall?
-- He wrote a bad Latin theme, Father Arnall said, and he missed all the questions in grammar.
-- Of course he did! cried the perfect of studies, of course he did! A born idler! I can see it in the corner of his eye.
He banged his pandybat down on the desk and cried:
-- Up, Fleming! Up, my boy!
Fleming stood up slowly.