Lord of the Flies premiere date and trailer released

The forthcoming adaptation from Jack Thorne is the first for television

The BBC has released the first trailer for the forthcoming adaption of Lord of the Flies, alongside new artwork. All episodes of Lord of the Flies will be on BBC iPlayer from 6am on Sunday 8 February, and BBC One will air the series weekly from 9pm that night.

Adapted and directed for television by multi-BAFTA award winners, writer Jack Thorne (Adolescence, His Dark Materials, Help, Enola Holmes) and director Marc Munden (The Mark of Cain, National Treasure, Help), the series is executive produced by Joel Wilson at Eleven (Ten Pound Poms, Sex Education) for BBC iPlayer and BBC One, in a co-production with Stan, who will air the drama in Australia. Sony Pictures Television will distribute the series internationally.

An ensemble cast of over 30 boys, many making their professional acting debuts, is led by Winston Sawyers as Ralph, Lox Pratt as Jack, David McKenna as Piggy and Ike Talbut as Simon. They are joined by fellow castaways including Thomas Connor as Roger, Noah and Cassius Flemyng as twins Sam and Eric, Cornelius Brandreth as Maurice and Tom Page-Turner as Bill.

Lord of the Flies is the story of schoolboys stranded on a tropical island with no adults, following a deadly plane crash. In an attempt to remain civil they organise themselves, led by Ralph and supported by the group's intellectual, Piggy. But when Jack becomes more interested in hunting and vying for leadership, he soon begins to draw other boys away from the group and, ultimately, from hope to tragedy.

Jack Thorne's adaptation is the first for television. Truthful to the original novel - set in the early 1950s on an unnamed Pacific island - Thorne's adaptation delves further into the book's emotive themes; human nature, the loss of innocence and boyhood masculinity. Each of the four episodes is titled after a character at the core of the story - Ralph, Piggy, Simon, and Jack - offering a subtly different perspective on the boys' collective plight and manner in which they cope with their predicament. The series has been made with the support of Lord of the Flies author William Golding's family.

Original music for the series has been created by three of the most celebrated artists, with composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer (The White Lotus, Smile, National Treasure) providing the score, and Hans Zimmer (Dune, Planet Earth, The Lion King) alongside Kara Talve (Tattooist of Auschwitz, Prehistoric Planet) of Bleeding Fingers Music creating the series' main theme and additional music.

Commissioned by Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama, Lord of the Flies (4x60) is an Eleven and One Shoe Films production backed by Sony Pictures Television for BBC iPlayer, BBC One and Stan. The series is written by Jack Thorne, directed by Marc Munden, and produced by Callum Devrell-Cameron (Sex Education, Hanna). The executive producers are Joel Wilson and Jamie Campbell for Eleven, Jack Thorne for One Shoe Films, Marc Munden, Nawfal Faizullah for the BBC, and Cailah Scobie for Stan.

Lord of the Flies, first published by Faber for what was then an unknown author, has become one of the most popular books on the English curriculum for the last 70 years. William Golding won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983.

Watch Lord of the Flies on your iPlayer from Sunday 8 February, and add to your Watchlist

SH2