Boat Story is a very strange show, and it’s hard to imagine it being based on a true story. And yet there is a grain of reality in the Williams brothers’ eccentric crime caper, which is about two strangers, Samuel and Janet, stumbling upon millions of pounds worth of cocaine on the beach and, dubiously, deciding to sell it. Apparently, this happens more than you’d think.
Boat Story is not a true account of events, and the series is based on fictional a screenplay. However, the writers of the show were inspired by real-life reports of drugs being washed up onto beaches, and this happens more often than you might think.
An article in The Daily Mail explored a spate of seaside narcotics discoveries along England’s south coast in 2023, just to give an example. The phenomenon is not new or especially rare, for various reasons (see below).
Image via The Daily Mail
The Williams brothers wrote the series with the initial premise in mind and created the characters to explore what normal people might do if they found themselves in the situation. So, it’s safe to say that the series is fictional, but the premise of the story is plucked from reality.
Boat Story is set in a fictional Yorkshire coastal town named Applebury. This is another case of the writers blending reality and fiction for the screenplay. The locations are very familiar to viewers in the UK, and it is obvious that Applebury is in Yorkshire, however, the showrunners use a fictional town for the protagonists to operate in.
Boat Story was also filmed in and around Yorkshire, as well as some other locations, to create a lived-in depiction of England’s north.
Boat Story Narrator Explained
Part of the reason why it’s so difficult to imagine any semblance of truth in Boat Story is that it employs a lot of fanciful formal flourishes to give the narrative a unique presentation. These include various very meta magical-realism sequences, nods to other productions by the Williams brothers, title cards reminiscent of old silent movies, and crucially a very self-referential narration by Ólafur Darri Ólafsson.
In the final episode — which we covered in depth in our Ending Explained article — there is a Marvel-style post-credits sequence in which the identity of the narrator is revealed. His name is Elias, and he has been narrating Janet and Samuel’s story to a captive. Having apparently learned from the mistakes of our protagonists, he heads outside to face the police and his own fate.
What is his role in the story? Not sure. Who is he? We don’t know. Boat Story deliberately leaves viewers in the dark about the exact nature of this character, which is a ploy to prompt personal theories among the audience and, presumably, to leverage a second season. There’s also a theory that the story of Janet and Samuel that we witnessed was just an elaborate tall tale of Elias.
Boat Story was written by Jack and Harry Williams, and if the names sound familiar, you might remember them from writing other shows such as The Missing, and the spin-off from that show, Baptiste. Boat Story includes a very obvious nod to Baptiste, in which Tchéky Karyo also starred — his character the Tailor is named Jules-Baptiste Grimondelle.
In the UK the Williams brothers will also be known for working on shows such as Hotel Babylon, Wild at Heart, and the incredibly popular Call the Midwife. In 2014, they would form their own production company and strike gold with Fleabag.
