About the Boys

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

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Boys: About the Boys: 5. Friendship

From porn to friendship, boys from all over the UK talk frankly to Catherine Carr.

Boys

Factual: Life Stories

Exploring the challenges facing boys and young men in Britain today.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Boys: About the Boys

Boys from all over the UK talk frankly to Catherine Carr about sex, consent, life online, fun and friendship. They discuss porn, their struggles at school and becoming men.

Catherine Carr has been talking to teenage boys across the UK about their fears, worries and ambitions - a unique generation shaped by Covid lock-downs, #MeToo and a cost-of-living crisis.

They speak with striking candour about everything: their worries about the hierarchy in friendship groups; being tall, being rich, being poor, being accused of sexual assault. They're vulnerable about their feelings and what it means to hear 'all men must die' bandied around at school when you're just 12 years old.

They feel pressure from online influencers to be strong men, but they're also very aware of the complicated issues around sex and consent. They see girls doing better at school - and they are struggling to work out what their role in the adult world will be.

Throughout the series, you'll hear boys revealing some shocking experiences, like watching porn aged eight, or the attractions of joining a gang.

They also share their successes - older ones setting up businesses, while younger ones glory in being able to do 20 press-ups without stopping.

There are also nuggets of wisdom from the adults who spend their lives working with boys and fighting their corner. Teachers, coaches and youth workers talk about how they see boys navigating their way in the world, and experts provide insight and data from research done into boys' changing lives over the last 50 years.

But the mainstage in About the Boys is given to the boys themselves. This is a chance for them to explain what life in 2024 looks like for teens trying to find healthy and happy ways to grow into men.

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

5. Friendship

BBC Radio 4 - Boys, About the Boys, 5. Friendship

Boys all over the UK talk to Catherine Carr about their friendships and friendship groups.

Teenage boys from all over the UK talk to Catherine Carr about how they make friends and explain hierarchies in (some) male friendship groups.

In this episode, boys from all over the UK talk to Catherine Carr about friendship. Some talk about the difficulty they have in expressing emotions to friends and their fear of being vulnerable. Others reflect on the importance of honest relationships in maintaining good mental health. Boys talk about not fitting the stereotypical masculine moulds and how that can cause difficulties in making friends with other boys. Catherine also speaks to experts who have studied boys and friendship for the last forty years and finally learns about some of the ways that male friendship groups can form hierarchies. 

Thanks to 

Carlton Keighley school, Yorkshire
Dance United Yorkshire
DRMZ Carmarthen Youth Project 
@panchbantz on Instagram 
Niobe Way Author Deep Secrets: Boys Friendships and the Crisis of Connection
Ben Hine, British Psychological Society

Producer: Catherine Carr
Researcher: Jill Achineku
Executive Producer: Marie Helly

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

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About the Boys

5. Friendship

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