Is Adolescence on Netflix based on a true story? ...Middle East

Netflix’s latest drama Adolescence is a haunting exploration of murder, misogyny and the danger of social media.

The show, which has been written by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, begins with police in a northern English town breaking into the bedroom of 13-year-old Jamie (Owen Cooper) and arresting him because he’s suspected of murdering a girl from his school, a crime he claims he did not commit.

Jamie chooses his dad, Eddie (Graham), as his appropriate adult and, over the next four episodes, we see Eddie’s life come crashing down as it becomes apparent that his son, like so many boys and young men, has been corrupted by online incel culture.

Talking about how the show takes aim at incel culture and the so-called manosphere, Graham recently told Yahoo UK: “Jack [Thorne] brought all of that incel stuff into the equation. He said about the darkness that’s on [social media] and how easily accessible these ways of thinking are and how lots of people can influence the youth today in many ways.”

Thorne added: “The Andrew Tate stuff is only ever mentioned by adults [in our show] and that’s really deliberate,” explains Thorne.

“Andrew Tate is the way that adults understand this issue, whereas the people who are doing the real damage are not him. He’s not taken seriously by kids. There are a lot more pernicious presences out there that are the real damage.”

It’s a shocking, poignant and hard-hitting series, but is it entirely fictional, or is it based on a true story? Read on for everything you need to know about the inspiration behind Adolescence.

Is Adolescence a true story?

Not exactly. Adolescence is not based on any one specific true story, with the exact events and characters depicted in the series entirely fictional, but it is inspired by shocking real-life events.

Graham recently confirmed that he came up with the idea for the series based on news stories in the UK over the past decade.

“Where it came from, for me,” explained Graham in an interview with Radio Times magazine, “is there was an incident in Liverpool, a young girl, and she was stabbed to death by a young boy. I just thought, why?

“Then there was another young girl in south London who was stabbed to death at a bus stop. And there was this thing up North, where that young girl Brianna Ghey was lured into the park by two teenagers, and they stabbed her. I just thought, what’s going on? What is this that’s happening?”

The actor also echoed those comments at a Next on Netflix event earlier this year.

“The idea came as – over the past 10 years or so – we’ve seen an epidemic of knife crime amongst young lads, up and down the country,” he said.

“And for me, there were certain instances that really stuck out where young boys – and they are young boys, you know, they’re not men – were killing young girls.

“When I mentioned it to Phil [Barantini, director], it just really hit me hard. I just thought, ‘Why? What’s going on? What’s happening? Why is this the case?'”

Graham continued: “What’s going on with our society as a whole, as a collective, and without being disrespectful, when these things are on the news – and we’re a couple of kids from council estates – but when these things are on the news, your judgement instantly goes to blaming the family, you blame the mum and dad.

“We’re all guilty of it, because that’s the easy common denominator. I just thought, ‘What if that’s not the case at all?'”

So, while the series is not based on a specific true story, or even inspired by a particular incident, it seems the idea did come from a tragic series of events over recent years, which Graham and the team behind the show wanted to explore.

The official synopsis for the series says: “Adolescence tells the story of how a family’s world is turned upside down when 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) is arrested for the murder of a teenage girl who goes to his school.

“Stephen Graham will play Jamie’s father and ‘appropriate adult’, Eddie Miller. Ashley Walters stars as Detective Inspector Luke Bascombe, and Erin Doherty is Briony Ariston, the clinical psychologist assigned to Jamie’s case.”

Read more:

Adolescence will stream on Netflix from Thursday 13th March 2025. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.

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