Adolescence is a hard-hitting new series which throws the spotlight on how our children are being influenced online and what the consequences are.
Written and created by Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne, it is a gripping story of teenage murder which goes beyond the world of gangs and knife crime to pose the questions “who is responsible and could it have been prevented?”
The four-part drama, filmed in one continuous shot, was released on Netflix on Thursday 13 March and stars Graham as the father Eddie Miller and Owen Cooper and his 13-year-old son Jamie.
Graham said: “One of our aims was to ask, ‘What is happening to our young men these days, and what are the pressures they face from their peers, from the internet, and from social media?’
Owen Cooper stars as 13-year-old Jamie Miller, who is accused of murder in Adolescence (Photo: Netflix)“And the pressures that come from all of those things are as difficult for kids here as they are the world over.”
While Jamie’s story isn’t specifically based on a real person or event, the idea for the series did spring from reports Graham had heard on the news of young boys being involved in knife crime.
He told Netflix’s Tudum: “There was an incident where a young boy [allegedly] stabbed a girl.
“It shocked me. I was thinking, ‘What’s going on? What’s happening in society where a boy stabs a girl to death? What’s the inciting incident here?’
“And then it happened again, and it happened again, and it happened again.
“I really just wanted to shine a light on it, and ask, ‘Why is this happening today? What’s going on? How have we come to this?’ “
Fellow writer Thorne added that during the creative process, he, Graham, and director Philip Barantini became fascinated by the question of male rage.
They started thinking about themselves as men, fathers, partners, and friends, and “questioning with some intensity” who they were as people and particularly as men.
“That is a journey I’ve never gone on as a writer before, and it scared me and excited me because it felt like we had something to say,” said Thorne.
Stephen Graham said the idea for the series sprang from reports of teenage murders (Photo: StillMoving.Net/Netflix)What inspired the new Netflix drama?
Graham spoke in depth about his inspiration for the show at a Bafta Screening Q&A in London.
He said: “I’d read an article in the paper about a young boy stabbing a young girl, and it made me feel a bit cold.
“Then, about three or four months later there was a piece on the news.
“And it was a young boy, again, who had stabbed a young girl – and they are young boys. They’re not men. And it was the complete opposite end of the country.”
He said “it really hurt my heart”, not only as a parent but also as an indictment of our society.
square NETFLIX Adolescence will send chills down any parent's spine
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It was then, he said, that he and Barantini came up with the drama idea to pose the question “why does this kind of thing happen?”
Among the influences put forward by the show is the rise in incel (involuntarily celibate) culture, an online movement of people who define themselves as unable to find a romantic or sexual partner and blame, objectify and denigrate women and girls as a result.
Graham told Sky News: “You look at it and you see that we’re kind of all accountable to an extent.
“There’s failings within the school system, there’s situations where the education system can look at this, look at what’s happened with that kind of rise in these misogynistic tendencies.”
Channel 4 documentary series 24 Hours in Police Custody was cited by Graham as an inspiration for the way the first episode played out.
While the use of social media by children was a factor highlighted by co-writer Thorne.
He said: “We need to be having conversations like Australia’s having conversations, where they’re actually putting in legislation about restricting social media access.
“We need to be having those conversations in this country and we’re not.
“And if we don’t have these conversations, it is going to get worse.”
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