‘How have we come to this?’

Adolescence just dropped on Netflix, and it’s released to pretty much five star reviews across the board. Which, with all the talent attached to it, I’m not shocked about in the slightest. Stephen Graham has co created it with Jack Thorne (a great playwright, btw) and is starring as the father of a 13 year old boy who gets accused of murdering a classmate. Every episode of the limited series is filmed in one continuous shot – and it’s been directed by the director of Boiling Point, Philip Barantini. Barantini also had Graham in the acclaimed Boiling Point film and its sequel TV series and it looks like Adolescence is receiving the same acclaim. The harrowing plot rings very true to real crimes in the UK, and now Stephen Graham has opened up about the heartbreaking real stories that inspired Adolescence on Netflix.

‘My god – this could be happening to us’

Speaking to Netflix’s Tudum, Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne opened up about what lead them to create this story and the real events that provided inspiration for the harrowing drama.

“We could have made a drama about gangs and knife crime, or about a kid whose mother is an alcoholic or whose father is a violent abuser,” said Graham. “Instead, we wanted you to look at this family and think, ‘My God. This could be happening to us!’ And what’s happening here is an ordinary family’s worst nightmare.”

Whilst Adolescence isn’t based on any one particular story and has original characters, Graham explained how he personally was moved by the rise in harrowing true crime events committed by teenagers and these real stories inspired him to make the Netflix show with Thorne.

“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?’ ”

Jack Thorne added that incel culture and the rise of men feeling rage about their place and questioning themselves lead him to writing the story, too. “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,” he explained.