Is Netflix's Adolescence a true story?
Adolescence, was co-created and written by Liverpudlian Stephen Graham, who also stars in the series as the concerned father of Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), a teenager arrested for the murder of a girl who goes to his school.
The new Netflix series has been praised for many things including its being filmed in one continuous shot allowing audiences to feel like they are part of the story. With no editing or re-dos, the four-part limited series unfolds in real time from the time of arrest to the detectives investigating the shocking crime. It’s directed by Philip Barantini, who used a similar continuous one-shot style in the 2021 BAFTA nominated film Boiling Point, which also starred Stephen Graham.
Speaking to Netflix Stephen said: "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.
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"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." For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter
This begs the question, is it a true story?
Jamie’s story is not a true story per se, and it isn’t based on a specific event, although the series was inspired by real life cases of young boys being involved in knife crimes in the UK.
Stephen told 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? "
In the show, the teenager played by Owen, is accused of the murder of a 13-year-old girl who was stabbed to death and left to die in a car.
The writer and actor added: "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?’
"The pressures that come from all of those things are as difficult for kids here as they are the world over."
