A new British crime drama is already shaping up to be hailed as one of the best shows of 2025 – and it might be one of the most terrifying series a parent can watch.
Adolescence, which has launched on Netflix today, follows the horrifying fictional tale of a 13-year-old boy who’s accused of murdering a classmate.
The programme stars acting legends including Stephen Graham, Erin Doherty and Ashley Walters, as well as Owen Cooper making his on-screen debut as Jamie, the teenager at the centre of the story.
Ahead of the release date, Metro spoke with members of the cast, in addition to director Philip Barantini and co-writer Jack Thorne, about the horrors that Adolescence reflects in society today, including the ideologies that young people could be exposed to without the knowledge of their parents.
Owen, 15, emphasised his hope that the drama will ‘open the eyes’ of the parents who watch it, so that they gain a greater awareness of what their children could be up to on social media and the dangers their online presence could pose in their real lives.
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What is Adolescence about?
First announced last year, the four-part series stars Stephen as Eddie Miller, a father who faces the unthinkable when his 13-year-old son Jamie (Owen) is arrested for the murder of a teenage girl who goes to his school.
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Each of the four episodes are filmed in a continuous shot, with the story unfolding in real time, in the same style as Philip’s 2019 film Boiling Point, which also starred Stephen.
As Adolescence progresses, the audience will follow as those closest to the case – including Owen’s family and the police detectives – grapple with trying to figure out who’s to blame for the shocking tragedy.
They will also attempt to unravel whether the devastating murder of the schoolgirl could have been prevented.
What inspired the story?
While speaking to Metro, Stephen explained that the reason why he had the idea for Adolescence – which he co-wrote with Jack – was after he heard about ‘another incident of a young boy stabbing a young girl’.
‘I’m going to call them young boys, because they were young boys, and they are young boys. And it just hurt my heart, basically,’ the 51-year-old said.
‘I just wondered, what kind of a society and what kind of a world are we living in where this kind of thing has happened, not once, not twice, three, four, five times? It just really made me curious.’
The A Thousand Blows actor recalling feeling that ‘this was something that we could look at as a society’, adding that his objective ‘was never to point the finger in any way, shape or form, but just to raise the question of why is this happening, and who is to blame? What is to blame? Family, school, society, influences… maybe we’re all kind of accountable.’
He continued: ‘What’s that beautiful saying it takes a village to raise a child? I think maybe that’s something we should look at as a collective. So it’s not necessarily pointing a finger at one specific individual. It’s the whole thing itself. What would drive a young boy to do something like this?’
The premise of the series is incredibly timely, with knife crime in the UK at its highest point in 20 years.
In the year ending March 2024 there were more than 50,000 crimes of this nature, while the year before 244 people were killed using sharp instruments such as knives and broken bottles.
Even more shockingly, there have been several well-publicised cases of children murdering each other in this way.
Why is it important for parents to watch Adolescence?
Owen, who’s set to appear in the upcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, told Metro why it’s so important that parents are more aware of what their children are doing on social media, as he referenced his character Jamie and his on-screen parents Eddie (Stephen) and Manda (Christine Tremarco).
‘You never know what your child’s doing online, especially with Jamie, because Eddie and Manda, they obviously didn’t know anything about Jamie, what he was doing in his personal life. So for the parents to have a better view on their child, on what they’re doing online, would obviously help a lot,’ he shared.
Director Philip expressed his hope that Adolescence will ‘spark a conversation’, stating: ‘It’s also about parents looking at their kids and talking to them and understanding them a bit more and giving them the confidence and the comfort blanket to be able to talk to you.’
While writer Jack agreed with Philip, he also added that ‘it’s not just the responsibility of parents’.
‘It’s also about what we do as a society and that’s about schools, and that’s about the conversations people have with kids in schools. And it is also at governmental level,’ he said.
‘Unless we start making big strides forward as a society, looking at this stuff, this stuff is only going to get worse.’
Jack opened up about what it was like to conduct research for the drama, which explores concepts like the ‘manosphere’ – a network of online communities that promote toxic masculinity and misogyny.
‘It was really challenging. It was very different to what I expected it to be. I expected to be able to dismiss it. I expected to be able to go, “This is a toxic culture of which I have no association”,’ he shared.
‘I think the best thing about this show is the fact that Stephen, Phil and I had to look aspects of our own masculinity in the eye. The thing about looking at that culture and looking at the way that these people talk is I could see a logic to it, and I didn’t want to see a logic to it. I could see something that would persuade me, particularly if I was Jamie’s age, persuade me to have a certain vision of the world, and that’s what makes it so powerful.’
Jack referenced the ’80/20′ theory that’s mentioned in the series – the idea that 80% of women are attracted to 20% of men.
‘That is such a strong idea to get inside a young boy’s head. “If you’re going to have a normal life, the only way to have a normal life is to trick people, because you are built to fail, because of the gender divide. You are built to fail. You are not going to succeed unless you listen to me, and you listen to my view of the world, and you understand my view of the world.” And it’s terrifying,’ he stated.
‘It’s terrifying because I could see myself being taken by that argument. I could see it. Not now, but then [when I was a teenager] I think I could have understood it, and that made it much more scary for me, and that made the point of this show much more powerful.’
He continued: ‘And it’s not Andrew Tate. None of this is Andrew Tate. Andrew Tate is a cartoon figure. This is nasty, horrible human beings. I’m not saying Andrew Tate is not a nasty, horrible human being, but there’s a lot of very, very dark, very clever people out there selling arguments to kids.’
Erin, who stars in the drama as psychologist Briony Ariston, shared that she’s ‘always been terrified of social media’. Social media is a pivotal part of the story in Adolescence, as the police detectives investigate the classmates’ relationships through the lens of how they speak with one another on the online platforms.
‘This world isn’t that far away from us and that’s what the show does so well, it places this whole event under the roof of a family that you would never expect it from and that’s the scary thing is that it can happen to any of us. They’ve written it so beautifully well that actually it opens that conversation out worldwide, which is all you hope a piece can do,’ the Crown star said.
Top Boy actor Ashley added: ‘I didn’t know any of this stuff. So that’s what amazed me, was like, how much I don’t know, and actually let me check in with my own sons and my own kids.’
When is Adolescence out?
Adolescence will be released on March 13 on Netflix.
What sets it apart?
As Eddie and his wife Manda are confronted with their son being arrested for the distressing act of violence, the story playing out in one shot adds to the tension.
Director Philip, who also used a similar continuous one-shot style in the 2021 film Boiling Point which also starred Stephen, outlined how this approach to filmmaking was done to evoke an ‘immersive feeling’ for the audience.
‘We’re all guilty of watching stuff with one eye on our phones, but for something like this, it’s so compulsive, that you can’t miss a beat. And that’s the idea, that it adds to the tension and to the anxiety, which is an immersive experience for the actors as well. You get the best performance because they’re in it. They’re living it. And there’s no cuts at all, so for one hour you have to be in character,’ he said.
The way the series was filmed will undoubtedly have viewers on the edge of their seat and unable to look away and happily avoid scrolling their phones at as the episodes play out.
Although blockbuster shows very much have their place in Netflix’s slate, it’s shows like Adolescence that stand out as ones we need to be seeing more of on our screens – dramas that share the reality of life in the UK and of everyday people faced with extraordinary circumstances, even if that means shining a light on issues that we might feel more comfortable looking away from usually.
Who else stars in Adolescence?
More actors in the cast of Adolescence including Game of Thrones star Faye Marsay, Happy Valley actor Mark Stanley and newcomer Amélie Pease.
An earlier version of this article was published on January 30.
Adolescence premieres on Thursday March 13 on Netflix.
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