Adolescence Almost Died in Infancy

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It wasn’t destined that Adolescence would happen as we know it today. Despite minimal advertising, the four-part British drama by Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne, which premiered on Netflix in mid-March, quickly captivated audiences with its portrayal of 13-year-old Jamie, portrayed by newcomer Owen Cooper, who is arrested for fatally stabbing his female classmate. Unlike typical crime dramas, each episode of Adolescence is filmed in a single continuous take. This unwavering perspective highlights how modern digital life has intensified the risks inherent in childhood and widened the chasm between children and the systems designed to help them. These themes are explored from various viewpoints, including Ashley Walters and Faye Marsay’s police investigators, who grapple with understanding Jamie’s circumstances; Erin Doherty’s therapist, who witnesses his confusion and anger; and Eddie, played by Graham, who symbolizes the silent, enduring fear that no matter what a parent does, it may never be enough. Adolescence is predicted to lead in the Limited Series category when Emmy nominations are announced on July 15 — an impressive achievement given the show’s tumultuous journey to production.

The origins of Adolescence can be linked back to the 2021 feature film, Boiling Point, which brought together a significant portion of the show’s creative team for the first time. This movie takes place in a high-end London restaurant on a particularly turbulent night, following the head chef played by Graham, who must contend with pressures from food inspectors, unruly staff, financial problems, and more as the kitchen becomes increasingly heated and tempers flare. Boiling Point initially started as a short-film project between friends: Director Philip Barantini and Graham were both actors on HBO’s Band of Brothers, while Barantini had collaborated with cinematographer Matthew Lewis during a student project at the University of Portsmouth. After completing the short film, they decided to reimagine it as a full-length feature, but encountered numerous challenges along the way. Initially planning to shoot eight takes over four days, they were only able to complete four before COVID forced a halt in production. Despite these obstacles, they successfully captured the necessary shots and the film was eventually released, garnering positive reviews from critics.

The film “Boiling Point” piqued the interest of Jeremy Kleiner, president of Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner’s production company Plan B. Kleiner received the film from Barantini’s U.S. agent and was instantly captivated by its unique blend of form and story. He shared the film with his partners, reminiscing about Pitt’s past fondness for Graham, stemming from their collaboration on Guy Ritchie’s 2000 film “Snatch.” Inspired by the idea of using a single-shot format for a series, Kleiner contacted Barantini. This conversation led to Barantini presenting the concept to Graham, who then invited his longtime collaborators at Warp Films to join the project. Mark Herbert, one of Warp’s executives, had previously produced the film “This Is England,” which launched Graham’s career as the volatile young skinhead Combo. Warp Films also had an ongoing partnership with Matriarch Productions, a company co-founded by Graham and his creative partner Hannah Walters, who also produces “Adolescence” and appears in episode two as a schoolteacher.

Following that point, Graham zeroed in on two significant influences for his work: a series of teenage stabbings occurring in the U.K. and the long-running Channel 4 documentary series, “24 Hours in Police Custody.” This series played a crucial role in shaping the tense opening sequence of “Adolescence,” where a police team bursts into the Miller family home. Graham explains that he felt the first episode required a dramatic entrance, similar to how “24 Hours in Police Custody” captivates viewers right away. Over coffee during the BAFTAs in March 2022, Graham and Barantini shared this idea with Herbert, and they had already considered Thorne as a writer for the project, having worked together on various projects since the television adaptations of “This Is England.” This coffee meeting sparked the beginning of their plans, and by the end of the weekend, they were prepared to present their pitch.

Following the BAFTAs, the project moved into production at Amazon due to Plan B’s agreement at the time, which granted Amazon Studios first rights to approve or reject anything they developed. Thorne and Graham were tasked with writing the pilot under this contract, marking their first joint writing endeavor – with Graham earning his initial official writing credit. Their creative process was collaborative, involving lengthy discussions between each other and the producers, followed by periods where Thorne would retreat to write before returning to refine drafts together. Thorne acknowledges Mariella Johnson, his assistant, for steering him towards incel culture as a potential theme. “I felt like I understood it,” he recalls, “but in reality, I didn’t. For a few days, I delved deeper into it and spent a few days asking, ‘Is this the story?'” Then, he came across a widely circulated but discredited statistic suggesting that 80% of women are attracted to only 20% of men. This belief, common in many male-dominated online communities, helped crystallize Jamie’s character.

Thorne delved further by exploring internet forums and talking to teenagers and their educators. What stood out to him wasn’t the sensational statistics like Andrew Tate, but the less prominent voices repeating similar thoughts: young men with modest online followings, discussing Arsenal games one moment, then expressing resentment towards women the next. Thorne comments that he believed these aspects would catch Jamie’s interest. Thorne and Graham see this character as a result of interconnected systems, such as overpopulated schools and growing up in a working-class community, but the sense of male discontent is an essential part of his emotional composition: “These feelings of loneliness, isolation, and feeling unliked, believing you won’t have a normal life because the world is against you.

At Amazon, advancement seemed sluggish. After submitting the initial script, there was minimal feedback from the streaming service, and this prolonged silence created growing uncertainty for the project as they had a limited timeframe to work in the summer of 2024. Kleiner expressed, “It wasn’t just an idea on its own — it was the execution of this specific team.” Herbert added, “We needed a cast and crew who would be committed to the unique process of the one-shot.” As the filming window approached its end, the team opted to write additional scripts themselves, banking on the belief that the show would eventually be produced. Thorne commented, “Episodes two and three were written speculatively because we thought someone would produce this series.” Graham concurred, “That was a risky move in retrospect.” By late 2023, they had scripts for the first three episodes ready.

The project was turned down by Amazon towards Christmas in 2023. Recalling the meeting, Graham said, “We’d been invited to London and were hopeful it would go ahead. We walked into this grand room, expecting things to move forward, only to have an executive from America tell us how great our script was, but regrettably, they couldn’t produce it.” The executive explained that the project didn’t align with their production priorities, which seemed to focus on genre films featuring well-known stars. Essentially, they were looking for projects that could be made with big names like Gerard Butler attached.

Undeterred by their setback, the team swiftly began brainstorming alternative strategies, and Herbert himself drafted a revised budget if they needed to switch to a British public broadcaster – a more challenging route that would necessitate securing funds from other resources. (“The market is quite grim,” Thorne admits.) The show, Adolescence, wasn’t overly costly, but it still demanded sufficient financial support. Kleiner proposed contacting Netflix, which held a special significance as Graham had initially aimed to present the project there. “To be honest, we were with Amazon only because Plan B had that connection with them in the beginning,” he explains.

In a short span of time, Netflix arranged a meeting to discuss the project. As Thorne recounts, this gathering took place within just a few days. By the end of the week following Amazon’s decision to pass on the project, the entire team – including Thorne, Graham, Walters, Barantini, and Herbert, along with Plan B’s Kleiner and Gardner – presented their show idea to Anne Mensah, Netflix’s U.K. content VP, and Mona Qureshi, director of scripted content. Upon her first reading of the script, Qureshi found an immediate affinity for the narrative. “I shared the parents’ fear to protect their son, and the one-shot technique mirrored the shortness of breath,” she explained. “These elements instilled in viewers a sense of empathy: But for the grace of God go I with my own child.” The fact that they were all well-acquainted within the U.K.’s small creative community facilitated this process. Qureshi and Mensah had previously collaborated with Barantini at Sky, while Qureshi and Thorne had worked together on the 2024 film “Joy” and the TV series “Toxic Town,” which premiered on Netflix only two weeks before “Adolescence.” The pitch was accepted in the meeting itself. Six weeks later, “Adolescence” entered pre-production.

Due to the single-take style of Adolescence, the communication and coordination between production and Netflix had to be precise and skillfully managed. Herbert commends the active assistance provided by Netflix’s team, with Tony Bentley being particularly noteworthy. Following the approach used in Boiling Point, the producers designed a three-week production cycle for each episode: rehearsals, camera rehearsals, and then five days of shooting — two takes per day. The process was intentionally gradual; with only one continuous take, actors were given just a few key suggestions at a time, enabling their performances to develop through subtle changes. “Anne had this note,” Herbert recalls. “She would often say, ‘Make the family feel authentic. This could be York, it could be anywhere. Just create a strong, believable family.’

The unexpected triumph of adolescence took the team by surprise, yet they attribute it to their innate ability to act swiftly. As Herbert puts it, “A project can easily become overthought, or overdeveloped. There was a certain speed that enabled Jack and Stephen to capture the spirit of the times in the script.” Thorne also contributes the show’s success to the unity of the production team. “Everyone was working together like a family,” he says, “and that was crucial. We had trust among us, which allowed us to draw strength from each other, and ultimately create something peculiar yet whole.

creating shows tailored to those regions to engage and retain subscribers. The unexpected global success of Adolescence can be seen as a testament to Netflix’s broad reach, rather than a deliberate strategic move.

With adolescence playing such a significant role, it’s not surprising that whispers of a second season have been circulating. However, there are currently no solid plans beyond the initial report by Deadline in April, which mentioned that Plan B is involved in preliminary discussions for another installment. As per Herbert, the team is still taking a break and starting to reconnect creatively once more. “We believe that the story for these characters has come to an end,” he states. “Yet, what we aim to do is to reunite the band. I can’t say what we’ll perform next.

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2025-06-23 18:54