Development Adolescence was originally conceived by
Stephen Graham as a response to cases of
knife crime by male teenagers in the United Kingdom, including the then-recent (2021 and 2023) murders of
Ava White,
Elianne Andam, and
Brianna Ghey. He decided to create a drama exploring the motivation of extreme acts of
violence against girls by young boys and collaborated with screenwriter
Jack Thorne. "There had been a number of incidents where young boys were stabbing and killing young girls, and I'm calling them young boys because they're not developed to be men", Graham told
Rolling Stone UK, adding, "They'd happened up and down the country, and my objective was merely to ask: 'What's going on? Why is this happening? Can we just have a look at it because this kind of thing didn't happen when I was a young lad. Thorne stated that no part of the drama is based on a specific true story. Speaking on
BBC Radio 4's arts programme
Front Row, Thorne stated that the two writers wanted to "look in the eye of modern male rage" and examine the influence of public figures, such as
Andrew Tate on boys. The series was announced in March 2024, with the
working title Adolescence, to be written by Thorne and Graham. It is a four-part limited
crime drama told in a real-time,
one-shot style, with
Philip Barantini as director. Barantini and Graham previously collaborated on
Boiling Point (2021), which was also shot in one take.
Warp Films, Matriarch Productions, and
Plan B Entertainment produced the series for
Netflix. Jo Johnson served as series producer, and Graham, Thorne and Barantini served as executive producers, alongside Mark Herbert, Emily Feller,
Hannah Walters,
Brad Pitt,
Jeremy Kleiner,
Dede Gardner, and
Nina Wolarsky.
Casting Owen Cooper,
Erin Doherty, Graham,
Faye Marsay,
Christine Tremarco, and
Ashley Walters star. Cooper was cast in the role of the teenage murder suspect, Jamie Miller, at the age of 13, with no previous professional acting experience. Casting director
Shaheen Baig had considered 500 boys for the part, but Cooper attracted her attention after sending her a
demo tape and secured the role. Baig found Cooper and several of the other young cast members through Drama MOB in
Manchester and Articulate Drama School and Agency in
Bradford. Staff members of these drama schools, which serve students from underrepresented and deprived communities, resented the narrative that these actors had "done nothing and came from nowhere" prior to this production.
Filming Filming began in the United Kingdom in July 2024 and
wrapped around October 2024.
Adolescence is noted for its extensive use of
one-shot filming, as each episode is shot in one take by cinematographer Matthew Lewis. Graham said that each episode took three weeks in total. The takes used were as follows: first episode, 2nd take; second episode, 13th take; third episode, 12th take; fourth episode, 16th take.
Minsthorpe Community College in South Elmsall was used as a location for the school scenes in episode 2, filmed over 1 week during 2024's summer. The interior scenes at the police station were shot at a specially constructed film set at the Production Park studio facility in South Kirkby in order to accommodate the complexities of single-shot filming. ==Release==