How the team behind Adolescence made the year’s biggest drama

How the team behind Adolescence made the year’s biggest drama

Tuesday, 3rd June 2025
The two stand outdoors in front of a film crew, Barantini listening intently as Lewis gestures with his hands, discussing something
Director Philip Barantini and DOP Matthew Lewis plan an ambitious one-shot episode (credit: Netflix)
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No TV drama has made as many waves this year as the searing Netflix four-parter. Now the team behind the show tell an RTS event how they did it

Philip Barantini, director of the Netflix sensation ­Adolescence, always knew that the “one-shot” four-parter was special. But in the wake of headlines and social media generated by the show, he now knows just how special.

Among a flood of messages was a text from Steven Spielberg, who had watched it twice, and handwritten letters from Adele, who saw it with her 12-year-old son. “She said it had changed their relationship,” Barantini told an RTS panel event that also featured writer Jack Thorne, producer Jo Johnson and director of photography Matthew Lewis. “This show has changed lives. It has had an impact none of us expected.”

Thorne, who penned the series with one of its stars, Stephen Graham, said that since Adolescence premiered on Netflix in March, many parents had been spurred into deep discussions with their teenagers. The story of Jamie Miller, a 13-year-old accused of stabbing to death a girl from his school, had resulted in conversations that would not otherwise have happened.

“This show has changed lives. It has had an impact none of us expected.” 

The themes of toxic masculinity and behaviour learned online led to the writer being invited to visit schools. “You hear stories about teenage girls who never say anything in class because there’s a group of boys who terrify them. The show has been a trigger. We framed a question. Hopefully, others can work out the answer.”

Thorne denied that the story was based on a single incident. “We took inspiration from lots of case studies, but didn’t copy.” He disclosed that Graham, who co-created the show and played the protagonist’s devastated father, had specified that, in telling the knife-crime drama, the boy’s parents should not be blamed.  

“We have a problem with teenage boys,” said Thorne. “They’re overly influenced by what’s online. How to look, how to behave. Jamie is a consumer of the manosphere and incel culture [young men frustrated by their involuntary celibacy]. The gender divide is growing, and it scares me.”

Johnson said she didn’t realise until the first production meeting that the director planned to shoot each episode in a single uninterrupted shot. “Once I got it, I was very excited. For me, it was all about process and organisation.”

She was taken aback by the reaction in the media and at Westminster: “It has been nuts. I ended up going with Jack to No 10 to chat with the PM! Next thing I knew, I was shocked to find myself in The Guardian. And I discovered that a phenomenal amount of people will now take my calls. None of us expected this would happen.”

“It’s the power of Netflix,” said Barantini. “A show made in a small town in Yorkshire becomes No 1 in India and Venezuela. It’s a very relatable, human story, and there’s been a visceral reaction to it. The response has blown my mind.”

Lewis, who developed his one-shot technique for Barantini’s first feature, Boiling Point (also starring Graham), said the 10-hour shooting days were physically demanding. He damaged his back in episode three, which sees Jamie (played by the remarkable Owen Cooper) interrogated by a psychologist (Erin Doherty). “It had to feel seamless – emotionally, narratively and technically,” he said. “Which meant keeping the movements smooth as we crabbed sideways around the table. I wasn’t sure how the format would land. It could be side-barred as a gimmick. And the single shot doesn’t work for everything. But it has landed incredibly well.”

Johnson agreed: “It wasn’t an attempt to say, ‘Aren’t we clever!’ The aim was to tell an important story and, because of the way it was shot, you can’t look away.”

“The reaction has been nuts. I ended up going to No 10 to chat with the PM”

Barantini said he was in awe of the director of photography: “Matt is so incredibly aware of everything that’s going on. And he’s empathetic with the actors. The one-shot forces a specific perspective on an audience. There’s no breaths, no jumps, no time cuts.”

The filming technique meant everything had to be planned, choreographed and rehearsed to the finest detail. Sets were constructed in Wakefield’s Production Park studios, and Johnson had to ensure all other locations were close enough to fit the format, which often saw the ­camera travelling with characters in a van or flying above the action. “There was no way anything could be late,” she said.

Each episode was rehearsed for two weeks before filming began. After every take, the team would review, compare notes, refine… then go again. From 10 takes for each hour-long episode, they would select two versions to send to Netflix, with a recommendation of the one they preferred. “We didn’t always agree,” noted Thorne. “I was out-voted on one episode.”

But the team were unanimous in their admiration for newcomer Cooper. “Remarkable”, “extraordinary” and “revelatory” were some of the descriptions of the actor who has to switch rapidly back and forth from heartbreaking vulnerability to terrifying rage.

When the search for someone to play the role began, the casting director travelled to Wakefield to hand out leaflets in shopping centres and talk to youth clubs and drama groups.

The young actor from Warrington (14 at the time of filming) was invited to send in an audition tape and clinched his debut role after a “chemistry” session with Graham. Four other boys who had been shortlisted were offered parts in the production.

The welfare of the young and mostly inexperienced cast was everyone’s priority. A child psychologist was always present and has been on hand since the launch.

Johnson said: “Keeping a positive atmosphere on set at all times was really important.”

Barantini said that he remains in touch with Cooper and his family. “His face is everywhere. It can’t be easy. This show has changed everybody’s lives who worked on it.”  

Thorne remembered: “There was an enormous sense of calm on set, which perhaps you wouldn’t have expected. Whatever was going wrong, there was this feeling that we’re doing this and it’s going to be OK.”

Team Adolescence revealed that they are discussing another single-shot drama if the right story can be found. And Thorne, Barantini and Lewis are working together on another Netflix show, Enola Holmes 3, with Millie Bobby Brown returning as Sherlock’s younger sister.

But the team dismissed rumours that they are already working on ­Adolescence 2. Thorne said: “The Millers’ story has been told. Any attempt to go back to it would feel exploitative.” 

The RTS National Event ‘In conversation with the team behind Adolescence’ was hosted by broadcaster Ellen E Jones on 12 May. The producer was Netflix.

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