Adolescence was inspired by underrated true crime documentary

Adolescence is a shocking new Netflix drama that’s taken the world by storm, but the show’s roots are in an ongoing true crime documentary.

The number one show on Netflix right now is Adolescence, a disturbing four-part drama about a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering a girl at his school.

The show is the brain-child of star Stephen Graham, who created and co-wrote the series alongside Harry Potter and the Cursed Child scribe Jack Thorne.

Each episode plays out in a single take, while inspiration came from two shocking stories on the news, as well as a true crime documentary that’s been playing on British TV screens for the last decade.

How 24 Hours in Police Custody inspired Adolsescence

Netflix

While speaking at the premiere of Adolescence, Stephen Graham said that those news stories about teenage stabbings “hurt my heart,” then added that “I’m slightly obsessed with 24 Hours in Police Custody, and we knew because of the technique and how we shoot that we had to grab the audience straight away, and there’s no better beginning than smashing through the door on a raid, going into the house, and pointing the guns at a 13-year-old boy. I thought with that possibility we’d really grab the audience’s attention.”

24 Hours in Police Custody launched on Channel 4 in 2014, and has aired 74 episodes across 11 seasons, most of them about Bedfordshire Police investigating crimes in the Luton area.

Adolescence focusses on one murder across four episodes, revolving around the arrest, police interview, child psychologist interview, and fallout from the incident at home and at school.

Each episode of 24 Hours in Police Custody also focusses on an individual case, with the title a reference to the fact that UK authorities can hold suspects in custody for 24 hours before having to release them, bring charges, or apply for an extension if it’s a serious crimes.

As well as trying to capture the gritty realism of 24 Hours, writer Jack Thorne also did a huge amount of online research to understand what might inspire youngsters to commit such crimes, saying “TikTok and Twitter – those are the places you saw it, and places on the Dark Web too, trying to look everywhere for the information that kids might come across.

“We wanted to be authentic, and being authentic meant opening up some places that you didn’t want to go, and the thing that I discovered which frightened me most, is that I could understand the logic of it.”

For more on the show, here’s the Adolescence ending explained, plus why there probably won’t be an Adolescence Season 2. While for more streaming drama, these are the best new shows on Netflix, and the best thrillers on Netflix.