It's time to go behind the scenes of the Netflix crime drama limited series Adolescence created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham.
Adolescence Cast:
Stephen Graham, Ashley Walters, Erin Doherty, Owen Cooper, Faye Marsay, Christine Tremarco, Mark Stanley, Jo Hartley and Amélie Pease
Stream Adolescence now on Netflix!
Adolescence Cast:
Stephen Graham, Ashley Walters, Erin Doherty, Owen Cooper, Faye Marsay, Christine Tremarco, Mark Stanley, Jo Hartley and Amélie Pease
Stream Adolescence now on Netflix!
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TVTranscript
00:00Go ahead, Joe.
00:01Confirming 10-51, ready to go, over.
00:05Bravo Delta 5-0 to Bravo Delta 6-0, are you ready to roll up?
00:09Yes, ready, ready.
00:10Received.
00:13Let's go, Joe. Let's go.
00:14Yeah.
00:17You see a swan glide gracefully across the water,
00:22but its legs are flapping like mad.
00:25And that is basically what each one of these episodes are.
00:29Yeah, let's make the call.
00:42Police! Get down on the floor!
00:43What's going on?
00:45With adolescence being a single-shot format,
00:48it all runs very differently to normal.
00:50It took a few weeks to really understand
00:53that it was only one camera moving through space,
00:55that there was no cuts,
00:56and that whatever was shot is the episode.
00:58I have a warrant to search your premises, sir.
01:00Where's your son?
01:01Where's your son?
01:02He's in his bedroom.
01:03What do you need me for?
01:04Where is he?
01:05You kind of feel like you're in a theatre space
01:08more than a TV space.
01:10Once a train starts moving,
01:12no-one can stop it.
01:13Do you know what I mean?
01:14Mr Miller, I will arrest you for obstruction.
01:16Please stop.
01:17Please.
01:19I'm arresting you on suspicion of murder.
01:21Do you understand?
01:22Dad, I haven't done anything!
01:24Adolescence is not a whodunit, it's a why-dunit.
01:27How did this boy end up in this place?
01:30Your son, he's been arrested on suspicion of murder.
01:32And this started with a phone call from Stephen saying,
01:35how do we tell that story in four one-hour shots?
01:40I always wanted to tell a tale over a long time span,
01:45but not do it the way normal chronological stories work.
01:49Jane! Don't say nothing!
01:51That was the idea of spanning it across 13 months,
01:54but dipping in and out.
01:55Dad!
01:56And so we quickly worked out,
01:58we're going to do the arrest,
02:00we're going to do school,
02:01then we're going to spend some time with Jamie,
02:03and then we're going to spend some time with the family.
02:07Episode one is looking at a particular situation
02:10and trying to be as impartial as possible.
02:13Excuse me.
02:14Can you tell me when we can see my son?
02:16Not long, Mr Miller, all right.
02:18It could happen to anybody, you know what I mean?
02:20We thought it would be interesting to shine a light
02:22on the devastation that causes,
02:23you know, the ripple effect that that has on everybody.
02:26Did you do it?
02:27It's going to touch a nerve with a lot of different people,
02:30and it's important for us to represent in the right way
02:33and be accurate.
02:34He's a good killer.
02:35This wasn't about othering Jamie.
02:38Don't put this in the extraordinary.
02:40Make this feel like it could happen to you,
02:42because that is the reality of what is happening in our world.
02:46I'll be by your side all the way through it, all right?
02:49Okay?
02:50Okay.
02:51We wanted the audience to be thinking,
02:53there's no way he's done this.
02:54This kid couldn't do that.
02:56So for him to see this act committed by his boy,
03:02he's poleaxed,
03:03and his life from that moment on will never be the same again.
03:09What have you done?
03:17Episode two should be something that makes people think,
03:20sparks debate,
03:22and opens the door for other directors, writers,
03:25to feel that they can show the harsher sides of reality beautifully.
03:30Oi!
03:31Ryan!
03:33What have you done?
03:39This show is about windows, right?
03:41You get four different windows into Jamie's world.
03:44But it was working out where the windows were best placed
03:48so that we could understand him.
03:50Episode two is kind of like piecing it together within the school
03:53and seeing how social media can affect our children these days.
03:58What's up?
03:59It's not going well because you're not getting it.
04:02What am I not getting?
04:03You're not reading what they're doing.
04:06What's happening?
04:07What are you talking about?
04:09The theme of the show is reality.
04:13The youngsters don't live in a blink of a world
04:16where they don't know that these things happen.
04:18When these kids are fucking impossible,
04:20what am I supposed to do?
04:22There's 300 kids, as well as all of the teachers,
04:24all the chaperones that are being led around by lots of dressed-in ADs.
04:27So it's got to be really meticulously planned out.
04:30You're going to get instructions from the cast teachers
04:33to get back in line.
04:34Do not listen to them.
04:36What have you done?
04:37We have three weeks for one episode, right?
04:39So our first week is spent literally walking through scene by scene.
04:44Shall we pop inside?
04:46We're going to be going through it a lot, over and over again.
04:49Then it becomes muscle memory, you know?
04:51Then we do the tech rehearsal with all the crew.
04:54That week, you know, we put a lens on it,
04:56we start moving through the space,
04:57we start realising what doesn't work.
04:59Kind of two steps forward, one step back a little bit.
05:01It's good that they're happening now.
05:03It's just rehearsals, and look, we're all doing it
05:05without us getting ready anyway.
05:07And then the last week, we get ten chances to a day
05:10at shooting one take.
05:13Jane, this is a huge loss, love.
05:16We'll arrange for somebody for you to have a chat.
05:18Not another shrink.
05:19No, it's not a shrink.
05:20No, no, no, fuck that.
05:21Please, Jane.
05:22No, you can't go back to class.
05:24You know you can't.
05:25When I first read the scripts, it blew my mind.
05:27It felt like I just knew all these characters
05:29and I could visualise the whole thing.
05:34Let's have a word with Ryan.
05:37The collaboration on this show, a lot of it was technical,
05:40but the surprising thing was using technical to free us.
05:42Action.
05:43I'd written them this chase sequence,
05:45and this chase sequence took Bascom and this boy
05:48beside the murder site, and then the camera was going to
05:50travel back on its own, back to the school.
05:53That moment would have felt almost like a video game
05:56walking down the street.
05:57I think it would just take the audience away
05:59from what the piece is.
06:00And then Phil called me up and he said,
06:02Matt and I think we've found a way to make the camera fly.
06:07If the camera could float away by itself,
06:09then it couldn't possibly be attached to a person.
06:12It kind of feels more ethereal.
06:14So you've got Bascom finding his own sort of resolution,
06:18and you're with this character, Jade,
06:20whose heart is pulled out.
06:22And you're with all these kids as they pull out their phones,
06:24and then the camera takes off.
06:26And the camera comes to rest at the murder site.
06:29It was an example of the technical meeting the story
06:32and finding a fusion which is actually better than anything
06:35that the story had come up with on its own.
06:39What Jack Thorne is so brilliant at
06:42is being so brutal and so human.
06:46That's the crux of this episode,
06:48and probably the whole series is how interesting it is
06:52what people present versus what's within.
06:57I always wanted episode three to be a wonderful two-hander.
07:01It's a Jack Thorne beautiful masterpiece.
07:04Hi, Jamie.
07:06Go, go, go.
07:07It was nerve-wracking reading episode three
07:12and then realising, oh, we need to cast a 13-year-old lad
07:16who can really go on a journey emotionally.
07:21Who looks extremely innocent
07:23and looks like a vulnerable, afraid young boy.
07:26We haven't finished.
07:27Because of schedule needs, we had to start with episode three,
07:31which I was very nervous about,
07:32because that's an hour-long script for a young actor to learn,
07:36acting opposite Aaron Doherty.
07:39That rehearsal week, you're constantly asking yourself,
07:42can he get there?
07:43As soon as you've used that eye contact,
07:45all the power's gone.
07:46You'll be giving him notes,
07:47and he's just looking at you like that, look.
07:49He's giving you that look, and I'm like,
07:51is he listening to me?
08:00And then they'll go and do a take.
08:01Every single note will be nailed.
08:04It was a combination of two voices in the room for him.
08:07It was Phil, who's so gentle,
08:11and it was Aaron.
08:12I need you to sit down.
08:16It's so well written that it kind of requires you
08:18to just be there.
08:21We're just surrendering to the script and each other.
08:27Something happened between the two of them,
08:29and it just took Owen into another place
08:33and took Jamie into another place.
08:35And actually, it was the best start
08:36we could have made for him.
08:38That night, I didn't touch her.
08:42I could have touched her, but I didn't.
08:43I just, I had a knife.
08:45She was scared, but I didn't do that.
08:48I could have touched any part of her body I wanted to.
08:50I really wanted to, but I didn't.
08:51I just, most boys would have touched her.
08:54What's so heartbreaking for Bryony at the end,
08:56you witness her have to let go of everything
09:00she's wanted this boy to be.
09:03What did you think about me then?
09:04Okay, okay, okay.
09:09And all these thoughts, it's kind of come into her mind,
09:11and it's kind of symbolized through this sandwich.
09:14The person that she was when she entered the room,
09:16who was making the offer,
09:18to then the person who won't even touch it.
09:25It's just such a great thing to play.
09:28We always see the perspective of the victim's family,
09:32which is rightly so, do you know what I mean?
09:34Of course we should.
09:36And with episode four,
09:37I wanted to have a look at the impact it has
09:39upon the family of the boy who has committed the act.
09:43All right, nuns.
09:45Hey, hey, hey!
09:48All right, nuns!
09:49Did you do that to my van?
09:52Did you?
09:53It was really important to Stephen
09:55that this wasn't a show that made easy answers.
10:00The one thing he said to me right at the beginning was,
10:02we can't blame the parents.
10:06I didn't want Jamie to come from a background
10:09where his mum was a drinker,
10:11or his dad was violent and aggressive.
10:15I wanted to eliminate all of those things.
10:19To try and get the audience to ask the question, why?
10:23But also, in the same respect, think,
10:26that could be me.
10:29That could be my child.
10:32I wish he'd have picked you.
10:34You'd have done better.
10:40You'd have done better.
10:42Stephen's performances are real.
10:44He opens up his heart for people to see.
10:47He knows exactly what he wants.
10:50I love working with him.
10:52He's just incredible. He's passionate.
10:54Stephen is an instinctive leader.
10:58He's someone that just you kind of flock to.
11:01There was a feeling of a gang on the show.
11:03Everyone was excited about what we were doing.
11:06Ready?
11:07We're going to do a take.
11:08Let's go.
11:10Before each take, my heart is pounding.
11:12Absolutely everyone feels it,
11:14because everyone knows how important their job is.
11:16Action.
11:17It takes a real army of people to pull it together,
11:20because there's not one person on that set who's not important.
11:23Because without every single person, it could all collapse.
11:27Watching it come to life,
11:29watching the decisions that Matt and Phil made
11:33as they were telling the story through the camera,
11:36it was really thrilling.
11:38I think if anything can force us to look at a subject
11:41that we don't want to look at, it's a one-shot.
11:43If anything can force us to look at a subject
11:45that we don't want to look at, it's a one-shot.
11:47Because you really are forced to watch it.
11:49There's no break from it.
11:53The fact is we are dealing with the harsh reality
11:55of what is going on,
11:56and I hope it does make people stand up and think
11:59about what they're doing or what they're not doing.
12:01Do you like me?
12:03You don't know what's going on behind closed doors
12:06with anyone, ever.
12:07No one is just evil. No one is just all bad.
12:10It's just so much more complex.
12:12I was a good mum.
12:13We're not trying to give answers.
12:15We're not trying to lay blame, particularly.
12:18It's a really complicated time,
12:20but we need to be talking about these things.
12:24I'm sorry, son.
12:25I just hope it creates debate
12:27and I hope it creates a conversation
12:29between parent and child.