'We want people to think it could be their kid': Philip Barantini on incels, rage and new drama Adolescence

When director Philip Barantini is asked why he and actor-of-the-moment Stephen Graham wanted to create four-part Netflix drama Adolescence, the answer is startling in its starkness, shocking in its simplicity. “We wanted to shine a light on why these young boys are picking up a knife and killing young girls.” 

The pair first collaborated on independent film Boiling Point, a high-octane study of a head chef on the verge of a nervous breakdown that was filmed in one chaotic take. They subsequently made a BBC One TV series expanding the story but were keen to return to the one-shot, single take format that made the original film so compelling, adding a kinetic energy that stood apart from anything else being made for the screen.

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“I think we were on the way to an awards show and there had been a few incidents of young girls being stabbed by really young lads,” continues Barantini. “And we wanted to shine a light on that subject. Why does it keep happening? Why would this boy pick up a knife?”

Jack Thorne came on board as writer, working with Graham to create a script taking viewers closer than anyone would want to be to this story. The result is four one-hour episodes, each shot in one continuous take, taking us inside the family, the school, the police station, an interview with a child psychologist and the wider community. 

“Stephen and I love the show 24 Hours In Police Custody and the relentlessness it has and the ticking clock as well,” adds Barantini, “We thought that style would work for exploring this story.”

All too often, it is left to women to bring up the subject of male violence. Why are these three men tackling this subject right now? Again, the answer is simple.

“I’m a parent. Stephen’s a parent. Jack’s a parent. We’ve all got kids. And this could happen to anyone. We wanted to bring home that it’s not gang related. We want people to think, you know, this could be my kid,” says Barantini. “And the ripple effect that has on the families, the school and friends – it changes their lives forever.

“You often see from the victim’s perspective, and rightly so. We wanted to ask why would this boy pick up a knife, and show what this does to a perfectly normal family whose son has committed this horrific act.” 

We looked at our own rage 

The trio were determined to avoid apportioning blame too neatly as they explored why 13-year-old Jamie, played impressively by newcomer Owen Cooper, would reach for a knife. 

“Stephen’s big thing was, ‘I don’t want this to be a show that blames the parents,’” explains Thorne. “I don’t think the parents are absolved in this show at all, but we paint a very complicated picture of responsibility. Then we started talking about motive. Why Jamie might have done this.

“We paint a very complicated picture of responsibility,” says Thorne. “Then we started talking about motive. Nothing felt true – it took us a long time to find the incel stuff.” 

Even then, this is not the story of misogyny and online toxic masculinity we may have encountered before. 

“It’s not about Andrew Tate,” Thorne says. “It’s about a kid that gets polluted because what he gets told online makes sense to him. We look at rage. Phil, Stephen and I are proud that we looked at our own rage – we looked at ourselves and tested ourselves as we built these complicated characters.” 

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‘I was as angry as Jamie in lots of ways’

Thorne is open about his emotional connection to the drama he writes. “I always think about me and my mum on the sofa,” he says. “Because I learned so much about the world I live in through TV. I want to be good enough to have written an Our Friends in the North or Boys from the Blackstuff – those are shows that meant most to me.” 

So when considering the response to Adolescence, he imagines similar scenarios around the country.  

“I imagine there will be a lot of worry,” he says. “But hopefully, the important conversations will then arise. I don’t think I had enough of those with my parents. I was a Jamie – I was as angry as Jamie in lots of ways. So I hope this is a moment where parents… will start those conversations.” 

Has becoming a parent changed the way he writes? 

“Absolutely. Because it has changed me. It’s never something I expected – I thought I was going to be alone for the whole of my life, and I was quite comfortable with that,” says Thorne. “I thought I was going to care for people from afar my entire life. Then Rachel [Mason, his wife] came along and surprised me. Then [their son] Elliott came along. I’m still computing it. I have never felt absorption like it – I love it and find the responsibility very frightening. I’m sure all that is reflected in my work.” 

Social realism is new to Netflix 

Thorne has always tackled big issues – from his collaborations with Shane Meadows in This Is England, to National Treasure (starring Robbie Coltrane), Kiri and The Accident (starring Sarah Lancashire), and Covid polemic Help (starring Jodie Comer and Graham). Adolescence comes out a fortnight after Toxic Town, his dramatisation of the Corby toxic waste scandal. 

“It upset me when everyone said, ‘Hey, look what TV drama can do after Mr Bates vs the Post Office,’” adds Thorne. “Some of us have been trying to do that for years. But if this genre works on Netflix – because social realism like this is new to them – then other writers can pour in and do a much better job than me.” 

Can we make this camera fly? 

This drama will break your heart. But, from a technical perspective, it might also blow minds. Adolescence is technically dazzling, but never at the expense of the storytelling – the single-camera, one-shot technique taking us closer to the emotional heart of the story. 

“It’s a format that makes you pay attention as an audience,” says Barantini. “It’s about what can we do that makes the audience feel more.”  

Each episode involved a week of rehearsing followed by a week of technical rehearsals – plotting camera moves as the actors hone their performances – before filming the entire episode twice a day for five days. 

“I’d written a sequence for episode two where they’re running through the streets and then the camera travels on its own,” recalls Thorne. “Phil couldn’t make that work. He called me and said, what if we can make the camera fly?”  

This involved attaching the camera to a drone, flying it to a new location, where it was detached for a final scene featuring Graham. “Wait until you see the behind-the-scenes videos,” grins Barantini. “When it worked, it felt like we’d won the World Cup. I’ve never experienced a feeling like it.”

Adolescence is on Netflix now. 

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