The terrifying truth behind Netflix smash hit Adolescence

Adolescence has become a huge breakout hit in the vein of Baby Reindeer, and what inspired it is even more horrifying.

Netflix has another hit show on its hands.

Adolescence, which is the No. 1 series on the streamer right now, tells the story of a 13-year-old boy who is arrested for the stabbing murder of his female classmate.

The miniseries starring Stephen Graham, Owen Cooper and Ashley Walters has four episodes that are all shot in a single take each.

Since the show’s March 13 release, viewers have been wondering if the series is entirely made up or if it’s based on a true story.

Here’s what to know about the influence behind Adolescence.

The plot of Adolescence was inspired by the real-life epidemic of knife crime among young people that’s occurring in the United Kingdom.

Erin Doherty as Briony Ariston, Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller in Adolescence. Picture: Netflix.

“We’d been asked to create a one-shot piece which was going to be a series, so we were coming up with the possibilities of what we’d make it about, and I’d read an article in the paper about a young boy stabbing a young girl,” Graham, who also created and wrote the series with Jack Thorne, said in a recent interview.

“It made me feel a bit cold,” the British actor shared. “Then about three or four months later, there was a piece on the news about a young boy who’d stabbed a young girl. They are young boys, they’re not men. And it was completely the opposite end of the country.”

Graham was in the car with director Philip Barantini when he came up with the concept of the show.

Barantini, 44, told The Wrap, “In the UK, there’s a real problem with knife crime, certainly in the younger generation. There have been a series of young boys who were killing young girls with knives, and it was really upsetting. That was the seed that we wanted to explore, and send a bit of a message and maybe spark a bit of a conversation.”

Knife crimes are on the rise in England currently. According to the Office for National Statistics, there were around 50,500 offences of knife attacks in the year ending March 2024, compared to the 27,000 offences between 2012 and 2013.

Data from the Ministry of Justice showed of the almost 18,500 knife crime offenders in the year ending March 2023, 17.3 per cent of them were juveniles (aged 10 to 17).

Stephen Graham and Hannah Walters attend the Adolescence Special Screening at BAFTA. Picture: Getty.

Last year, a 17-year-old fatally stabbed three little girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Liverpool. He was sentenced to a minimum of 52 years in prison in January.

That same month, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned that “loners,” “misfits” and “young men in their bedrooms” who are “accessing all manner of material online” are now considered terror threats.

In an interview with Rolling Stone UK, Graham said of the real-life attacks, “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.’”

Graham told the Hollywood Reporter that the title of the series is meant to show how young some of the attackers in knife crimes are.

“There were certain incidents that really stuck out where young boys — and they are young boys, they’re not men, their brains aren’t fully formed yet, hence the title — were killing young girls,” the actor said.

This story originally appeared on New York Post and is republished here with permission.

Originally published as The terrifying truth behind Netflix smash hit Adolescence