Adolescence
アドレセンス
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A thirteen-year-old is arrested for killing a classmate; four one-take episodes on incel culture, emoji and fathers.
One May morning, armed police break down the front door of the Miller family's house in a town in the north of England and arrest thirteen-year-old Jamie on suspicion of murder. His father, Eddie, a plumber, sits beside him as his appropriate adult through the search and the interview. Jamie cries and says he has done nothing. Detective Inspector Luke Bascombe and Detective Sergeant Misha Frank question him about sexual comments he has posted on Instagram and about his classmate Katie Leonard, killed in a car park the night before. Then Bascombe plays the CCTV footage. The boy who kills her is Jamie.
Three days later the detectives walk the corridors of Jamie's chaotic school, looking for a motive. Bascombe's son Adam, a pupil there, explains to his father what Katie's emoji replies under Jamie's posts meant: she had been calling him an incel. Jamie's friend Ryan climbs out of a window and runs. Caught, he admits that he armed Jamie, thinking he only meant to frighten Katie, and he is arrested.
Seven months on, the forensic psychologist Briony Ariston meets Jamie at a secure training centre to prepare a report for his trial. His mood swings between charm and rage. He tells her that a private photo of Katie had been passed around the school without her consent, an abuse that left her badly hurt, that he asked her out because he thought she would be low enough to say yes, and that she turned him down and mocked him online. He went armed, he says, only to scare her. When Briony tells him this is their last session, he demands to know whether she likes him. She will not answer, and he is dragged from the room shouting. Alone, she breaks down.
Thirteen months after the killing, on Eddie's fiftieth birthday, his van has been sprayed with an insult. At a hardware store he confronts the boys he believes did it, then hurls the paint over the van. On the drive home Jamie phones to wish him happy birthday and says he will plead guilty. That evening Eddie tells his wife, Manda, how his own father beat him and how he swore never to be that father; Manda remembers Jamie at his computer late into the night, safe, they thought, because he was in his room. The family decides not to move away, and settles on a takeaway and a film at home. Alone in Jamie's bedroom, Eddie weeps, tucks a teddy bear into the bed and tells his son he is sorry he did not do better.
Starring
Owen Cooperas Jamie Miller
A thirteen-year-old arrested for the murder of a girl from his class, who at first insists he has done nothing.
Jamie Miller’s story
Jamie is thirteen when armed police break into the family home and arrest him. At the station he cries and swears to his father that he has done nothing; the detectives play the footage of him killing Katie. Seven months later, in a secure training centre, he meets the psychologist Briony for the last time. He is polite, then boastful, then furious: he demands her notes, throws a chair and shouts that she does not control him. He insists Katie was not his type, that she laughed when he asked her out, that he went armed only to scare her. Told this is their last session, he begs to know whether Briony likes him, and is dragged out. Thirteen months after the killing, he phones his father on his birthday and, after a pause, says he will plead guilty.
Stephen Grahamas Eddie Miller
Jamie's father, a plumber who sits beside his son through the police interview and cannot stop asking what he missed.
Eddie Miller’s story
Eddie is at home when armed police break down the door. He agrees to act as Jamie's appropriate adult, asks him privately whether he did it, and believes him. Then he watches the footage of his son killing Katie; he flinches when Jamie reaches for him, then holds him. Three days later he leaves flowers where Katie died. On his fiftieth birthday, thirteen months on, he finds his van sprayed with the word nonce, threatens the boys he blames and hurls the paint over it; then Jamie phones to say he will plead guilty. That night Eddie tells Manda that his own father beat him and that he swore never to be that father. Alone in Jamie's room he weeps, tucks a teddy bear into the bed and tells his son he is sorry he did not do better.
Erin Dohertyas Briony Ariston
A forensic psychologist who interviews Jamie in custody to assess him before his trial.
Briony Ariston’s story
Seven months after the killing, Briony comes to the secure training centre for her fifth session with Jamie, bringing a hot chocolate with marshmallows from home and half her sandwich. She starts with his family, then moves carefully to his father, to what being a man means to him, to what he thinks of women and to Katie's comments under his posts. As he swings between charm and contempt, demands her notes, accuses her of tricking him and throws a chair, she keeps her voice level and keeps asking. Then she tells him this is their last session. He demands to know whether she likes him; she will not answer, and he is dragged out shouting. Alone, she breaks down, then steadies herself and leaves.
Ashley Waltersas DI Luke Bascombe
The detective inspector leading the case, whose own son at Jamie's school has to explain to him what the children are saying.
Christine Tremarcoas Manda Miller
Jamie's mother, who holds the family together and blames herself for trusting the closed door of his bedroom.
Why it matters
Adolescence asks how a thirteen-year-old boy from a loving home comes to kill a girl from his class, and it refuses the easy answers of a cruel family or a monstrous child. Stephen Graham conceived it after a run of killings of girls by teenage boys in Britain, and Jack Thorne has said they wanted to look modern male rage in the eye: the manosphere, the vocabulary of incels, an emoji code in a school corridor that adults cannot read. Each episode is one unbroken shot, so there is no cutting away. Within weeks of its release the prime minister, Keir Starmer, backed calls for it to be shown in Parliament and in schools, and it was made free to British secondary schools. The question it leaves is the one Eddie carries into his son's bedroom: what was happening on the other side of that door, and could anyone have heard it.