Stephen Graham stars in adrenaline-fuelled trailer for one-shot drama Adolescence
The series – which Graham co-created – sees him re-team with Boiling Point director Philip Barantini.
Netflix has released the first trailer for its upcoming one-shot drama Adolescence – which reunites Stephen Graham with Boiling Point director Philip Barantini.
The four-part series was filmed in one "unflinching continuous shot" and tells the story of how a family’s world is turned upside down when 13-year-old Jamie Miller is arrested for the murder of a teenage girl who goes to his school.
And from the look of the trailer – which opens with the police breaking down the door to the Miller household while Jamie protests his innocence – it certainly looks like being an extremely intense affair.
In the series, Graham stars as Jamie's father Eddie Miller, while there are also key roles for Top Boy star Ashley Walters as Detective Inspector Luke Bascombe and Erin Doherty (A Thousand Blows) as Briony Ariston, the clinical psychologist assigned to Jamie’s case.
Meanwhile, the role of Jamie is played by newcomer Owen Cooper and there are also key roles for Faye Marsay (Game of Thrones), Christine Tremarco (The Responder), Mark Stanley (Happy Valley), Jo Hartley (After Life) and Amélie Pease.
The trailer also sees Jamie being questioned by police as he continues to swear his innocence despite suggestions of an aggressive and misogynistic streak, while it also teases some of the torment faced by Eddie as he questions whether he's done something wrong in bringing up his son.
You can watch it in full below:
The series has been written by the prolific Jack Thorne, who co-created it with Graham himself, and speaking during a Q&A at last month's Next on Netflix event last month, the latter revealed where he got the idea for the series.
"The idea came as – over the past 10 years or so – we’ve seen an epidemic of knife crime amongst young lads, up and down the country," he said. "And for me, there were certain instances that really stuck out where young boys – and they are young boys, you know, they're not men – were killing young girls.
"When I mentioned it to Phil, it just really hit me hard. I just thought, 'Why? What's going on? What's happening? Why is this the case?'
"What's going on with our society as a whole, as a collective, and without being disrespectful, when these things are on the news – and we’re a couple of kids from council estates – but when these things are on the news, your judgement instantly goes to blaming the family, you blame the mum and dad.
"We’re all guilty of it, because that's the easy common denominator. I just thought, ‘what if that's not the case at all?’"
Adolescence is coming to Netflix on 13th March 2025. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
