Adolescence: The Netflix drama that will have every parent talking - Join our watch thread plus Q&A with producer and cast

[CeriMumsnet]

Premieres 13th March 2025

Read Hannah and Christine's answers to your questions here.

If you’re after a gripping new series to get stuck into, Adolescence is set to be the show of the year - and it’s one that will chill parents to the core. This tense British crime drama begins with the shocking arrest of 13-year-old Jamie Miller for the murder of a classmate. But as the investigation unfolds, the series delves into the unsettling realities of modern masculinity, online radicalisation, and the pressures facing today’s teenagers.

Filmed in South Kirby with a raw, unflinching realism, Adolescence isn’t just another crime drama - it’s a conversation starter. If you were lucky enough to catch the Mumsnet exclusive preview, you’ll know just how haunting and thought-provoking it is, with themes that resonate long after you finish watching.

Watch the trailer here:

Q&A
Adolescence Executive Producer Hannah Walters and actress Christine Tremarco who plays Jamie’s Mum will be joining us for a Q&A in the next couple of weeks, so make sure to share your questions about the show for them below.

• Hannah Walters is an actress, producer and co-founder of Matriarch Productions, an entertainment production company who aims to provide a much-needed platform for underrepresented voices and stories in the UK. Their credits include BOILING POINT (2021) and most recent TV series for the BBC. Hannah has two children with her husband Stephen Graham.

• Christine Tremarco is a British actress who along with playing Jamie’s Mum in Adolescence can also currently be seen in Channel 4’s drama series, The Gathering and in the BBC’s Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story, directed by Al Mackay. Other screen credits include the BBC’s Responder opposite Martin Freeman, a series regular in Sky’s Wolfe, and Shane Meadows’ BAFTA winning series The Virtues opposite Stephen Graham.

So, what do we think? Will you be watching? Does the premise resonate with you? Let’s chat below! 👇

I work as a supply teacher and I can tell you that some schools absolutely have this atmosphere and that it is a very realistic portrayal of some staff - and I haven’t even worked in “rough” areas!

Parents have no idea what really goes on, the academy schools sell themselves as well as they can (tucked in shirts for example, as it’s about what is visible rather than what is real). The same with the policeman sending his child there - in many areas all the schools are owned by the same/similar trusts; there is no choice unless families go private or move quite far away.

Again though, they are unlikely to have a realistic picture of what is happening, unless their kids are severely bullied or have a SEN diagnosis that means they simply cannot get through the door. I don’t believe “school refusal” is about difficult children or lazy/soft parenting .. it’s simply that we are often sending them into intolerable settings.

Anyway, I’m also surprised at people saying his motive still wasn’t clear. To me, I thought it was obvious from the beginning! He hated her because he desired her but couldn’t have her, as she was seen as “out of his league”. Adding to that, he actually put himself out there and she laughed. I think he killed her simply because she rejected him, and that is often the case when men kill girls and women.

My DD is still in nursery. I’m pretty confident that mobile phone use will be very different in 10 years or so. The idea not so long ago that school children year 6 onwards would send each other nudes and violent porn daily would have been absolutely unthinkable and I’m sure we can return to that way of thinking that’s it’s not a great idea to allow children to be in charge of their own internet and messaging usage without any other checks & balances.
I’m sure I’m not a perfect parent and I’ll mess up plenty, but I wouldn’t be fucking up on that. I’m not naive at all, I have just studied childhood development and mental health so I understand the importance of holding the line on this.

Sure @thislifer . Best of luck as your children reach teen years.

No. What I said is that I don’t know everything that goes on, on the phones. How can anyone. Honestly, parents who think they do flummox me. Yes I have time limits, up to when they leave school I take them at night and no gaming in bedrooms.

But the idea that any parent knows everything is very simplistic. When your children are teens they move away from you. Your job is to retain an eye over what they are moving towards and control when this starts to go in an unsafe direction, whilst informing them of the danger out there - phones and otherwise.

Sure don’t make it easy for them to access porn etc but don’t think you can be all controlling into the teen years, you can’t.

If you are commenting authoritatively on this stuff when your child is still in nursery you are creating a massive hostage to fortune.

To eliminate influence from incels, online bullying, access to pornography etc, your child would need to have a) no smartphone b) no school c) no unsupervised time spent in the company of other teenagers.

Amazing acting and very emotional watch! A real eye opener!

@bookworm14 Agreed and I think that this massive head in the sand attitude serves no one well.

Yes keep a close eye but also understand you can’t know or control everything and act accordingly.

Good luck with that 😉(the “holding the line” with teens and phones part)

I agree with Ferryweather. We held off until 13 and no social media. It was hard. Have girls and don’t love their phone use. Dd2 aged 16 genuinely had no idea about incels etc when we discussed this program. She is very beautiful and popular so fear she would be the target type of these boys rather than understanding their thinking.

They can know about this stuff and not be so influenced by it all by having parental/adult support to talk about it, offer a different view, put it in context etc. I'm not saying that a 'blackout' is possible or even the right thing to want to aim for - these teenagers have to learn through their mistakes. That does not mean unfettered access, just as I wouldn't give my car keys to a teenager to drive my car without them being old enough, having the right licence, lessons etc.

@NewMagicWand

“I also desperately wanted the psychologist to say that she liked him.“

why? Why would she tell him that she likes him when he’s anything but likeable?

We’re speaking very soon with Executive Producer Hannah Walters and actress Christine Tremarco for a Mumsnet Q&A - an amazing opportunity to get insight into the series directly from the people who created and starred in it.

If you have questions about the story, characters, or the themes explored, now is the time to ask. Whether it’s about a pivotal moment, creative choices, or what went on behind the scenes, drop your questions in this thread before it’s too late.

Weird that you felt sorry for him. He was monstrous.

Exactly. You might supervise access at home. But wait until they are at school. It takes one teenager, whose parents don’t monitor their phone, to show their phone to your child. Just watch groups of kids. They huddle around the one with the phone. It’s too late once they are at secondary school. But I’ve seen 5 year olds, looking at kids stuff on YouTube, then accidentally start looking at other stuff without their parents realising on their iPads on holiday. It’s too late now.

I would like to know why the psychologist stopped the final session when she did. It seemed abrupt and I wondered what had happened in her mind.

He had just said “I had a knife and she was scared” and I wondered somehow if she was trying to prevent him telling her more about what he did (she advised he speak to a lawyer straight after that) or that it was just that she had all her questions answered so was always going to finish as soon as that happened, or if it was that she couldn’t cope anymore and wanted to get it wrapped up..

I would like to know who thought of the physical acting around what I’ve been calling the “sandwich moment” - her repulsion when she began, instinctively, to do the (very female socialisation coded…) helpful “tidying up” of the sandwich Jamie had bitten. Was that director suggested? Did the actress herself think of it? I’m just very curious because it was so visceral.

I’d also love to know if there was any intent to portray coercive control in the marriage, as that has been suggested by a poster on another thread (as something they saw in the show).

@CeriMumsnet

Would love to know if they thought 4 episodes was long enough and was there other lines they wish they had explored more deeply.

Akso they would ever consider another series from Katie’s prospective exploring the pressures and impact of sending pictures.

I'd like to know if there will be another series?

I thought that when Jamie was standing over the psychologist and pointing at her and shouting “you need to get that into your little head” that it must be what he has witnessed at home between his parents, it looked like something he has seen being replayed, as it was really quite specific wording and body language and he must have got that from somewhere…

I’m going to watch this with my son who’s 14. We’ve had a few mishaps with social media already and I’ve had to come down hard - warned about the dangers of it and also some of the misogyny we’re seeing. I don’t want him swallowing the red pill.

He'd been raised in a household where male anger was common and in a school where bullying was rife. Once he hit puberty he was largely left to his own devices. He was influenced by toxic social media. While none of that excuses what he did nonetheless he was a product of his environment.

@HowardTJMoon

where did you get that about male anger in his household? He said himself his father was generally calm and kind, everyone loses their temper sometimes

I thought it was because he just made it very clear he understood the crime and what committing it would entail for him. Ie, she had everything she needed and wanted to get out of there.