The UK drama starring Stephen Graham has become one of the most talked-about shows of the year
The staggering number of people who watched Adolescence on Netflix within the first four days of its release has been revealed as the UK show continues to grow in popularity.
Written and starring Liverpool native Stephen Graham, Adolescence follows the aftermath of a 13-year-old boy being arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing of his female classmate.
Tackling themes of misogyny, toxic masculinity and grief, each of episode of the four-part miniseries was filmed in one take, meaning the actors couldn’t make any mistakes or they’d have to start filming from scratch.
Starring alongside Stephen is Christine Tremarco, Ashley Waters, Erin Doherty and 15-year-old Owen Cooper, who plays the teenager at the centre of the story in his acting debut.
Directed by Stephen’s Boiling Point director Philip Barantin, the series has an impressive score of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and has been hailed on social media as essential viewing.
In weekly viewing figures released by Netflix, Adolescence was the most-watched English TV show of the week, with an extremely impressive 24.3 million views.
For context, Kate Hudson’s new series Running point came in second with 6 million views, Robert De Niro’s Zero Day was watched 4.4 million times, Tyler Perry drama Beauty in Black received 3.9 million views and the seventh series of Formula 1: Drive to Survive had 3.2 million views.
With the social media buzz around Adolescence continuing to grow, it remains to be seen if it can challenge fellow UK series Baby Reindeer’s record.
The Richard Gadd drama that follows a man trying to deal with his intense stalker was watched 84.5 million times in its first three months, becoming one of Netflix’s ten most streamed shows of all time.
Meanwhile, Stephen Graham revealed in an interview on Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden how his young co-star Owen managed to land the life-changing role of Jamie.
“He was thirteen when we were doing it, he’s now 15, and that kind of thing, our philosophy and ethos that we go by personally is in the respect of our production companies, we try and create opportunities in front and behind the camera for working class kids or people who wouldn’t normally have those opportunities so that’s what we’re about really and our wonderful casting director, Shaheen Baig.
“She saw over 500 young lads for this, and no disrespect, we didn’t want anyone who had a lot of experience, we wanted someone who is fresh and not used to the whole way that we work, so we saw 500 at least, and we narrowed it down to 5, and he’s one of those lads that was brilliant.
“Normally, you know, in our industry it’s ‘sorry you didn’t get the part well done see you later’, but these last 5, we offered them all a role, because they all had such wonderful talent but going back to the one and only Owen, he just stood out, he had this unique ability just like what I saw in Jodie Comer,” he added.
Owen will next be seen starring alongside Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in Saltburn director’s Emerald Fennell’s adaption of Withering Heights.
All episodes of Adolescence are availible to stream now on Netflix
