The creator of Adolescence on Netflix has slammed any claims the show is based on a true story, and said nothing in the show was based on real life events.
Recently, there has been a wild spread of misinformation online, claiming the show was somewhat based on the Southport killings. People have then turned this into spreading racial hatred.
“Netflix has a show called Adolescence that’s about a British knife killer who stabbed a girl to death on a bus and it’s based on real life cases such as the Southport murderer,” a tweet said. “So guess what. They race swapped the actual killer from a black man/migrant to a white boy and the story has it so he was radicalised online by the red pill movement. Just the absolute state of anti-white propaganda.” This was spread even more when Elon Musk shared it, and added: “Wow.”
Now, the creator of Adolescence has slammed these claims the show is based on any sort of true story. Writer Jack Thorne said: “They’re saying that we race swapped it, because we were basically here and then ended up there, and everything else, and nothing is further from the truth.
“I have told a lot of real-life stories in my time. I know the harm that can come when you take elements of a real-life story, and you put it on screen, and the people aren’t expecting it. There is no part of this that’s based on a true story, not one single part.”
via Netflix
Thorne pointed out that crimes are committed by people of all racial backgrounds, and called it “absurd and not true” to try and pin all knife crimes on young, Black boys.
He told The News Agents podcast: “We’re not making a point about race with this. We are making a point about masculinity. We’re trying to get inside a problem. We are not saying this is one thing or another. We’re saying this is about boys.”
Stephen Graham has previously spoken out about some inspiration behind the show’s themes. He said: “There was an incident where a young boy [allegedly] stabbed a girl. It shocked me. I was thinking, ‘What’s going on? What’s happening in society where a boy stabs a girl to death? What’s the inciting incident here?’.
“And then it happened again, and it happened again, and it happened again. I really just wanted to shine a light on it, and ask, ‘Why is this happening today? What’s going on? How have we come to this?’.”
So, whilst the show isn’t at all based on a true story, creators seemingly wanted Adolescence to act as a mirror to the real life state of society in the UK right now.
Adolescence is on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.
