Adolescence director says ‘standalone’ show should not have a second series

By Casey Cooper-Fiske, PA Entertainment Reporter

Adolescence director Philip Barantini has said he believes the Netflix drama should remain “standalone” and not have a second series.

The 44-year-old told the PA news agency he had been surprised by the scale of reaction to the show, but said he felt it should remain as its initial four episodes.

The Netflix crime drama is about a boy accused of killing a girl in his class, with This Is England star Stephen Graham playing Eddie Miller, the father of 13-year-old Jamie, played by newcomer Owen Cooper, who sees armed police burst into his home to arrest his son.

Eddie is then chosen as Jamie’s appropriate adult, accompanying him at the police interview, and learning the extent of what his son is accused of doing.

The programme, created by Graham and writer Jack Thorne, examines so-called incel (involuntary celibate) culture, which has led to misogyny online and bullying using social media.

Speaking about whether he would be interested in making a second series, Barantini told PA: “Personally, I think it should be a standalone thing, because the conversation that it’s sparked has just blown my mind.

“I mean, we really did hope that it would spark a bit of a conversation for parents, but the fact that it’s gone global, and it’s just this little town that we shot it in, and it was a small British TV show that we were making.

“But I don’t personally (think there should be another series), I think it’s a package of this moment in time, and I think personally, that’s how I feel about it.”

He went on to say that the show’s well-received scene, which sees Eddie looking down at the site of Katie’s murder, was not in the script originally, but said it was a “sucker punch” when the idea was brought forward.

Barantini explained: “It’s powerful, because your son has been responsible for this child’s death.

“What that must do to a parent is horrific and what Eddie is taking on, and to be able to see him have been brave enough to go to the murder site where your son has committed this act, and to pay your respects.

“We just thought it was incredibly powerful and we needed to show it.”

The director also spoke about how he and his crew achieved the show’s one-shot format, which sees each episode filmed in a single shot.

Speaking about preparing for the filming format, Barantini explained: “With this script, it needs to be a constant flow, there’s no scenes, it’s just continuous.

“So you write that in the script, and you move through the spaces. So it’s a back and forth with myself and Jack and Stephen.

“Initially, there’d be moments where Jack will write something, and I’d be like, we physically can’t do that, so maybe we could do this. So then it’s a real sort of collaboration back and forth.

“And then Matt Lewis, my cinematographer, would come on board, and we would go through it together.

“And initially, the very first plans are drawn out on a piece of paper, and we would draw out the set, or a plan of the set, and then we would just map out where the camera’s going to move, how it’s going to get in and out of rooms and stuff.

“And so all of those things, and then we move on to like, we have to get all of the locations locked down at a much earlier stage than you would do in conventional shoot, because for example, in episode one, we travel from a house to a police station.

“Timing of the travel needs to be exactly three minutes, not exactly three minutes, but around about three minutes.

“So when we find the house, first of all, we built the police station in a studio in Pontefract called Production Park, and once we knew that’s where the police station was going to be, we then had to find a house that was three minutes away.

“So we’d scout the area, and then once we found it, Matt and I would get in a car, we’d drive from the house to the police station to the studio, and I would read the script and the dialogue for the timing of it.”

He went on to say that the crew then planned where the camera would be and then worked out where characters, props and equipment would be located.

The Liverpool-born director said each episode was filmed continuously for an hour twice, with the crew making notes on the first attempt, which they then took action on for the second take.

Adolescence has prompted a national conversation around online safety, with Graham and Thorne accepting an invite to a parliamentary meeting on the subject by Labour MP Josh MacAlister.