Netflix’s Adolescence makes TV history

Adolescence has broken UK TV ratings records.

The four-part series, written by and starring Boiling Point actor Stephen Graham, follows the family of 13-year-old schoolboy, Jamie Miller (played by Owen Cooper), who is accused of the brutal murder of a young girl.

It has become an instant success and the centre of a national conversation on incel culture, misogyny and the online “manosphere”. As discussed in Parliament, there are calls for it to become mandatory viewing in schools.

In a new record, the show has become the first streaming show in history to top the UK’s weekly TV ratings. The series’ first episode was watched by 6.45 million people in its first week, according to ratings body Barb. This meant it beat out British television staples including The Apprentice and Death in Paradise.

It also marks the biggest viewership for any streaming TV show in the UK in a single week, a record previously held by Netflix’s Fool Me Once in January 2024.

The second episode of the show came in second with 5.94 million views, The Apprentice and Death in Paradise were in third and fourth place with almost 5.8 million respectively. Adolescence dominated the rest of the chart with its third episode in fifth place with 5.14 million and the final instalment drawing in 4.65 million.

Shot in one-take, each episode follows characters in real-time as they attempt to get to the bottom of the incident. Exploring topical issues including incel culture, misogyny and the online “manosphere”, Graham was inspired by news reports of stabbings of young girls.

“I read an article about a young boy stabbing a young girl,” the A Thousand Blows star told The Independent. “And then maybe a couple of months later, on the news there was [another] young boy who’d stabbed a young girl, and if I’m really honest with you, they hurt my heart.”

He explained that the storyline explores a complexity of topics and that parents need to be “mindful” of the external influences working on their children.

“It’s just being mindful of the fact that not only we parent our children, and not only the school educates our children,” he said. “But also there’s influences that we have no idea of that are having profound effects on our young culture, profound effects, positive and extremely negative. So it’s having a look at that and seeing that we’re all accountable.”