How Adolescence filmed one-shot episodes in drama that’s rocketed up Netflix charts

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Every once in a while, a TV drama comes around that completely knocks you for six.

We can guarantee that Netflix drama Adolescence, which follows a 13-year-old boy and his family after he’s accused of murdering a girl from his school, will leave you shaken.

Starring Stephen Graham, Erin Doherty, Ashley Walters, Christine Tremarco and 15-year-old newcomer Owen Cooper, the four-part series is filmed in a unique and immersive way, with each episode consisting of a single continuous shot that doesn’t cut away once.

Ahead of its launch, Metro spoke to the lead cast members, director Philip Barantini and writer Jack Thorne, where we found out more about why the one-shot style of filming was vital to the story.

This isn’t the first time that Philip has created a one-shot piece of work, having previously directed the 2019 film Boiling Point, which also starred Stephen and was filmed in a single continous take.

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However, filming four separate episodes in this way – including a car journey from a house to the police station, two police detectives roaming around a school and a police chase on foot through a window – was something else entirely.

How did Adolescence film each episode in one shot?

For a TV series of this magnitude, it should come as no surprise that an enormous amount of preparation went into mapping out the choreography of each episode.

Stephen Graham, who plays Jamie’s dad Eddie in Adolescence, previously starred in Philip Barantini’s one-shot film Boiling Point (Picture: Courtesy of Netflix)

Stephen told Metro how the cast would spend a whole week before filming rehearsing with the director, which gave them time to really analyse their scripts in fine detail.

‘We were in a very blessed position. We had Jack on set with us for a lot of the time, and myself as one of the creators and writers. So we were constantly changing the dialogue and adapting the dialogue and making it as real and as truthful and as authentic as possible,’ he said.

This also included Owen pointing out if certain pieces of dialogue didn’t sound realistic to what a teenager would say, which writer Jack would take on board and implement when making changes.

As for the actual filming of the episodes, Philip emphasised in a behind-the-scenes video how ‘meticulously planned-out’ the production had to be to pull off the feat on their hands.

In the video, Ashley shared: ‘We have three weeks for one episode. So our first week is spent literally walking through scene by scene.’

Philip explained how they would then having their tech rehearsals with all of the crew, which involved walking through the space to figure out what would and wouldn’t work for each instalment.

Then in the final week, they would film around 10 takes per episode before deciding which would be the one used in the final cut.

One might assume that while filming a one-shot drama, if any mistakes are made, the crew would have to halt production and start all over again.

However, with Adolescence, that wasn’t the case at all. Philip confirmed to Metro that they would never stop rolling unless it was absolutely necessary, and they filmed each of the one-hour episodes 10 times before deciding which would be their final take.

‘If something’s a bit off, we’d never stop, unless it was dangerous and someone maybe fell over. We would never stop, and then we’d get to the end and then we’d re-watch it and be like, “Does this work? Is it still serving the story?” And if it was, we could bank it and be like, we’ve got one in the bank,’ the director recalled.

‘I wanted to give the actors and all the supporting artists and all the crew the ability to just be a bit free with it as well and play a little bit. The way Jack writes is just phenomenal, and his dialogue is impeccable. But if you were to write in a script all the “erms” and “ahs” and the pauses, the script would be 200 pages long.

‘Nobody talks super eloquently every day, there’s little nuances in everybody. So I wanted them to have that.’

At the end of episode two, the crew achieved the unthinkable – making the ‘camera fly’ by attaching it to a drone while the camera was still rolling.

Viewers couldn’t believe how the camera was able to capture DI Bascombe chasing schoolboy Ryan in one take (Picture: Courtesy of Netflix)

‘It was an example of the technical meeting the story and finding a fusion that is actually better than anything that the story had come up with on its own,’ writer Jack said in the behind-the-scenes Netflix video.

Stephen explained to Metro how creating Adolescence felt like the combination of ‘theatre and live performance’, complete with a ‘visceral energy on set because we’re part of a team’.

Christine, who plays Jamie’s mother Manda, emphasised how ‘everything had to be in sync’, and so the success of the show was a combination of ‘synchronicity and teamwork across the board’.

Erin, who plays psychologist Briony in the drama, outlined the two-week rehearsal period she spent for her ‘intense’ episode with Owen, which took a week to film.

Detailing how fluid the filming process was, allowing for changes with different takes, she shared: ‘Even through that process, we were continuously surprising each other, and Phil the director was constantly giving us these little tweaks or things to think about, and then just letting it fly. So Owen would do things that would take me aback.

Erin, who stars as psychologist Briony, outlined the little changes that could happen within each take (Picture: Courtesy of Ben Blackall/Netflix)

‘There were genuine moments where I had no idea what he was going to do. I think it’s a real marker of his emotional intelligence and his ability to do this job. He was able to dive in and let this quite terrifying personality take over. It’s a really intense situation, and it was quite frightening at moments. But he really is spectacular in this and so it was just an honour to be in the room.’

Why did Adolescence creator Philip Barantini use a one-shot technique?

Director Philip explained to Metro why the one-shot filming technique that was used for Adolescence isn’t a ‘gimmick’, but a tool to draw the audience in to an even greater degree and ‘force them to pay attention’.

‘When we talked about this project, and the one shot thing, we really talked about it quite seriously because I’ve done Boiling Point, and I didn’t want to be known as the guy who just does the one takes. But this particular story, what it does is it forces you to pay attention,’ he stated.

‘It’s relentless, and it puts a perspective on things that you wouldn’t necessarily have. You can’t jump forward in time, you can’t cut to another person, you can’t go to a close up.’

The director shared that one of his and Stephen’s favourite TV shows is Channel 4’s 24 Hours in Police Custody, which they discussed at length when they were conducting their research for Adolescence.

Christine Tremarco, who portrays Jamie’s mother Manda, found it an ‘honour’ to film in this way (Picture: Courtesy of Ben Blackall/Netflix)

‘It’s just that relentlessness of a ticking clock. We wanted to just dip the audience in for an hour in this particular moment in time, dip them back out again, and then put them in a few months later and let them work it out themselves. I think what it does is it creates an extra layer of tension and a subconscious anxiety that you wouldn’t necessarily get from a conventional drama.’

In doing this, the creators behind the Netflix series wanted to make it feel more ‘organic’, rather than ‘forcing the audience to look at something that they didn’t necessarily want to look at at times’.

‘I think there is a fine line between becoming a gimmick and it becoming useful for the story,’ he stressed. ‘You can’t necessarily do it for everything. It’s a huge challenge for everybody.’

Jack, whose previous work includes Toxic Town, The Cursed Child, and His Dark Materials, had never worked on a one-shot drama before Adolescence.

‘It’s all about empowering the actors. This whole setup is about empowering the actors, and it’s about their faces and that’s what Phil captures so mercilessly throughout the whole thing,’ the writer highlighted.