Adolescence co-creator Jack Thorne has reacted to “absurd” claims about the new Netflix series spread by Elon Musk.
The Stephen Graham-starring series follows the family of a 13-year-old schoolboy, Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), who is arrested for the murder of a young female classmate, with the show exploring the aftermath of the crime, as well as the psychological and social factors that led to it.
After the series aired to warm critical reception, far-right commentator Ian Miles Cheong took to X/Twitter to allege the show was “based on real life cases such as the Southport murderer”, and went on to say they had “race swapped the actual killer from a black man/migrant to a white boy”.
He claimed the show’s writer altered the story so Cooper’s character “was radicalized online by the red pill movement”, something Cheong called “anti-white propaganda”.
The attack he referenced occurred last year when at a Taylor Swift dance class held on July 29, three children were horrifically killed in a knife attack at a themed dance and yoga workshop on Hart Street in Southport.
However, Adolescence was first announced on March 14, 2024, and was already in production and being filmed before the Southport tragedy happened.
Despite the inaccuracy of Cheong’s claims, Musk replied: “Wow”, with scores of X users slamming him for politicising the deaths of the Southport victims and fueling the erroneous claims.
During an appearance on The News Agents podcast, Thorne, who created the show with Venom actor Graham, responded to the conspiracy theory. “They’ve claimed that Stephen and I based it on a story, and another story, so we race-swapped because we were basing it on here and it ended up there, and everything else. Nothing is further from the truth.”
He continued: “I have told a lot of real life stories in my time, and I know the harm that can come when you take elements of a real life story and 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.”
“It is absurd to say that knife crime is only committed by black boys. It’s not true.”
Adolescence creator Jack Thorne responds to misconceptions that the show was based on a real story and Jamie was ‘race-swapped’.@maitlis | @jonsopel pic.twitter.com/qPgQd8Xh8R
— The News Agents (@TheNewsAgents) March 25, 2025
When asked about how he reacted to the criticism, Thorne replied: “That it should have been a Black boy? It’s absurd to say that [knife crime] is only committed by Black boys. It’s absurd. It’s not true. And history shows a lot of cases of kids from all races committing these crimes.
“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’re not saying this is one thing or another, we’re saying that this is about boys.”
In a four-star review of Adolescence, NME wrote: “Its unflinching commitment to the darkest corners of the story will remain with you long after the credits have rolled. These four episodes alone won’t stop the encroachment of the so-called ‘manosphere’ on regular boys’ lives but it has the power to start some much-needed conversations.”