Adolescence writer Jack Thorne has weighed in on whether the hit drama could return for a second season.
Since its premiere just shy of two weeks ago, Adolescence has won rave reviews, not budged from the top of Netflix’s list of most-watched shows, set a new record for streaming figures in the UK and even been discussed by the prime minister.
Naturally, the conversation has now turned to whether there could be more to come from the show in the future – particularly after it was reported last week that it could be turned into an anthology format, with each season focussing on a different issue relating to young people.
However, during an interview on Tuesday’s edition of This Morning, Jack seemed unconvinced about the show’s return.
“I think Jamie’s story is finished,” he admitted. “I don’t think there’s anywhere more we can take Jamie. So, I don’t think there is a series two.”
He continued: “We’d love to explore the one-shot format in another way – we’d love to tell other stories with it, but I don’t think a series two of Adolescence is quite right for us.”
Responding to one viewer’s suggestion that a second season could tell the story from the perspective of Katie, the young girl whose murder at the hands of a boy from her school is the catalyst for the show, Jack said that he doesn’t think himself and his creative team are “the right people to tell Katie’s story”.
“I think there are other makers out there that could tell beautiful [stories] about Katie, or girls like Katie,” he explained. “And those shows should be made.”
“Our aim was to try and tell Jamie’s story as fully as we possibly could – and maybe trying to tell her story would dilute that in some way. And maybe we would be inadequate to that task.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Jack said of Adolescence’s impact: “This show doesn’t provide easy answers. It doesn’t say, ‘this is the way to solve this, this is the way to do that’.
“I hope what it provokes is conversations on the sofa, conversations in classrooms, hopefully conversations in government.”
He added: “When I was a kid, watching EastEnders with my mum, and talking to her about what was on EastEnders that week, those were the best conversations we had. They were the bits where we got inside what it is to be human.
“And those have been the best emails I’ve got about this, too – people saying, ‘I’ve had conversations with my kid that I’ve never had before, because of this show’. And that is where I hope our sweet spot is, in creating conversations.”
This Morning airs every weekday from 10am on ITV1. Adolescence is available to stream in full on Netflix.