Making a drama out of a crisis

Sir Keir Starmer held a meeting in Downing Street recently to discuss the Netflix series, Adolescence, with it's co-writer, Jack Thorne.

The four-part series, highlighting the effect of 'toxic masculinity' and misogyny targeted at young boys on social media, aired recently and has caused a sensation, sparking a national debate. This is not the first time, though, that television drama has stirred the nation's conscience or created a succès de scandale. In 1966, a BBC Wednesday Play, Cathy Come Home, highlighted the issue of homelessness. Last year an ITV mini-series, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, forced politicians to address, and redress, the issue of postmasters and -mistresses wrongly accused of embezzlement due to a Fujitsu computer error, covered up for decades.

Of course, popular culture has long exerted a social impact and created moral and political debate. Think of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, Charles Kingsley's The Water-Babies, or Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles. But whereas the printed medium tends to have a longer burn, television has an immediate and mass impact, especially now it has global streaming platforms like Netflix and Prime, transcending national terrestrial boundaries, to promote it.

Streaming has also enabled social-realist films exploring working class culture, such as Ken Loach's 1970 Kes and his 2024 The Old Oak, gain a wider audience. But in order for such work to be made in the first place there has to be a pool of trained talent to draw on and comments made by Stephen Graham, co-writer and actor in Adolescence, have caused an outcry in the industry.

Graham controversially suggested that the young actor, Owen Cooper, who played 13 year-old Jamie Miller in Adolescence, "came from nowhere", a claim criticised by grassroots drama schools. These organisations, often operating without state funding, work at a community level to offer working-class youngsters a chance to perform and hone their skills. Understandably, they find the narrative of raw talent discovered by chance offensive. 

Such stories, while having an obvious romantic appeal, obscure or negate the hard work and dedication that actually goes into nurturing young talent. Savvy politicians like Starmer will inevitably seize the opportunity to jump on a rolling bandwagon but often do so without properly acknowledging the work, largely unsung and unpaid, that makes it possible. Capitalising on the impact of dramas such as Adolescence without recognising the effort involved in rearing young talent, or making any commitment to funding it, is disingenuous.

Expecting something for nothing is liable to leave us with nothing.

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