Netflix's new British crime drama "Adolescence," a four-part series about a teenage boy who stabs his female classmate to death, is inspired partly by the 2023 fatal stabbing of English schoolgirl Elianne Andam at the hands of 17-year-old Hassan Sentamu.
There are striking parallels between the plot of "Adolescence" and Andam's case: the killer used a kitchen knife to repeatedly stab the victim, the attack was captured on CCTV footage, and the murderer disposed of his clothing in order to evade capture.
However, instead of it being a true-to-life adaptation of this horrific killing, the show changed a slew of key details, including switching the killer's—as well as that of the victim—race from black to white. (Sentamu, a Uganda-born immigrant, and Andam were both black.)
This is how Netflix portrays a 13-year-old knife murderer in the UK. Second image is the person it was based on. pic.twitter.com/K98h29F7B0
— Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) March 19, 2025
The show's co-creator Jack Thorne has since disputed the race-swapping claims. "Nothing is further from the truth," Thorne told The News Agents podcast, insisting that "there is no part of this that's based on a true story, not one single part."
"It's absurd to say that knife crime is only committed by black boys," Thorne said. "It's not true. And history shows a lot of cases of kids from all races committing these crimes."
Throne added that they weren't making a point about race. "We're saying that this is about boys," Thorne maintained.
“It is absurd to say that knife crime is only committed by black boys. It’s not true.”
— The News Agents (@TheNewsAgents) March 25, 2025
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 producers decidedly made "Adolescence" a feminist-minded piece of social commentary on "toxic masculinity" and Andrew Tate's influence over adolescent boys. In Thorne's words, they wanted to "look in the eye of male rage."
Containing very vague references to the so-called "manosphere," a catch-all phrase for the corner of the web championing machismo, "Adolescence" alludes that the fictional 13-year-old killer, a white baby-faced kid named Jamie Miller, was radicalized by online "incel" subculture, though there's scant dialogue beyond those buzzwords.
"It's the involuntary celibate stuff," Det. Sgt. Misha Frank, the woman investigator cracking the case, retorts in episode two. "It's the Andrew Tate sh**e."
According to Thorne's collaborator, BAFTA-nominated actor Stephen Graham, who also stars in it as the suspect's father, Andam's stabbing death—alongside the slayings of other English youth in recent years—spurred him to produce "Adolescence."
"Where it [the show's inspiration] came from, for me," Graham explained to RadioTimes.com, "is there was an incident in Liverpool, a young girl, and she was stabbed to death by a young boy. I just thought, why?" Here, he was referencing the 2021 murder of 12-year-old Ava White by a boy, then the age of 14, who was never publicly named "to safeguard [his] welfare."
Continuing, the showrunner cited Andam's slaying: "Then there was another young girl in south London who was stabbed to death at a bus stop." According to statements made at Sentamu's trial, he was physically abused at a Ugandan boarding school, fled his home country to escape an abusive father, and ended up in foster care due to his mother's neglect.
"And there was this thing up North, where that young girl Brianna Ghey was lured into the park by two teenagers, and they stabbed her," Graham went on, referring to the 2023 killing of "transgender"-identified teen "Brianna Ghey," a 16-year-old biological male born Brett Spooner. In that case, a boy and a girl were the killers, with the girl masterminding the murder plot.
Graham told the entertainment magazine that he wanted to ensure, from the outset of production, that the storyline doesn't "play into stereotypes."
"I wanted him [the protagonist] to be a kid from a working-class background whose parents were hard-working," Graham said. "You know, [Miller's] mum wasn't an alcoholic, his dad wasn't violent, and he hadn't been molested by his uncle. I didn't want there to be a reason we can go, 'Oh, well, we blame it on this.' I think we're all accountable in some way."
In an appearance on Sky News, Graham said the school system, in particular, should examine "that kind of rise in these misogynistic tendencies."
Last week, Britain's progressive Prime Minister Keir Starmer raved about "Adolescence" on the floor of Parliament, suggesting to the House of Commons that it should be shown as educational material in schools nationwide.
"This violence carried out by young men, influenced by what they see online, is a real problem. It's abhorrent, and we have to tackle it," Starmer said of such a campaign.
Thorne, meanwhile, is calling on the government to take "radical action."
"Radical action," not the presence of positive father figures in young men's lives, is the only way to effectively bring about societal change, Thorne told BBC. "This has got to be a point where we do something a bit more radical than that. It's not about role models," an adamant Thorne said.
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