Jack Thorne Addresses Accusations of “Anti-White Propaganda” in Netflix’s Adolescence
The co-creator of the acclaimed Netflix series Adolescence, Jack Thorne, has responded to claims labeling the show as “anti-white propaganda.” In a recent interview with The News Agents podcast, Thorne dismissed the allegations as “absurd.”
Origins of the Controversy
The controversy emerged following a provocative post by Ian Miles Cheong, a Malaysian right-wing commentator. He asserted that the drama is centered around a British knife attacker responsible for a girl’s death on a bus, suggesting it draws inspiration from real-life incidents such as the Southport case.
“So guess what,” Cheong’s post continued. “They race swapped the actual killer from a black man/migrant to a white boy and the story has it so he was radicalized online by the red pill movement. Just the absolute state of anti-white propaganda.”
This post gained traction further when Elon Musk reacted with a simple “Wow.”
Thorne’s Response to the Allegations
During his discussion on The News Agents, host Jon Sopel probed Thorne about the portrayal of a white boy as the perpetrator amidst a backdrop of predominantly black knife crime. Thorne clarified, stating, “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.”
Thorne went on to emphasize his long-standing experience in storytelling, cautioning against the potential harm of misrepresenting true events: “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.”
Challenging Racial Stereotypes
When Sopel questioned Thorne about the implications of portraying a white boy in a crime narrative, Thorne remarked, “That it should have been a Black boy? It’s absurd to say that this 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.”
Thorne further clarified the series’ thematic focus, stating, “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 this is about boys.”
Record-Breaking Success of Adolescence
Despite the controversy, Adolescence recently achieved a historic milestone in U.K. television, becoming the first streaming series to top Britain’s weekly TV ratings. According to Barb, the show’s debut episode attracted a remarkable 6.45 million viewers in its initial week, setting a record for any streaming show in the U.K. This impressive viewership surpassed that of Fool Me Once, which pulled in 6.3 million during its premiere week.