Adolescence has just arrived on Netflix and it follows Jamie Miller (played by Owen Cooper), a 13-year-old boy who is arrested on suspicion of murder. The four-part drama, told in a one-shot, real-time format, follows different stages of the investigation from his arrest through to his impending court appearance.

The series is actor Stephen Graham's first project as a writer and he also plays Jamie's dad, Eddie Miller. Although set in an unnamed Northern English town, the drama will resonate with audiences everywhere.

While the story is not based on one particular true event, it was inspired by real-life pressures felt by youngsters in a digital age. Stephen explained: "One of our aims was to ask, ‘What is happening to our young men these days, and what are the pressures they face from their peers, from the internet and from social media?'”

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“And the pressures that come from all of those things are as difficult for kids here as they are the over.” The idea had been subconsciously brewing for some time.

As a father to Grace, 20 and Alfie, 18, Stephen had been haunted by the rise in teenage knife crime. He explained: “I just thought, ‘I need to write something, or create something that addresses this situation and holds up a mirror to what is going on.’

"I grew up loving writers like Alan Bleasdale and Jimmy McGovern, who were all about social commentary and I thought, ‘Why can’t we do that here and have a little look at what’s happening?’."

Issues raised in the series include the devastating problems caused by social media, online bullying and the disconnect between children and parents who no longer relate to their children's hobbies.

explained how Adolescence explores the current climate of toxic masculinity that degrades girls and distorts boys’ expectations and looks at how misogyny is being fuelled by online communities of young men.

Stephen did want to stress how the series does not set out to take a stand against social media.

Instead, he wanted to start a conversation with a "thought-provoking" topic that would keep viewers invested.

Many of the actors researched their roles in order for them to appear as authentic as possible, including The Crown star Erin Doherty, who plays child psychologist Briony Ariston.

In episode three, she goes through an intense hour-long session with Jamie and the creators looked into the psychology of young killers by reading Gitta Sereny’s book, Cries Unheard: Why Children Kill.

Erin said of her own research: "I’ve always been open about my own experience of having therapy over a six or seven year period.

"And though I'm not in therapy right now, I do have an incredible relationship with my therapist and so I reached out to her and said, ‘Could we just sit down and you talk to me about a day-in-the-life type situation?’

"I knew I needed to go to the source, as it were, if I was going to successfully become Briony and inhabit her mind as a therapist."

Adolescence is streaming on Netflix