Netflix hit show ‘Adolescence’ was not based on Southport, England, murders of three young girls

Netflix’s new crime drama "Adolescence" has been a hit, with more than 24 million viewers tuning in during its first four days streaming.

The four-part, limited series is about a 13-year-old white British boy accused of fatally stabbing a female classmate, and the effects of the boy’s arrest on his family.

Ian Miles Cheong, a conservative social media influencer, accused the streaming network of basing it on a real-life killer and changing his race as part of "anti-white propaganda."

"Netflix has a show called Adolescence that’s about a British knife killer who stabbed a girl to death on a bus and it’s based on real life cases such as the Southport murderer," Cheong wrote in a March 19 X post. "So guess what. 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."

Cheong’s post had 12,000 reshares, 72,000 likes and 4.5 million views as of March 21, and received a response from X owner Elon Musk, who wrote, "wow."

The murder Cheong refers to is a July 29, 2024, stabbing attack at a Taylor Swift-themed summer holiday dance and yoga class in Southport, a seaside town about 17 miles north of Liverpool, England. Three young girls were killed and 10 other people were injured.

But, as several replies to Cheong’s post correctly pointed out, the Netflix show isn’t based on a single real-life case, and it was already in production before the Southport attack happened.

Cheong did not respond to a request for comment through an X message.

Axel Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the killing, was sentenced in January to more than 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and other charges. Rudakubana, who is Black, is not a migrant, as Cheong’s post said. Rudakubana was born in Cardiff, Wales, to parents from Rwanda, The Associated Press reported.

"Adolescence" is not based on a particular true crime, series co-creator and writer Stephen Graham said. Graham said he got the idea after reading news reports of young boys involved in knife crimes, he told the Netflix site, Tudum.

Graham, who also played the boy’s father, said he wanted to explore why these incidents were happening. He, co-writer Jack Thorne and director Philip Barantini wanted the show to explore male rage and fatherhood, Graham said.

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Graham also recounted the show’s inspiration in a March 16 interview on Virgin Radio UK, saying he read two separate stories about young boys stabbing girls.

Netflix announced the show March 2024 at a London event, four months before the Southport stabbings. Barantini told Screen Daily that Netflix became involved with the show in December 2023, it went into pre-production in February 2024 and began filming in Yorkshire in July 2024.

A July 22, 2024, X post by Netflix UK & Ireland shows Graham and co-star Ashley Walters on set, holding a clapperboard with the date July 18. Rehearsals for the series began on June 27, 2024, the Daily Mail reported.

We rate Cheong’s claim that "Adolescence" was based on real events such as the Southport murders but that they changed the killer’s race False.