Adolescence branded 'tosh' by Boris Johnson - in a 'pitifully s***' take on hit Netflix drama

After Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne’s four-part drama Adolescencelanded on Netflix last month, numerous high-profile right-wingers have faced criticism for their responses to the show’s exploration of the ‘manosphere’.

Twitter/X owner and close Trump ally Elon Musk has pushed a debunked conspiracy theory that the drama is based on a real-life case, but that the race of the lead character was swapped (he also branded it “anti-white propaganda”) and Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch – who hadn’t even seen the drama – argued “it [young boys being radicalised by incel culture] is not the biggest thing that is happening in the world today” when it comes to “people being radicalised on social media”.

Badenoch’s comments are despite Home Office figures for Prevent for the year ending 31 March 2024 detailing “extreme right-wing concerns” as the second highest proportion of referrals to the counter-terrorism reporting programme at 19 per cent (1,314 referrals).

That’s in contrast to the number of referrals based on concerns relating to Islamist ideology, which made up 13 per cent (913 referrals).

Now, former UK prime minister Boris Johnson has shared his perspective on Adolescence, branding the production “tosh” and claiming PM Sir Keir Starmer’s “hatred of anything aspirational or requires effort” is “doing real damage to teenagers”.

In a piece for the Daily Mail, published on Friday, Johnson writes: “The thesis of Adolescence, I gathered, was that pubescent males across the land were at risk of being turned into misogynist psychopaths, unable to cope with the slightest romantic rebuff.

“They may be getting good grades. They may look as though butter wouldn’t melt in their mouth. But leave them alone with their laptops, in the darkness of their bedrooms, and they can be driven to mayhem – because there are evil online ‘influencers’ out there, who have become adept at persuading these young males that in the event of the slightest difficulty with girls the fault lies not with them, or their acne, but with the entire female sex.”

He went on to claim that Adolescence is “far” from a “must-watch” as it is “irrelevant to the problem of teenage knife crime in schools”.

“Even if the syndrome identified in Adolescence were widespread – even if our schools were awash with knife-wielding ‘incels’ – individuals, usually male, who are unable to find a sexual partner and are therefore involuntarily celibate – I doubt that you will achieve anything positive by getting children to watch a shudder-making story about it,” Johnson said.

That last line relates to Netflix making its drama available to UK schools for free following a roundtable convened by Starmer last month.

To round things off, the ex-Tory MP claims that when it comes to “who is really doing more damage to the life chances of teenagers in this country” out of Starmer and influencer Andrew Tate, “the answer is Starmer, by a country mile”.

Broadcaster Richard Bacon branded Johnson’s perspective “pitifully s***” and in another comment, labelled the former politician “an absolutely useless t***”:

Another Twitter/X user pointed to mental health support for young people and claimed a “lack of support services due to Tory austerity” doesn’t exactly help:

And in response to a social media video to promote the column, the parody account for Larry the Cat noted his typically scruffy hair:

Embarrassing…

Why not read…

• Andrew Tate hits out at Ashley Walters over Adolescence in fiery post
• How old is Owen Cooper? What to know about Netflix's Adolescence breakout star

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