Where was Adolescence season 1 filmed? All filming locations explored
Netflix's newest gripping story about a teenage boy accused of murder, Adolescence, debuted on the platform on Thursday, March 13, 2025. The 4-episode limited series brings a psychological drama about how an ordinary family's worst nightmare came to life after their 13-year-old son, Jamie Miller, became a suspect in the murder of a teenage girl in his school.
Starring Owen Cooper, Stephen Graham, Ashley Walters, and Erin Doherty, the series promises tense moments from Jamie's arrest to the harrowing aftermath. As an ambitious one-shot series, Adolescence was filmed in West Yorkshire, England, both in real locations as a studio facility in the area.
Casting Cooper as Jamie ultimately influenced where the series was shot, according to the show's director, Philip Barantini.
Adolescence was mostly filmed in Pontefract in West Yorkshire, England
According to Adolescence director Philip Barantini, casting Owen Cooper for the starring role as teenage Jamie Miller influenced where the series was ultimately filmed. He said in a March 14, 2025, Netflix Tudum feature of the limited series:
"We knew it was going to be set somewhere in the North of England, and we also knew it would be from somewhere around wherever our Jamie was from—in this case near Warrington—because it would have been unfair to make him do an accent."
Ultimately, Adolescence was filmed in and around Pontefract, a historic market town located in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. The town is famous for its rich history, its role in the English Civil War, and the Pontefract Castle. But for the teenage drama series, it served as a backdrop of the small town for immersive and authentic visual storytelling.
Pontefract and its suburban landscapes, quiet residential streets, and close-knit community spaces served as the primary backdrop of the home and neighborhood of Jamie's family. Some of the outdoor shots were also filmed around the Wakefield area, including in the busy market town of South Elmsall.
Adolescence also filmed in South Yorkshire
The production for the Netflix series also went to the southern part of Yorkshire for a contrasting visual aesthetic to support the show's storyline. Mostly, it utilized Sheffield, a city known for its beautiful natural surroundings and steel production, to film school sequences in the series.
With the murder in the story about a girl that goes to the same school as Jamie, the location becomes a major part of the Adolescence storyline.
Production also shot sequences in filming studios near Pontefract
Besides filming in real locations, the production for the crime drama series also used filming studios. But with filming done in a continuous shot, the cast and crew opted for a filming studio in West Yorkshire. Specifically, they filmed at Production Park, a studio facility in South Kirkby.
Per Drazia Daily UK, they spent six months on-site for filming in the newest stage of the park, Stage 005. The stage was reportedly usually reserved for arena tour productions, which Coldplay, Beyonce, and Pink previously used. The interior shots of the Miller family house were filmed in a set built on Production Park as well as the police station and the interview room.
Executive producer Mark Herbert reportedly suggested filming in the studios because of its proximity to the real filming locations used, which Barantini said became the "nerve center" of the show's entire production.
Catch Adolescence, now streaming on Netflix.
