Letters: Adolescence didn't feel like a drama – it's too close to real life

Adolescence is TV drama at its finest, creating talking points across the country – and on Facebook in response to our recent feature.

Adolescence is ‘very hard hitting for me’

Adolescence was brilliant. The cast were amazing and it’s good to show awareness of knife crime and what could happen. Well done.

Win Coxen

Adolescence is the best drama that I have ever watched anywhere. I think it was because it didn’t feel like a drama and was too close to real life. I love Stephen Graham. Best wishes to everyone who was moved by this. x

Frances Hayes

It’s great to have a drama portray the impact on the family unit. Like in We Need to Talk about Kevin and Doris Lessing’s The Fifth Child, the parents dealing with the devastation is never really addressed. They’re just blamed!

Liza Whitwell

Adolescence is essential viewing

The scene where all the kids are leaving school and they’ve all got their heads down staring at their phones, even when they cross the road, is chilling. Not just the fact they all look like robots and the risks to their physical safety, but because of what they already know about the killing and yet they’re still on social media where the bullying is rife. Parents of teens and tweens need to watch Adolescence.

Jess Thackeray

Cried my heart out at Adolescence! Struggling parent here who works to try and do the best for my kids but nothing is affordable any more. They are not little so going to the park doesn’t cut it. They both play sports, we go camping, UK holidays and every couple of years I try to do something a bit nicer. I spend my Saturdays running around catching up on jobs I’ve not had time to do, like I’m sure 90% of parents do. This means they get left to game! Very hard hitting for me.

Kimberley Mg

Credit to him

Michael Sheen is an amazing human. One short paragraph in the article stood out: ‘Rachel Reeves… the new chancellor… refused to talk with Sheen when he tried to bring up the cost of credit.’  Why? And why is she allowed to get away with it? What an incredibly disappointing thing to read about a new Labour government. One that could have offered the country a new dialogue and new hope, but one that seems set on crushing that hope with every turn.  

Carol Crawford, North Devon

Book smart

I just wanted to day thanks for the excellent article regarding reading in prison. Many years ago I ended up in prison in China. I didn’t speak the language specifically and had no way of communicating. The months went past and even though I continuously asked if the library had English books in the little Chinese I had, I was always told no. The hours and hours of solitude begun to harm my mental health. No one to talk to apart from my already damaged self.

Then one day I was walking past the library and the door was open. Immediately I spotted a box with books that had English writing. I put in a request with the evidence of my own eyes and within days I had my first book to read. I had been in solitude for around 10 months by now. Having books saved my mind. It literally saved my life. So once again thank you for the article.

Stewart Burton 

Puzzle out

Why include such a difficult Sudoku?

David Bullock

• Keir Starmer is watching Adolescence. Here’s how his government can stop it happening in real life
• ‘We want people to think it could be their kid’: Philip Barantini on incels, rage and new drama Adolescence

Lord knows

I am a tenant and a tenant organiser, and like Bryan Stevens I don’t think that landlords are inherently evil. Landlordism itself is a major driver of poverty and homelessness and a serious problem for our economy, but you can’t blame a single landlord for that any more than you can blame a single motorist for climate change.

However, Bryan ends his letter by threatening to force his long-time tenants from their homes. He claims that governments and anti-landlord organisations will be to blame for his decision, but it’s his decision.

He could just as well sell the properties without evicting them. He may have to sell at a lower price but, given the trend in house prices over the ‘many years’ he has owned these properties, he would still be making a tidy profit over what he paid to buy them. If he evicts these people, it will be to make as much money as possible regardless of how much it hurts other people.

Every landlord considers themselves ‘one of the good ones’, but that isn’t always the case. Bryan’s letter is a perfect example of why tenants need these new protections and more – if he does go through with this, I hope his tenants join a union like ACORN, LRU or Living Rent and fight back.

Cameron, Edinburgh

Gold mine

Having read the mining piece in Issue 1655, I bought Emily P Webber’s book. The content is well presented, the writing style exemplary. Students of social history and English grammar could learn a lot by reading this one volume. Highly recommended.

Peter Stott, Cutthorpe, Chesterfield

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