Netflix’s Adolescence is a chilling warning to all parents… now I realise how wrong I was to judge killers’ families
CRIME drama Adolescence, the story of a 13-year-old lad from a loving family who kills his female schoolmate, has sent a chilling warning to every parent of a teenager in this country.
The Netflix show has deservedly received plaudits for its amazing acting and its cinematic feat of shooting each episode in one go.
Its storyline will help millions of parents try to understand just a little bit more what their teenager is going through in our modern world and will help those of us with younger children to prepare for the future.
But what I really praise it for is giving me a huge wake-up call.
Before watching this, I often thought that the parents of murderers should be shoved in the dock along with their killer kids.
Naively, I believed that for a person to kill, their mums or dads must somehow have played a tiny part, and I wondered: have they been abused or neglected by their parents?
Maybe they’ve come from a dysfunctional or absent family who take drugs.
Have they somehow been warped because of a lack of moral guidance?
There are plenty of cases where I’d have been right.
One of the ten-year-olds who killed James Bulger was said to have become so desensitised after watching horror film Child’s Play 3, he imitated one of the scenes.
If that’s the case, his parents should have been put behind bars at the time for their abuse and neglect.
But even with Lucy Letby, I was instantly blaming her parents for that evil nurse’s actions, despite the fact that they looked like your regular John and Joan who clearly adore their daughter.
As I read into it, I presumed their overbearing, mollycoddling attitude meant they let their precious girl away with all sorts at home, to such an extent that she somehow turned into a real-life killer.
But this terrifying four-part TV drama about Jamie Miller has changed all that.
I realise how wrong I was.
Misogynist influencers
Adolescence may not be a true story, but it is based on real-life events and has made me realise I shouldn’t be so quick to judge, because some people — despite their amazing, balanced upbringing — can still go on to do the most horrendous things.
Jamie comes from your regular 2.4 children family unit, the kind anybody would be proud to be part of.
A mum and dad who have been together since their teens, who still kiss and cuddle in the kitchen and giggle and sing together and love going to the cinema and having a Chinese takeaway.
They are good, loving, honest, hard-working, decent people.
But, like millions of others, they didn’t realise what was happening to their son right under their noses.
How Jamie was craving affection and validation, but became isolated and retreated online to be swayed by social media and misogynist influencers.
It was awful to watch the aftermath.
His parents questioned why they ever bought him a computer, and to try to understand his actions, they even soul-searched right back to when he was at primary school, when they failed to defend him from bullies.
It made me imagine how the parents of real-life killers must feel when it happens to them.
What they don’t need when they are blaming themselves is people like me blaming them, too.
Gripping viewing
It was tough but gripping viewing, with so many lessons for us all.
Next time a crime like this undoubtedly occurs, I will see the parents in a different light and realise that what they actually deserve is pity and sympathy.
While grieving for that human being their son or daughter has killed, they are also dealing with the fact that their hopes and dreams for the future of their family have gone for ever.
They are coping with the reality that the child they created is a real-life killer.
And that is a life sentence in itself.
Markle v Paltrow: May the best woman Gwyn
I’M loving the comparisons between Meghan Markle and Gwyneth Paltrow as they battle it out for queen of lifestyle, cookery, wellness and Montecito.
After Meghan’s new “at home/somebody else’s gaff” TV show aired, Goop goddess Gwynnie responded, saying: “Everybody deserves an attempt at everything that they want to try.”
Ouch!
And now the (much more successful actress) has shown off her modelling abilities and amazing figure by posing for Vanity Fair looking all sexy in stockings and sultry pout.
Bet Meg is now itching to ditch her cookery classes in baggy linen to follow suit.
1-0 to Gwyneth.
BERRY GOOD FOR 90
NEW figures show a huge rise in the number of women over 65 who are still working.
It has doubled during the past two decades, with 12.3 per cent of women of that age or older still in the workforce.
There has been blame put on work-shy youths, and the hike in the pension age forcing women to work.
But what about those who actually want to work because they love the job they do, and are thrilled that they are actually fit and healthy enough to do it?
They are women just like Mary Berry.
I know that obviously her job is much more fun and glamorous than most, but she is turning NINETY tomorrow and has no plans to give up, and I am sure it helped to keep her young.
She is celebrating with booze and a year of partying, where there will – obviously – be cake.
If she’d retired at 65, that would have been 25 years ago, long before Bake Off was even invented.
Good on her for keeping on grafting and helping the nation to knock up a cake or two.
Happy birthday, Mary.
KEMI BADENOCH’S team says that she buys second-hand clothes for her children because she cares about the environment.
Lucky her.
The rest of us hunt around Vinted because we need to take care of our bank balances.
JUST NO MOORE
THE self-help guide to grief written by Captain Tom’s daughter has been panned by Amazon reviewers and dropped 145,000 places in the sales charts since it was released last week.
Now that will give her some grief.
Good! Let’s hope that’s the last we hear from money-grabbing Hannah Ingram-Moore.
Vile creature.
WHEN’S COKE LEGAL?
THERE are so many strange questions surrounding the case of Casualty star Amanda Mealing, who had a horror crash while driving high on cocaine.
Firstly, why would a woman who has overcome breast cancer and is battling blood cancer contemplate shoving a Class A drug in her body?
But also, how ridiculous is it that there are even laws about driving while on cocaine?
The actress had 18mcg of coke in her blood, but the legal limit is 10mcg.
That’s the legal limit for an illegal drug.
Nope, me neither.
HE’S A BIT OF A CLICK
IF I was Georgina Rodriguez, I would tell Cristiano Ronaldo where to stick any potential marriage proposal.
In an interview for her Netflix reality show, I Am Georgina, the model told how she has been teased by friends over when she will get married, but says “that is not up to me”.
Which is surely the most outdated thing I’ve ever heard.
But to chuck a fair bit of salt into the wound, Ronaldo insists he will marry her – but only when he gets “that click” that shows the timing is right, which, according to the footballer, “could be in a year, in six months or in a month”.
That’s good of him.
They’ve been together nearly a decade, they share two daughters and Gina is also the stepmother of his other three children.
If he hasn’t got that “click” by now then something is very wrong.
The only thing immature Ronaldo loves is himself.