Adolescence in West Yorkshire

Like many people in March of 2025, we were all glued to Netflix for 4 hours to see how the series ‘Adolescence’ would play out. Created by Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne, the series follows a young school boy called Jamie who is arrested on suspicion of murdering a fellow classmate. Creating a claustrophobic, tense and sometimes heart wrenching viewing through one take episodes, didn’t only make incredible viewing but made a behind the scenes fan very excited. So, if you have been asking yourself where this series was filmed, join me as I retrace the somewhat normal seeming streets around West Yorkshire.

The House

The Miller family (Owen Cooper, Stephen Graham, Christine Tremarco & Amelie Pease) is where the core heart of the story resides. Their home is where the action starts, and with the technical requirements for filming, the crew descended on Carr View in South Kirkby, Pontefract. With the whole house being redecorated to give the look they were after, the actual homeowners had to be temporarily relocated whilst filming took place. There are many incredible scenes from the series which were shot on the road outside the house including the opening arrest, Eddie cleaning his van, and a hilarious scene with the nosey neighbour.

Keeping this a northern based series was a conscious choice right from the start, trying to keep that authentic feel. The casting choice of Warrington born Owen Cooper as the main character also helped influence the show, making sure to keep it a practical shoot and avoid him putting on an accent. This also helped when the creators teamed up with the production team at WARP films who are based in Sheffield.

The Police Station

A short 12 minute walk from the house is Production Park, South Kirkby. Production Park is a campus of warehouses and studios who all work on the live events industry. Studio 5 of the park, was chosen to build the sets of the police station and juvenile detention centre. These sets had to be built in a certain way to allow for the ambitious filming they had planned for the one take shots. The crew took six weeks to build the sets, in the spacious set which almost as tall as a four storey building.

Production Park was a great choice for the crew as it meant they could quickly get between the studio and real life locations during the one take. Again, in the opening scene you see Jamie being taken in the police van with DI Bascombe which was shot along Beacon View, Carr Lane & Langthwaite Road, before pulling in outside the studio and entering the police station set.

Whilst you obviously can’t see the sets or the interior of the studio, you can see the exterior brick walls where the camera was kept in tight as they enter Studio 5.

The School

Moving over to the school, is a slightly longer walk/drive as you leave South Kirkby and enter South Elmsall. Minsthorpe Community College became Bruntwood College for the second episode of the series. Here lots of action takes place as DI Bascombe and DI Frank (Faye Marsay) visit the school to talk to the students to get more information. These scenes were shot during August of 2024, making the most of the school holidays to have several runs of the one take episode. (Fun fact - The actual school kids were used as extras around the school!)

Whilst you can’t see the classroom or the covered walkways where some of the action takes place, you can still see where the DI’s arrive at the memorial and meet teacher Mrs Frenumore (Jo Hartley). You can also see where the kids exit the school, including Jade (Fatima Bojang) before the epic drone shot.

Make sure to cross Minsthorpe Lane to see where DI Bascombe catches the kid in the passage between 146 & 148 Minsthorpe Lane.

The Crime Scene

Just down from the school, on Ash Grove, is the Minsthorpe Leisure Centre. The car park for the leisure centre was used, in episode 2 and a few CCTV shots, as the murder site of Katie. This makes the perfect filming location to visit from the series as it’s a public place which most of the cast visited to film some emotional scenes.

You can also see how close to the school the location is with the drone shot at the end of episode 2. If you haven't already seen the behind the scenes of how they filmed this, you have to check out how impressive it is!

The Hardware Store

Episode 4 made more of a focus towards how the Miller family were coping now that Jamie is in the detention centre. Whilst trying to clean the abuse off his van, Eddie takes his family to Waiwright’s Hardware store. Obviously with the complex shooting requirements, the team had to scout the perfect location which is close enough to the house, could be available for long periods and have the nature reserve behind the fence. So they turned the packaging store in South Kirkby business park into a B&Q looking hardware store.

Whilst the actual warehouse is difficult to access, you can see the outside of the warehouse by walking along the public footpath from Ave Lodeve to the South Kirkby pit stacks. This will also put you in the exact spot where Eddie has a confrontation with a young Fredo during a powerful and emotional scene.

So now you know all of the filming locations from Adolescence! The tight geography of all of these locations make for a fantastic trip, being able to see how the crew used very everyday locations in West Yorkshire to become these backdrops to some incredible stories. The drive between Carr View and Production Park will remind you of that police van ride to the police station and the walk from the school to the leisure centre will bring to mind that drone shot. If you visit on a cloudy day, that true Northern grit will make you feel like you’re part of the action along the Yorkshire streets.

The series is more than just a gripping watch, it’s a masterclass in how to perfectly tell a story which is deeply rooted in a town. The choice of choosing West Yorkshire for something this high profile will hopefully make people aware how amazing the story telling can be here. So next time you’re up around this area, make sure to go and see one or all of the locations, taking those scenes from the screen and into real life!