ITV and BBC could not afford to make Adolescence, Wolf Hall director says

By Charlotte McLaughlin, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter

Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminsky has said there is “no way” the BBC and ITV could afford to make Netflix hit Adolescence.

The crime drama, which stars This Is England actor Stephen Graham as the father of a boy accused of killing a classmate, had more than 100 extras and had each of the episodes filmed in a continuous single shot.

The four-part limited series, made near Pontefract in West Yorkshire, has received backing from UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, and creators Graham and Jack Thorne have accepted an invitation to a parliamentary meeting by Labour MP Josh McAlister to discuss online safety with MPs.

It has prompted a number of conversations around so-called incel (involuntary celibate) culture, which has been blamed for leading to misogyny online, and bullying using social media.

Kosminsky previously revealed he took a pay cut along with actor Sir Mark Rylance so they could conclude Dame Hilary Mantel’s epic historical work with Wolf Hall: The Mirror And The Light on the BBC last year.

He told BBC current affairs programme Newsnight that after working for 45 years in the industry, public broadcasting is facing its first “existential crisis” of his long career.

Kosminsky added that American streaming companies have pushed up prices so the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 “can’t afford to make dramas like Wolf Hall anymore” or programmes such as ITV’s Mr Bates Vs The Post Office and Hillsborough.

He also said that Adolescence is a “fantastic programme”, but Netflix would not make the show if it was not successful outside the UK.

Kosminsky also said that streamers would not make issue-led dramas such as Mr Bates Vs The Post Office as they are too British focused.

“I think the BBC or ITV would wish to make Adolescence, but let’s be absolutely clear, there is no way they could make it at the moment,” he added.

“Because the cost of making it has increased radically, directly as a result of the streamers coming and making their programmes here. Nobody disputes that.”

Earlier this year, Kosminsky called the finance of public broadcasters “insufficient to make high-end TV drama in 2024/5 – in the inflated cost environment created here by the streamers” in a letter to MPs.

In a submission to MPs in the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, he called for making 5% of streaming income part of a UK “cultural fund” that would finance “exclusively for high-end drama of specific interest to UK audiences but which doesn’t necessarily have cross-border appeal”.

“A British TV (body), with its self-financing cultural fund, would be brought into existence entirely to address this market failure. Its criterion wouldn’t be profit, it would be excellence,” he also said.

“And our culture would be the richer for it.”

Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which saw a number of its actors take pay cuts, made more people aware of subpostmasters being wrongfully prosecuted, and sparked the UK government to take more action on getting the workers compensation.

The original Wolf Hall series won Baftas for best drama series and a best actor gong for Oscar winner Sir Mark, was nominated for multiple Emmys, and picked up the best limited TV series award at the Golden Globes.

The Mirror And The Light, based on the final book by Dame Hilary, who died in 2022 aged 70, sees Sir Mark return as the adviser Thomas Cromwell along with Damian Lewis as King Henry VIII.

Kosminsky, who is known for the Hollywood drama White Oleander, is currently working on a three-part BBC drama series about Grenfell.