Adolescence creator Jack Thorne has confirmed that his upcoming Lord of the Flies adaptation will have a lot “in common” with his previous Netflix sensation.
Speaking at an early screening of his Lord of the Flies show last week, Thorne admitted that “a bit of [William] Golding slipped into Adolescence, and a bit of Adolescence slipped into Golding,” drawing comparisons between the two stories’ exploration of youth, masculinity, and radicalisation.
‘Adolescence’ Is a Modern Blueprint for ‘Lord of the Flies’
William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” follows a group of teenage boys who find themselves stranded on a deserted island and must come together to form a society with their own ideals of law, governance, and justice. The acclaimed novel remains a very timely exploration of humanity’s innate tendency for violence and selfishness, and how this can manifest in unchecked freedom of youth.
Thorne’s previous project, the British crime drama Adolescence, explores many of the same themes. The limited series took the world by storm last year thanks to its frighteningly topical depiction of how young boys are becoming radicalised by violent, sexist content on the internet.
“I think, as a society, we’re having a conversation right now about boys. We’re losing a generation of boys and we’re losing it because of the hate they are ingesting – because it is an answer to their loneliness and isolation,” Thorne admitted, speaking to the similarities between the two stories.
He continued: “The interesting thing about Lord of the Flies is that, I think, it’s a really loving portrait of boys. When I read it as an adult, I thought of it as a tender portrait of a lot of very complicated boys having a complicated relationship with their status and anger.”
This mirrors Adolescence‘s cental message about innocent boys being corrupted by hateful, violent content that merely seeks to divide and spread hostility. These stories are explorations of who these boys are behind the “loneliness and isolation”, and that’s exactly what made Adolescence such a worldwide sensation.
The show launches on the BBC on February 8, replacing The Night Manager in the channel’s coveted Sunday night slot.
