Aurora and ‘Adolescence’ Director Philip Barantini on the Show’s Devastating Needle Drop Finale: ‘I Could Not Stop Crying’ 

Netflix’s Adolescence has got the world talking. The four-part drama covers the fallout from a brutal murder of a teenage girl by her male classmate following his radicalisation by misogynistic content online. The Guardian called it “the closest thing to TV perfection in decades” and the topics raised on the show – incel culture; Andrew Tate’s influence on young boys; the dangers of the manosphere – are brought back to the forefront of U.K. and global political discourse.

That’s without mentioning the technical triumph the show achieves. Directed by Philip Barantini (Boiling Point), the show uses one-take shots for entire episodes, allowing tension to build and to demand viewers attention; to pick up intimate moments of doubt, fear and sadness. It is a show of rare brilliance and massive U.K. success story; upon release, episode one pulled the largest ever audience for any streaming TV show in the UK in a single week.

The show – spoilers ahead – culminates with a devastating moment. Stephen Graham (This is England, Boiling Point), whose son is accused and convicted of the aforementioned murder, is trying to keep the family together amidst the turmoil. In the final scene of episode four, Graham’s character heads to his son’s bedroom and breaks down in tears full of sorrow, rage and despair. The scene is soundtracked by Aurora’s 2016 single “Through the Eyes of a Child,” which was first released via Decca Records on her debut LP All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend.

The song has been boosted with over five million streams since the show’s release, and had success on the Global and U.K. Shazam charts. A decade down the line, the Norwegian’s poignant track is now resurging with new meaning and reaching fans all over again.

In an exclusive chat with Billboard U.K., director Barantini and Aurora discuss the song’s place in the show, the vital conversation the show has renewed and the possibility of a second season of Adolescence.

Philip, when did you first hear Aurora’s song?

Philip: Well, I have been a fan for a long time of yours, Aurora. I think you’re incredible. We were in the writing stage of Adolescence and we’d had a first script written for the first episode. We were driving to look at some locations actually, and the song just came on in the car on a playlist from my phone.

The timing of it… it was like something in the air. I’d heard the song before, but the words didn’t really hit me as much because we were talking about this adolescent child and this whole thing. I listened to it, and honestly, I could not stop crying in the car; so in my head, I knew that was going to be in the show.

How does that make you feel, Aurora? I mean, to know that it was so integral to the writing process so early…

Aurora: It’s absolutely beautiful. I feel very honored. It’s always so nice when something that you’ve created from your soul, and obviously kind of at the same age of the characters in Adolescence — which is also very heartwarming, to hear the vocals of me from such a long time ago being sung almost like a classmate, like one of them in the show.

Also the fact that this show, the actors and the dialogues and the music and the way it was filmed, it’s a piece of art. It’s so deep. You can sit and discuss it for hours and hours, which I love because there are a few things now I feel that come out and touch you, because we are so used to consuming things without being deeply disturbed or moved these days. 

Did you have a feeling you were onto something special?

Philip: Of course you never know. You sort of hope, don’t you? I always wanted it to be a conversation starter, or certainly for people to take different things away from it and have their own experience with it. There was definitely that feeling when we were on set. When we screened it to people, the audience were having the same reaction, but I did not think for one second it would be doing what it’s doing and still continues to do.

Aurora, the song that was first released in 2016. How does it feel to see it be repurposed almost a decade later?

Auroa: That’s the curse and the gift in making things and giving them to the world. They’re no longer yours and belong to everyone, which also makes it possible for them to be revived again and again through different emotions and through different eyes and ears. I love the way this show kind of has changed a bit now what the song means to me. I’m very grateful to have the fire in me reignited when I sing this song now, and I feel very, very grateful that this show has done that.

It’s like every song has arms that stretch out and wants to hold the whole world. But every song kind of finds a group to hold at the time. And I feel like this show and you, Philip, have helped this song stretch its arms even further to hold a new group.

How did it feel when you saw the final scene and your song came in?

Aurora: I didn’t know how the song was going to be there, or if it was going to be in the scene, or just at the end. So I kind of had forgotten by the last scene, because obviously the show had such a hard grip on me that I couldn’t leave the screen. I don’t think I blinked either as the scene just kept going and going without cutting. It had such a hold on me, which was beautiful to be held like that by a show. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this gripping feeling. But then I had forgotten by the end of the show that I was going to be on it because I was just completely taken away and apart by the show.

I almost didn’t feel like it was me [singing]. I just felt like it was a child who knows how it is to be at the age of losing childhood. It’s a weird balance for people that age. I felt like I heard it from a child singing to me as well, for me to also relearn something I had forgotten as an adult. So it felt like it wasn’t me, if that makes sense. The universe kind of just chooses for you.

Needle drops are always difficult to get right. Did you feel that pressure Philip?

Philip: We talked about music a lot in this show, and whether we were going to have any music at all because I’d done a movie called Boiling Point, which we didn’t have any music in. That was also shot in one take, and it was a very conscious decision to not have music in it. But with Adolescence, it became apparent quite early on that music is going to help us here. I always knew that I wanted to have the needle drop at the end of episode, two with the choir and the kids’ voices. But then with this, “Through the Eyes of a Child” at the end of episode four — it was just like, that is the perfect song to end the whole show on.

How does it feel to lead on a conversation around topics like incel culture and violence towards girls and women?

Philip: We started the discussions about making something because of a couple of things that we’d seen over the last few years. What drives a young boy to pick up a knife and kill a young girl at that age? We did a lot of research into the incel culture and toxic masculinity and all of these things, and it was really deeper than what I thought. I didn’t understand it at the beginning. I thought I had a small understanding of it — but Jack Thorne, one of our writers, went on a real deep dive. It’s absolutely terrifying.

It’s a terrifying state that we’re in at the minute with our children. I would hate to be a teenager in this day and age. Obviously, the internet can be a very amazing thing, and social media too, but it also can be really dark as well. I’m just incredibly proud and honored to be part of this because we have started a conversation and not just in the U.K. but globally. This is a big global issue. I think it has been a part of a tiny little stone that we’ve dropped into the middle of the ocean and now the ripple effect is doing what it’s doing. It really does hurt my heart, but it also melts it as well.

Aurora, what have you seen from the response from people towards the show and the topics that are raised in it?

Aurora: I’m just happy to see people discussing, even arguing because it’s all engagement. Hidden issues like this only reach the public when it’s too late. Every time this happens, it’s already too late to bring it up, because it should never have been an issue in the first place. But the way the world is, is that we’re so in touch with each other and things are quite unfair in this world. It’s quite an unjust world. We are also so aware of how unjust it is, and then we’re being misled in who’s to blame for why we’re sad and why we are feeling like we’re being treated in an unjust way.

There’s a report on Deadline that a second season could be in the works. What’s your feeling on that?

Philip: Look, there are so many stories to tell about adolescence: boys and girls. It is a minefield. So I’m sure there’s more stories to tell, but whether we do… I’ll be honest with you, we’ve been talking for a long time about whether we should do another one or how we do another one. Obviously with the success of this one, it’s something we will look at and see what we can come up with. But there’s nothing set in stone or anything like that.

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