Production Park today announces its first major TV commission after WARP Films, Plan B and Matriarch Productions chose it as the production base for new Netflix drama, Adolescence (W/T).
The one-shot crime drama will be fronted by an A-list cast including Stephen Graham (Boiling Point, Bodies), Ashley Walters (Top Boy) and Erin Doherty (The Crown).
Produced by Sheffield-based WARP Films, Matriarch Productions and Plan B for Netflix, Adolescence tells the story of a family’s trauma when a thirteen-year-old is arrested for the murder of a teenage girl.
WARP used Production Park near Wakefield as the main base for cast and crew, who spent a total of six months on site over the summer. The Park’s newest stage Studio 005 is normally used for large scale arena tour productions, but on this occasion became the perfect home for the extensive set build which included two internal builds, and an extension outside.
The production team based all the action on or around Production Park and were assisted by the studio team to find suitable locations off-site, within a short driving distance of the main set.
Mark Herbert, joint CEO of WARP, one of the UK’s most critically acclaimed film and TV indies, said: “The series posed a major challenge for us with the one-shot element so we needed a studio space that could match our technical needs but also provide a home for the crew and actors during the whole process. We loved working at Production Park and it was a great space to build our sets, and the day to day working atmosphere was fantastic. I will certainly film there again. And it’s mad it’s in an old mining community not too far from where I grew up, and just up the road from Warp Films HQ in Sheffield.”
Lee Brooks, co-founder and CEO of Production Park, added: “We were pleased to host the crew and cast from Adolescence through the summer months. Hosting such a large-scale, prestigious drama at Production Park shows how versatile we can be in supporting a wide range of clients, and we are very much open to any similar scale productions in the future.”
The four-part series is directed by Philip Barantini, with each episode filmed in an unbroken, continuous shot – a signature style he’s becoming known for after the critical success of Boiling Point. In Boiling Point, Graham plays a chef on the verge of a breakdown in a high-pressure restaurant kitchen.
Production Park is a world-class studio complex situated near the M1 in West Yorkshire. Previous clients include Coldplay, Pink, Beyoncé and Cirque Du Soleil who have all used Production Park to rehearse arena shows ahead of global tours. TV clients include Netflix, the BBC and ITV.
The team also used the opportunity of the shoot to partner with ScreenSkills on an outreach programme for local talent. ScreenSkills Director Kaye Elliott said: “Our High End TV Skills Fund team were really proud to work in partnership with Production Park, Warp Films and Matriarch Productions to deliver our socio-economic-focused programme, First Break. It delivers outreach for local people to attend a series of industry led events to hear about opportunities to work in TV, a sector which can often feel hard to access. It was great to get the chance to meet untapped local talent based in and around South Kirkby, to help them get their foot on the TV ladder.”
Adolescence will air on Netflix in 2025.
