Contains spoilers.
In the ever-growing world of TV streaming, it's hard to keep track of what you want to watch next, never mind what's the best around - but some shows cut through. One of those is Adolescence, Netflix's new drama, which has garnered incredible critical applause, with Guardian critic Lucy Mangan calling it 'the closest thing to TV perfection in decades'. The show follows the fall-out of 14-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) being arrested for the murder of his classmate, Katie, in four incredible episodes - each of which are shot in one take.
Episode three of the drama is an intense face-off between Jamie and The Crown actor, Erin Doherty, who plays clinical psychologist Briony Ariston. Known for playing young Princess Anne in the third and fourth series of The Crown, Doherty will be almost unrecognisable to fans of the royal drama as she takes on the role of Briony.
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Speaking to Tudum, Doherty described the episode as a 'chess match'.
'I had to attack the episode as a child psychologist would,' she said. 'Her goal is, ultimately, to get an answer. Briony needs to be able to go to the higher-ups and give them a genuine assessment of what she believes about Jamie.'
Adolescence is co-created by Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne, and speaking about the episode, Graham says the key to unlocking the drama was one integral difference to how we traditionally see these scenes play out in crime dramas - this is the pair's final meeting, not their first.
'In a conventional drama, the episode would show the first time these two had ever met,' Graham told Tudum. 'I really wanted the episode to be about the understanding of this lad.'
All of the show's episodes followed a three-week structure of a week each of rehearsals, technical rehearsal and filming - and for Doherty, the amount of time dedicated to the episode really helped.
'The more you’re in a character’s skin, they just become a part of your soul,' she told Tudum. 'There’s a freedom that comes with the repetition we did. By the time it came to shooting, we knew this episode inside out. Owen and I knew each other, we made that bond. And character-wise, there was no question about whether we knew how to embody these people.'
Speaking about her character and what we learn in the episode about them both during the constant back and forth, Doherty added: 'You can see they’ve built up this relationship and it is genuine,' she says. 'Briony isn’t a bad person. She’s not trying to get anything out of Jamie. She cares for him. Briony is genuinely asking him these questions, praying there is some twist of fate where she could say that this kid is innocent when all the evidence points at one thing.'
Adolescence is available to watch on Netflix now.
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