Because of everything that went into Adolescence, the gripping new Netflix drama in which each episode was filmed in one continuous shot, it’s been well-documented that months of planning was required before shooting could actually begin.

However, that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t room for improvisation once the cameras did start rolling.

Speaking to Variety, director Philip Barantini revealed that during episode three – which sees Jamie being analysed by a child psychologist – teen actor Owen Cooper surprised everyone once he really got inside of his character’s mindset.

“Owen’s such a lovely kid so to get him to really go there and be really nasty and horrible to this character, it wasn’t in his nature initially to do that,” Barantini explained.

“So, there were moments in that episode where, during the rehearsals, I kept on saying: ‘go further, go mad, you hate her, scream at her, get it all out’. Obviously he’d never had to do that before, so he had to go there and realise the level he could take it.”

He continued: “There was one moment in one take, which I never asked him to do, where he’s talking to Erin [Doherty] and the camera’s on him and he just starts yawning.

“Everyone behind the camera was going, ‘oh my god, he’s never done that before!’ Erin being Erin just said to him, ‘I’m sorry, am I boring you?’. And he had this cheeky smile on his face.”

Owen also spoke about the improvised moment during an interview on The One Show last week.

“It was the second take and, you know, I was tired so a yawn came to me,” he explained.

“Then Erin did an amazing line, she said, ‘Am I boring you?’. So, that took me back and it made me smile, because it wasn’t in the script. I wasn’t expecting that at all, so it took me back a little bit, but it was amazing.”

All four episodes of Adolescence are now available to stream on Netflix.