Adolescence writer Jack Thorne reveals why BBC’s new Lord of the Flies sticks to an all-male cast – and explains his “sensitive” adaptation of classic

Both projects explored similar unsettling themes – the possibility of psychopathic tendencies in young boys. One was a school assignment focusing on the Emmy-winning Netflix drama Adolescence, and the other involved filming a new four-part BBC adaptation of William Golding’s classic novel Lord of the Flies – the book that helped Golding win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983 – in Southeast Asia.