Tell Me Everything: The darkly comic drama about teenage depression

Warning: This nonfiction contains spoilers.

"Ever had a nighttime wherever it felt similar your full beingness led up to it? The nighttime that got you successful a headlock, stuck its lingua successful your mouth, knocked you down and past puked you backmost up again?"

Welcome to the satellite of Jonny, the seemingly hedonistic teen who lives beingness to the afloat successful Mark O'Sullivan's caller ITVX play Tell Me Everything. But there's much to Jonny than meets the eye. Beneath the banter with his champion mates, helium is earnestly struggling.

Played by newcomer Eden H Davies, Jonny is simply a 16-year-old increasing up successful Hertfordshire's Welwyn Garden City but nary of his friends person seen him implicit the summer. The information is, he's been sick with undiagnosed anxiousness and slump and has kept it hidden. Then his dada dies abruptly and his satellite falls apart.

"Jonny is precise loosely based connected me, a much, cooler mentation of teenage me," O'Sullivan, who grew up successful Welwyn Garden City himself, tells me.

"I'm truthful pleased we decided to acceptable it determination due to the fact that I deliberation we each person somewhat tricky benignant of relationships with the places we grew up, particularly if they're the smaller places due to the fact that they tin consciousness suffocating.

"My story, which is immoderate of the worldly that Jonny goes through, was the starting point. Some of it is precise autobiographical. And immoderate of it isn't. My teenage years were often beauteous horrible, for tons of reasons, not slightest of which was my dad's abrupt death."

While Jonny tries to support a lid connected his feelings, it's not ever imaginable and helium lashes retired astatine his champion mates Neve (Lauryn Ajufo) and Louis (Spike Fearn) who person nary thought wherefore helium is behaving that way.

Davies says: "I deliberation Johnny is rather emblematic of a batch of young men. He struggles with his intelligence wellness hugely. And I deliberation it's the bottling up and the choler that helium feels and it's not truly anger, it's conscionable emotion. He doesn't cognize wherever to spot it. Hopefully radical volition relate."

Refreshingly, the play refuses to gloss implicit the tedium of slump and anxiety, zoning successful connected the panic attacks, insomnia and self-doubt that are often portion of these conditions.

"Sometimes, erstwhile we speech astir intelligence wellness arsenic a theme, it's successful information of being glamorised... successful a mode that's appeasing to people," Davies says.

"What we did was make thing that's disfigured and jagged. And that's however it is. Jonny is not ever the nicest idiosyncratic and if audiences tin spot that, possibly it tin assistance them spot it successful different radical and their friends."

Alex Bushill, caput of Media astatine Mind tells the BBC: "It has ne'er been much important for broadcasters to make accurate, authentic, and delicate storylines astir intelligence health.

"Our probe shows that the power of intelligence wellness stories is adjacent stronger among young people, with 2 successful 5 radical aged 18-24 realising they had acquisition of intelligence wellness problems aft seeing a soap oregon drama.

"We person seen a cardinal displacement successful the mode we deliberation astir intelligence health. This is reflected truthful overmuch much successful however we picture intelligence wellness connected screen. But contempt an improving representation with much and much almighty and authentic depictions determination is inactive a mode to go."

ITV's main executive, Dame Carolyn McCall, said successful September that ITVX would purpose to upgrade the "very clunky idiosyncratic experience" of the ITV Hub. She added it would connection galore much programmes, with much than 9,000 hours disposable for escaped successful an effort to entreaty to younger audiences.

Ajufo, who starred successful acclaimed abbreviated movie Boiling Point with Stephen Graham ("He virtually is my TV dada and truly helped maine pave the mode successful my career"), says she learned a batch astir intelligence wellness herself portion filming Tell Me Everything.

"There's this wide statement of what slump is but this shows you however idiosyncratic conscionable isolating themselves... is simply a motion of depression. Some radical mightiness conscionable spot it arsenic them having immoderate maine clip erstwhile it's really a outcry for help. So erstwhile Jonny yet does lash out, this is what tin hap with a build-up of depression."

Davies adds that "it was hard astatine times to movie worldly of that quality due to the fact that you person to entree a spot that's difficult" but they were supported by therapists connected acceptable astatine each times.

By now, you mightiness beryllium wondering if the bid is simply a spot dense and unrelenting but don't beryllium fooled by the premise.

O'Sullivan was besides down Channel 4 drama Lee and Dean, and Tell Me Everything has plentifulness of lighter moments, too, including a brainsick precocious nighttime car drive, parties and plentifulness of hilarious and cutting one-liners.

Ajufo, whose quality is some an A-grade pupil and a enactment animal, says: "You person your highs and lows. Naturally astir the property of 16, you're going done things with exams and assemblage and pressures. And it's bully this shows that's not our lone mindset.

"We bash cognize however to person a laughter and we inactive cognize however to beryllium kids. The car scene, for instance, each of that was amusive due to the fact that it's like: 'This is what we bash connected the weekends!'"

O'Sullivan adds that including humour was essential: "I've ever needed to hunt retired the shards of airy among the darkness, for my ain sanity arsenic overmuch arsenic thing else. My humour ever tends towards the darker, edgier places."

And it's Jonny who is often the prima performer, the people clown.

Davies says: "It was large to person those airy moments… and person Johnny hide himself for a minute, oregon conscionable usage it arsenic a instrumentality to screen up due to the fact that that's 1 of the astir communal ways that radical woody with intelligence wellness problems."

Some of the acheronian humour is showcased via Jonny's usage of societal media, arsenic helium inappropriately posts selfies from his dad's funeral, for example.

Social media is simply a changeless beingness successful the bid arsenic it is successful each our lives, peculiarly for teenagers.

"I'm of the sentiment that it's harder increasing up present than it's ever been extracurricular of wartime," O'Sullivan says.

"I deliberation societal media and technology, arsenic overmuch arsenic a cliche arsenic it sounds, is to blasted for that. It besides does an atrocious batch of bully but I bash deliberation these teenagers person got it tougher than ever.

"What we're trying to bash is amusement immoderate of those struggles and besides amusement that immoderate of it is truly cosmopolitan arsenic well, nary antithetic than what I was going done 30 years ago."

Davies and Ajufo some accidental they person had to unopen disconnected immoderate apps connected their phones for their wellbeing.

"It's truthful addictive. I had to delete TikTok which I'm getting withdrawals from," Davies laughs, portion Ajufo says she "likes to bash a societal detox, I volition disappear. I won't archer anyone. All my notifications are off. I've gone backmost to reading, I perceive to music, I spell for walks, I started cycling".

O'Sullivan, whose ain teenagers person fixed the archetypal 2 episodes their seal of approval, says: "I anticipation they (the audience) spot themselves and their lives reflected successful an honest, real, earthy way. And spot that they're not unsocial successful the struggles they're going through. Everyone is warring an often invisible battle. And everything passes - the bully and bad."

Tell Me Everything is disposable connected ITV's caller streaming work ITVX from 8 December.