Psychologist confirms two key parts of Jamie's evaluation in Adolescence that wouldn't happen in real life

Although Adolescence might have seemed a bit too realistic for some viewers, not everything in the series was completely lifelike.

Stephen Graham, who has been hailed for his role in the hard-hitting Netflix drama, told fans that the show was 'based on truth' - but obviously, some artistic licence was used too.

The four-part series did a great job in giving viewers an insight into police procedure and what an active investigation looks like.

However, a psychologist has now pointed out that two aspects of Jamie's evaluation, which takes place in episode three, wouldn't typically happen in real life.

The third instalment of Adolescence shows Owen Cooper, who plays the teenage murder suspect, sit down with Erin Doherty, who took on the role of clinical psychologist Briony Ariston.

Speaking of how she prepared for the gig, Doherty revealed that her own therapist was her 'first port of call' for some tips, which proved 'incredibly helpful' when she was crafting her character.

"I knew I needed to go to the source, as it were, if I was going to successfully become Briony and inhabit her mind as a therapist," The Crown star said.

"So, yes, my own therapist was my first port of call and it was incredibly helpful.

"And you realise that it takes years of learning for people to get to that point of sitting in a room and speaking to someone about their life, especially someone in Briony's job, which is a specific form of therapeutic conversation."

Despite Doherty absolutely acing the chilling role, according to Rachael Leggett, not all of her performance was an entirely accurate reflection of what really goes down during these chats.

Leggett, an expert in forensic psychology at Coventry University, has carried out a ton of these pre-treatment and post-programme interviews during her career, just like Doherty's character does with Jamie.

The aim of these conversations is to try and get a grasp of the reasons why the person did what they did.

Leggett said there were a couple of things in episode three which would 'never' happen in real life (Netflix)

But in Leggett's eyes, there's a couple of things which viewers saw in the third episode of Adolescence which would 'never happen' in the real world.

For example, Briony brings the young lad a hot chocolate - making sure to add some marshmallows - and other experts have said this was in a bid to entice him to open up.

But according to Leggett, psychologists would never use this tactic in reality.

"You certainly wouldn't get them a hot chocolate, that's not very realistic," she told the Mirror. "There's a whole debate about what does that mean...could they interpret that in a particular way? It's that boundary, isn't it.

"It's difficult because when you work with young people, you have to be more delicate than you would with an adult - there's more rules in terms of their sentencing and how they are treated and their welfare."

She explained that in her experience, a psychologist might 'share some' personal details and anecdotes with the person they're assessing so that they 'feel comfortable'.

Viewers might recall how Briony somewhat bonded over her sandwich-making skills with Jamie, as he told her that his mum 'makes butties' too.

Leggett reckons this was in an effort to get the 13-year-old killer to let down some of his barriers, explaining that 'building up a rapport' is a technique which a lot of professionals use.

Erin Doherty has been hailed for her performance in Adolescence (Netflix)

However, she says that a person in the position of Briony's character would never inform their subject that it was their last session together.

"You can see her crying at the end, I think she perhaps had quite a good relationship with him," Leggett said.

"But I do think it ended quite abruptly and you definitely wouldn't do that with a young person, let alone an adult - in that, 'Well, this is the last session, so I'm going now'.

"It felt very much like, 'I have washed my hands of you, I'm going'. So that was difficult."

Touching on how Jamie's temper flared in the tense episode, Leggett says this wouldn't be unusual in real life, while Briony's reaction was also pretty true to life.

"Every psychologist has got their own line," she added. "There were times I would have to terminate interviews because I was like 'Look, I can see you're triggered, I can see you are not doing okay'.

"There was a time, probably for the drama of it, that she kept pushing and pushing and he was seeking validation at times, which she couldn't give."

Leggett said it was 'interesting' to watch someone depict her role on screen, although it did also make her feel a 'little bit uncomfortable at times'.