THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE

Stephen Graham's hit show Adolescence has gripped the nation and here, the star discusses how a parent's worst nightmare can strike at the heart of any ordinary family

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It’s not just parents gripped and horrified by actor Stephen Graham’s new thriller Adolescence, about how a family’s world is turned upside down when their 13-year-old son is arrested for the murder of a teenage girl at his school.

The “well, that would never happen to us” scenario that could all-too-easily happen to anyone has been a clear No. 1 on Netflix since its release, amassing 24.3 million streams in its first four days.

Instead of using a familiar trope of abusive parents being to blame, Stephen – who co-wrote the Netflix drama with Jack Thorne – has carefully portrayed the family as one that looks like any other, with regular, hard-working, loving parents.

“What’s happening here is an ordinary family’s worst nightmare,” says Stephen, who, after playing a troubled chef in hit TV drama Boiling Point, was asked if he had any ideas for a totally different series.

“I came up with this idea because I’d read about a young boy who had stabbed a young girl to death. A couple of months later, there was another incident. It really hurt my heart – and I just thought: ‘What’s happening in today’s society, where a young boy does something like this?’”

Stephen, 51, has often portrayed tough guys in a career that includes the Pirates of the Caribbean and Venom movie franchises, the film This is England