Stephen Graham plays a leading role in Adolescence (Image: Netflix)
Stephen Graham was visibly moved as he discussed his involvement in the powerful new series, Adolescence, which delves into the heart-wrenching issue of knife crime among youth in Britain. The four-part drama centres on a teenage boy accused of killing a classmate, with Graham portraying the boy’s father.
The actor expressed his concern for societal issues, stating: “I just thought, ‘What’s happening in our society where that’s becoming a slightly regular occurrence?” Overcome with emotion, he told The Telegraph Magazine: “I don’t know why it gets me emotional… Well I do exactly. It’s the loss of a young life, you know? For no reason at all.”
He continued, stressing the senselessness of such violence: “None whatsoever. Kids, killed by kids themselves. I thought we could look at that. Not something preaching, but as relatable as possible, because this could happen to any of us.”
Graham highlighted that the series focuses on the “normal” family of the accused rather than the victim, which is often the perspective shown, and he described his character as a man with a plumbing business living in a three-bedroom house with his wife, daughter, and son – a family one would not typically suspect of being involved in a grave crime.
He plays a father who is desperate to find out the truth (Image: Netflix)
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Addressing his hopes for the depiction of characters in the much-anticipated show, the creator remarked: “There’s quite a few things that go, ‘Oh, let’s look at these people through a microscope, shall we? Let’s see what’s wrong with them. Let’s colour them with this trauma.’ It’s like, for f**k’s sake, not everyone’s like that. Sometimes in art, the working class are depicted as not fully rounded human beings.”
Alongside some stellar names, the cast for Adolescence boasts talents such as Top Boy’s Ashley Walters and The Crown’s Erin Doherty. Touted to be one of the standout crime thrillers of 2025, Graham further commented at the Next on event: “The idea came as – over the past 10 years or so – we’ve seen an epidemic of knife crime amongst young lads, up and down the country.
“And for me, there were certain instances that really stuck out where young boys – and they are young boys, you know, they’re not men – were killing young girls.”
Adolescence will be released Thursday, 13th March on .