Adolescence’s Stephen Graham surprised by ‘manipulative’ trick as director spills show secrets

Adolescence co-writer Jack Thorne has revealed a big secret behind the scenes of the chilling Channel 4 drama, that left fans utterly shocked and gripped

Netflix star Stephen Graham’s “manipulative” Adolescence director secretly plotted with the actor’s wife to shock him with photos of his real life children to ramp up his harrowing tears while filming the closing scene in the hit series.

The show’s co-writer Jack Thorne said when Graham’s character Eddie goes into the bedroom of son Jamie – who’s been accused of murdering a female classmate – feeling he’s let him down, the actor was confronted with the surprise pictures of his teenage kids.

Director Philip Barantini had put up photos of Graham’s two real-life children Alfie and Grace – visible to Graham but off camera, so they were not seen by viewers – with the blessing of Graham’s real wife Hannah.

Graham is then seen breaking down sobbing and burying his head in his son’s teddy bear before saying “I’m sorry son. I should’ve done better”.

Thorne told how the teddy also was not in the script but was another added idea of Barantini’s, although that was included in conjunction with Graham. On Graham’s tearful final words, which encapsulated the show, Thorne said: “I think those were Steve’s words. And you know what, that teddy bear wasn’t me. That wasn’t in the script. That was Phil and Stephen put it in there.

“And Phil did something that was quite manipulative and quite brilliant, which is he put Stephen’s own family inside the wardrobe.”

Photos of Graham’s family were pinned on the wardrobe, along with a note from them saying “We love you – we’re so proud of you”.

Speaking to the RadioTimes, Thorne continued: “So when Stephen breaks down like that it’s because he has been triggered by a director that has sent him on this hour-long journey and then put something at the end that takes him somewhere.

“Now what he says in that moment, it terms of I wish I’d done better, I wish I’d been a better father for you, that’s what the show is all about.”

Asked if Graham really had no idea he’d be confronted by photos of his own children when he walked in filming that final scene, Thorne said: “Yeah, I know.

“But Stephen and Philip have known each other for many, many years. They’re incredibly good friends, so Stephen will have known Phil’s made a decision here, and I’m going to go with it.

“There wouldn’t have been any sort of like ‘Why have you done that?’ It would have been like ‘Oh, that was interesting, that did something else to my brain chemistry’. And he stayed in the moment because that’s what Stephen does. And it took him to an even more interesting place than he went to on his own.”

Thorne then joked: “I’m now really worried that I’ve called Phil manipulative. Phil is a very kind and generous and lovely man.” He added that Graham did other takes where he didn’t have the photo, before that was introduced to add even more intensity.

Thorne said: “This was just ‘Ok, let’s add a little more ingredient’. Hannah Walters is our exec producer, who’s Stephen’s wife, and Hannah’s the sort of matriarch – their production company is called Matriarch Productions, she is the matriarch of Matriarch (one of Adolescence’s production companies).

“She is in control of us all and so Hannah was very much part of that discussion too with Phil I think in terms of what they placed in there. He saw Alfie and Grace, his kids in there.”

The four-part crime drama was created and written by Thorne and Graham and is being highly acclaimed.

It has won praise for its content but has also sparked debate about the upbringing of children in society and their exposure to social media and smartphones.

Source: Mirror