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 the 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?'"
© NetflixStephen, 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 and TV shows Line of Duty and Boardwalk Empire.
In Adolescence, he plays heartbroken father Eddie Miller, a decent and loving dad – although he didn’t base the character on his own father, actually naming him after his Uncle Eddie.
"I was at the football with my dad, my brother, my two kids and my Uncle Eddie, whom I adore," recalls the lifelong Liverpool FC supporter.
"I looked at him down the row and knew immediately that that’s what our character should be called – not just because it’s a good name, but because they do have quite a lot, if not all things, in common.
© Courtesy of Netflix"I adore my dad, but he’s not typical. When I was growing up, he was head paediatric nurse at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, which was an unusual job for a working-class man. My mum was a social worker and both of them had this amazing empathy for the job and for people in general.
"Luckily enough, they were really communicative with us too. I was always extremely close to my mum and my pops. We’ve talked about everything.
"But then I thought: what happens if you have a young lad like Jamie who maybe doesn't get on anywhere near as well with his father as I do with mine? Or as well as I get on – thank God – with my own son?"
© Getty ImagesHe and his wife, producer and actress Hannah Walters, welcomed son Alfie in 2007, two years after daughter Grace, and are raising their family in a small Leicestershire town.
Ostensibly a crime thriller, Adolescence raises questions about modern-day parenting and the struggles kids face in navigating social media.
"But it's not a whodunnit. It's a 'why has he done it?'" says Stephen, whose character's wife Manda is played by Christine Tremarco, with Ashley Walters as a police inspector and Erin Doherty in the role of a child psychologist.
"In the context of this, it’s like: 'It takes a village to raise a child' – so it’s that aspect of looking at who's accountable, and why would a young boy go to these lengths and commit this horrific crime?"
Casting the right boy to play 13-year-old Jamie Miller was not easy, and the team spent nine months assessing 500 boys before discovering newcomer Owen Cooper, now 15.
"Owen is a million miles away from Jamie. He’s one of the loveliest, sweetest kids you'll ever meet," says Stephen, who is no stranger to inner demons, having talked openly about his struggles with depression.
© Netflix"We wanted to eliminate the cliches of a normal drama of this ilk: a dad who wasn't violent and a mum who wasn’t an alcoholic. And nor has he been abused physically, mentally or sexually."
Not that he claims to have any quick-fix solutions for the crisis facing children today. “We’re not pointing a finger at anyone. We’re not saying this is the solution. We don’t know,” says Stephen, whose next project is playing Bruce Springsteen’s father in forthcoming Boss biopic Deliver Me from Nowhere.
"We don't have the answers, but we can at least begin the conversation."
Adolescence is streaming on Netflix now.
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