Netflix’s limited series Adolescence scored 13 Emmy nominations Tuesday morning, beating the 11 earned by last year’s Baby Reindeer, and in a conversation with Deadline shortly after the announcement, co-creator, lead actor and executive producer Stephen Graham and co-creator and EP Jack Thorne discussed the likelihood of returning to the show in some way.
“We’d think about it, wouldn’t we, Jack?” Graham said.
“Yes,” Thorne replied. “Not about the Millers. We’ve told the Millers’ story, but me and Steve would love to write together again. We’d love to write something for Phil to direct and we’d love to work with all our wonderful company again. So, what I mean there is definitely the intention to do that if we can find the story good enough.”
Graham and Thorne’s Adolescence is directed one-shot-style by Philip Barantini and follows the story of Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), a young boy accused of murdering a fellow school pupil, while his father Eddie (Graham) and mother Manda (Christine Demarco) wrestle with the fallout and all the implications of their son’s actions, and Jamie’s therapist (Erin Doherty) and the lead detective inspector (Ashley Walters) try to unravel what led to the crime.
Graham noted a clear audience appetite for meaty, ‘real’ stories that don’t dance around the hard stuff. “These were the kind of things that made us want to be actors,” Graham said. “Those things that held a mirror up to society and said, ‘Just have a little look at yourself for a second.’ And [co-creator] Jack [Thorne] in particular has been at the forefront of that movement from the very beginning. I mean, look, it’s no coincidence that in the one week he had #1 and #2 at the top of Netflix. One was Adolescence, the other was Toxic Town. That doesn’t just happen by chance.”
Thorne said that the current state of the industry has stacked the odds against being able to get stories like these made. “I think we’re in a moment when our industry is under pressure, right? And our industry is under pressure. It’s being made considerably harder to make the shows, particularly in Britain, that speak to the country – that’s what happens when you are in a recession. People think that the only way of making things is to make the easy choice. It means that writers are prevented from telling their stories because that conservatism travels down. It trickles down so that you get told, ‘No, what people want is detective drama with a body in the first minute that ends with a twist in the last minute.’
Industry conservatism is constricting storytelling, Thorne added. “It’s restricting all of us. It’s restricting actors, it’s restricting directors, it’s restricting writers, it’s restricting the type of people that the shows star. I’m part of the TV Access project (an initiative aimed at ensuring access provision for disabled talent). It’s restricting disability. It’s stopping us from telling the sort of stories that we want to tell in Britain and that we have told historically for years and years and years. And if we can be part of a small push to say, ‘Try letting writers tell their truth,’ then that would be amazing.”
Graham added: “Look, give me a gun and let me shoot an alien, that’s fine. That has its place. But if you look at the choices that I have made personally throughout my career, I’ve been very blessed and exceptionally fortunate to be a part of things like Help, which was beautifully written by Jack; things like Time… The same with Jack. I know I’m speaking for Erin [Doherty] as well when I’m saying this. We’re very similar, the three of us with our upbringings towards the work that we love. We were inspired by these great social realistic dramas when we were younger.”
Doherty agreed wholeheartedly, saying, “I think art is louder when it’s specific… When people have the bravery and the courage to peel back the layers and show the messy parts of what it means to be a human, I think that’s what we are ready for, and we’ve always been ready for. And stories like this being recognized in this way are literally proving that.”
Thorne is set to write the Ringo Starr installment of the upcoming Sam Mendes-directed four-part Beatles film series, but said he couldn’t speak about it at all just yet, while Graham will be seen in Scott Cooper’s upcoming biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. Graham plays Springsteen’s father Douglas, whileJ eremy Allen White stars as The Boss himself.
Of working with Springsteen, Graham said, “This sounds weird, but it’s not weird, it’s just what it is. I’ve got a really lovely new friend, and his name just happens to be Bruce, and he’s really lovely and he’s one of the most wonderful human beings I’ve ever met. I took him to the park, and we had a little look of the sculptures, and then I put him back in his fancy car and off he drove. We went for a nice little bit of lunch and stuff like, yeah, he’s a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful man.”
Next up Doherty will star as Lela in California Avenue, a new six-part drama from Hugo Blick (The Honourable Woman), with Bill Nighy and Helena Bonham playing Lela’s parents alongside Tom Burke (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga). “We shoot next month,” Doherty said. “I’m really, really buzzed about it. Obviously, I’ve got to have a little glimpse of what it’s like to work with Helena before and she really is fantastic, and I’ll get a more in-depth experience with her and Bill, which I’m so buzzed about. So yeah, I’m over the moon to get to work with the likes of those people and Tom Burke’s in it, so honestly, I’m over the moon.”
The 77th Primetime Emmys, hosted by Nate Bargatze, will take place on September 14 and will air on CBS.
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