Stephen Graham has issued a ‘profound’ warning to parents about the detrimental impacts of the internet after his Netflix drama Adolescence.
The one-shot drama follows the fallout after 13-year-old boy Jamie, played by newcomer Owen Cooper, is accused of murdering a girl in his class.
The four-part drama also explores how ideologies from the likes of Andrew Tate are harming young men.
Reflecting on the drama, dubbed ‘the best in a long time’, Stephen advised parents to be ‘mindful’ of external influences on their children.
The A Thousand Blows actor, 51, explained that the internet can be ‘extremely negative’ for young people.
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He told The Independent: ‘It’s just being mindful of the fact that not only we parent our children, and not only does the school educate our children, but also there are influences that we have no idea of that are having profound effects on our young culture.
‘Profound effects, positive and extremely negative; so it’s having a look at that and seeing that we’re all accountable.
The Time actor continued: ‘When we were kids, if you got sent to your room or if Kenny Everett was on the telly, and it got a bit racy, you’d be sent to your room and then you couldn’t watch it.
‘But today even within the context of that home, when lads and girls go to their bedrooms, they have the world at their fingertips.’
Stephen is a father and shares son Alfie and daughter Grace with his actress and producer wife Hannah Walters.
The Line Of Duty star previously said that Adolescence tells ‘an ordinary family’s worst nightmare’.
He told Netflix Tudum: ‘I really just wanted to shine a light on it, and ask, “Why is this happening today? What’s going on? How have we come to this?”‘
Despite the dark subject material, Adolescence has been a hit with viewers and critics alike, earning a perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes score.
On X, KongoZande said: ‘Finished #Adolescence, what an incredible show. We genuinely do not talk enough about the greatness of Stephen Graham. This final scene had me bawling.’
Echoing their sentiment, Kellam wrote: ‘Guys Adolescence on Netflix is potentially the closest thing we have to perfect tv. Severance, Paradise and now this? How greedy. All shot in one take too? Mental.’
Tim called it ‘the most sensational piece of television I’ve seen in years’, while Jiya described it as ‘truly a brilliantly crafted show’.
Director Philip Barantini and writer Jack Thorne previously spoke to Metro to discuss the importance of the conversations being sparked by the drama and why the one-shot style of filming was vital to the story.
Philip, who also directed 2019 film Boiling Point in one shot, which also starred Stephen, explained why this filming technique isn’t a ‘gimmick’, but a tool to draw the audience in to an even greater degree and ‘force them to pay attention’.
He said: ‘It’s relentless, and it puts a perspective on things that you wouldn’t necessarily have. You can’t jump forward in time, you can’t cut to another person, you can’t go to a close up.
‘We wanted to just dip the audience in for an hour in this particular moment in time, dip them back out again, and then put them in a few months later and let them work it out themselves.’
Adolescence is available to stream on Netflix.
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