Featured Image Credit: The Jimmy Fallon Show
Topics: Adolescence, Netflix, TV And Film, UK News, Crime
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: Adolescence, Netflix, TV And Film, UK News, Crime
One of the creators behind Netflix's latest smash-hit series, Adolescence, has been inundated with praise after revealing two heartbreaking true stories that inspired the storyline.
Stephen Graham not only starred in the deeply haunting four-part limited drama as Eddie Miller, father to 13-year-old son Jamie (Owen Cooper) who gets arrested for the violent murder of his female classmate, but he also co-wrote it alongside Jack Thorne.
Adolescence has been out a little over a week now and it's clear that, after rattling through the entire series in just one sitting, Netflix viewers couldn't wait to get their hands on a number of explainers and find out more about what inspired such a gripping story.
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Graham appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon earlier this week on Wednesday (19 March) where he outlined to the talk-show host the synopsis of the series: "It's a young boy who kills a young girl.
"I'm not doing any spoilers, because we found out straight away and, as a collective, we didn't want it to be a whodunnit. We wanted it to be more of a why, why he did it."
Graham went on to outline two real-life events which paved the way for the storyline, recalling: "I read an article in the paper. It was about a young boy who stabbed a young girl to death.
"And then there was a couple of months later, on the news, there was a piece about a young boy who stabbed a young girl to death, and these were at opposite ends of the country."
"It hurt my heart," the actor shared. "And I just think, what kind of a society are we living in at the moment where young boys are stabbing young girls?"
Graham then pointed to the 'beautiful saying' which goes 'it takes a village to raise a child'.
"Well, I just thought, what if we're all kind of accountable? You know, the education system, parenting, the community, the government," he continued.
Graham, a father-of-two himself, went on to point out the differences between his own coming-of-age versus what today's children's childhoods now look like.
"When we were kids, we didn't have social media," he told Fallon. "When we were kids, we were either playing out in the streets, weren't we, or we were in our rooms drawing pictures or playing keyboards or something.
"We didn't have the accessibility to all of this stuff in the world that really influences young minds."
He assured: "And I just, I wanted to take a look at it. I'm not blaming anyone. I just thought, maybe we're all accountable, and we should, you know, have a conversation about it."
"It's a heavy subject, yeah, but I think it's something that we need to look at," he resolved.
One TikTok user praised: "Amazing to see Stephen Graham getting international recognition for such an important piece of work."
Another chimed in: "Adolescence is SUPERB, important and necessary viewing for ALL parents."
"He is right - we are ALL accountable as a society," echoed a final fan.
Adolescence is available to stream on Netflix now.