Shortly before “Adolescence” launched on Netflix, Stephen Graham turned to Hannah Walters, his wife, producing partner and regular on-screen co-star and said: “Oh God, love, I haven’t got a job!”
She was quick to console him.
“I think you’re gonna be alright — but don’t worry, have a bit of time off.”
Neither Graham nor Walters had any idea what sort of reaction “Adolescence” — the four-part drama they co-produced that tells the gut-wrenching story of a British family whose world is turned upside down when their outwardly normal 13-year-old son is arrested for the murder of a girl in his class — would generate. Written by Jack Thorne and Graham (who also stars as the boy’s distraught father) and directed by Philip Barantini, the show came with the added creative quirk of having had each episode shot in one continuous take. It wasn’t your average crime series.
But “Adolescence” soon became the most talked about show of the year so far — an international water cooler moment like little else before it and hailed for both the powerfully contemporary message of its emotionally-shattering storyline and the technical feat of its intricately-choreographed production. Time off or a lack of work is not something that Graham — who was soon being flown to New York to discuss the show with Jimmy Fallon — has had to worry about.
“It’s been overwhelming,” says Walters of the reaction, speaking to Variety alongside Graham from their home office — the central base of the duo’s Matriarch Productions, which produced “Adolescence” (and where their two white labradoodles, Bonnie and Clyde, occasionally poke their noses around the door).
“Somebody sent us an email saying that he’d been the business for 38 years and had never known anything to have had an impact like that,” she adds. “We’re number one in 80 countries, including Saudi Arabia, India, Australia… it’s just incredible. I didn’t think the subject matter would resonate with the world, but it really has.”
The numbers speak for them themselves. In the U.K., “Adolescence” shattered records, becoming the very first streaming show to top weekly ratings. Globally, having opened with a massive 24.3 million views in its first four days, it then climbed to 66.3 million after two weeks — a new Netflix record for a limited series.
On his trip to New York, Graham says he bumped into a wealthy, elderly couple — “elegant, 5th Avenue money … she had a cashmere top on” — and the woman burst into tears upon seeing him, saying she just wanted to give him a hug. “It’s a very powerful piece, that’s very important for today,” the man told Graham while insisting on shaking his hand. Minutes later, he met a young man emptying the bins around the back of his hotel. “Oh man, I’ve been watching your TV show, it’s great,” he told him.
“I suppose what I’m trying to say is that we had no idea that it would impact socially the way it has, but it seems to have cut through all the race, creed and hierarchical structures of society with the message that it’s carrying about our youth,” he says.
Alongside its phenomenal performance, “Adolescence” is also having a much deeper and more profound impact, one Graham says is “beyond their wildest dreams.”
While Walters claims she’s received “lots of beautiful and heartfelt messages” on social media about the show, she adds that they’ve not just been from parents worried about the dangers of incel culture and male rage on their children. “Many have actually come from young people, saying ‘thank you, because you’ve allowed me to be able to speak to my parents about something that I didn’t know how to address.’”
There have already been calls for “Adolescence” to be shown in schools (Walters says she’s been pushing for this too and “rattling a few cages,” with Netflix working on it as well).
Of course, away from potentially being the catalyst for societal changes, when a show generates a fraction of the attention as “Adolescence,” talk quickly moves to repeating the success with another. Although it was originally developed as a one-off, there’s little chance that Netflix hasn’t already been in touch about a sequel. It’s something both Graham and Walters loosely acknowledge, although they point out that absolutely nothing is official.
“Possibly, let’s see how the figures are,” says Graham with a smirk (the figures are, obviously, off the chart). “But yeah, there’s the possibility of developing another story.”
While Walters says she’d happily work with Netflix again “all day long,” she says “it’s hard” to follow up something that has had such an incredible impact.
“A prequel to Adolescence, that’s certainly not going to happen,” she says. “But there’s so much mileage in the one-shot and so much mileage in investing into human nature again and looking at something else. But yeah, everything’s looking good … everyone’s happy, shall we say?”
Walters also adds that, while Matriarch has a development deal with the U.K.-based Warp Films, which they brought on board for “Adolescence,” there’s yet to be a conversation about setting up a more formal partnership with Netflix, which would feel like another obvious next — and well-trodden — step (the streamer snapped up “Baby Reindeer” creator Richard Gadd on a first-look deal months after his show aired).
“When they want to have that conversation, my door is open,” she says. “That’s organically the way that you think it’s going to go, but we’ll see.”
As Graham quickly adds: “She’s already got irons in lots of fire, from little tiny things to lots of massive, ridiculous things!”
Matriarch is definitely having a bit of a moment, but it’s a moment that has been growing from almost the day that Graham and Walters launched the company in 2020 (merely weeks before the pandemic).
Since then, the company has produced a BAFTA-nominated film in real-time kitchen thriller “Boiling Point” (also shot in one-take and also directed by Barantini), a “Boiling Point” spin-off series for the BBC, Disney+’s recently-launched and critically acclaimed “A Thousand Blows” about boxing in Victorian-era London, and now “Adolescence.”
“It’s not bad for a couple of years,” says Walters.
Coming up for the company, the second season of “A Thousand Blows” is already in the can, having shot back-to-back alongside the first. The rest of Matriarch’s slate is still under wraps, but covers what Walters describes as “high level entertainment in blockbuster series and more beautiful human nature stories.” There are also some indie features being developed, while books have been optioned.
For all the near-instant glory behind the camera, Walters notes that she initially had “imposter syndrome” about becoming a producer (for all his increasingly underlined status as one of the U.K. finest actors, “imposter syndrome” is something Graham has discussed before as well).
“I felt like I wasn’t ready to take that step, in case I wasn’t good enough to do it,” she says. “But I’ve learned how to fly and fly quite quickly. And it actually turns out I’m not so bad at it!”
With Walters as the driving force spearheading Matriarch’s slate behind the scenes (Graham notes she easily spends upwards of 12 hours a day having meetings from their office), her husband is happy to be called upon when she wants him to read something (or, in some cases, be used as the star-powered “leverage” so networks allow them to pick the rest of their cast).
“It’s funny how you’re always busy when I’m having all those meetings,” Walters jokes to Graham, who quickly responds: “You’re the brains. Who wants the monkey when you’ve got the organ grinder?”
When Matriarch was first established, one of its key principles was to give a platform to underrepresented voices, which is something they claim they’ve proudly been able to achieve.
Walters says that that training schemes were put in place across their shows in “every single department,” pulling resources from U.K. skills organizations such as ScreenSkills and Fully Focused, who she says “work with youth and people who would otherwise not have any chance of getting into this industry.”
On “Adolescence,” they invited a local community group to get involved and learn about the production process, giving work experience to several members of the public.
“And we’re not just talking about young people here, we’re talking about middle aged people that have always dreamed of getting into the business, but had no idea how to.”
Graham also says that, on a few occasions, they’ve used company finances to help pay rent for some of their young crew, “so that they can have that opportunity — and what that enables them to do then is save the money from this job and, when they go to the next, they’ve got their rent.”
The aim, says Walters, is for their operation to “be a blueprint” amid the calls for “diversity and inclusivity and opportunity” so fellow producers can actually “walk the walk” rather than just spend time talking about it.
There’s a lot of love between Walters and Graham, who happily — and somewhat delightfully — sing each other’s praises when it comes to their work (Walters notes that, while Graham may dodge the many development meetings, on set he comes into his own as a producer —“I actually think he should direct one day”).
There’s also a lot of love for the team of creatives they’ve amassed around them.
Alongside frequent collaborators Thorne (who has written several hit TV shows starring Graham) and Barantini, there’s director of photography Matthew Lewis (who they took from “Boiling Point” to “A Thousand Blows” to “Adolescence”), series producer Jo Johnson (“A Thousand Blows,” “Adolescence” and “an absolute angel,” says Graham. “Her and Hannah were the glue that held [“Adolescence”] together”) and assistant director Sarah Lucas (“I can’t say enough about Sarah Lucas, she’s phenomenal,” says Walters).
But, and especially for a show such as “Adolescence” which required such painstaking levels of complex choreography behind the camera, they’re equally keen to highlight the importance of each and every individual involved in the process.
“Every person is like a piece of the jigsaw, be that the guy in facilities, the drivers, the HoDs and every single person in that department,” says Graham.
Then there’s also the on-screen talent, which includes Erin Doherty, who role as the psychologist in the flawless and sure-to-be Emmy-nominated third episode of “Adolescence” was pitched to her as she was on set with Graham as one of the leads for Matriarch’s “A Thousand Blows” alongside Malachi Kirby. Ashley Walters, meanwhile, directed several episodes of “A Thousand Blows” (his first time in the director’s chair), and then joined the cast of “Adolescence” as the police detective leading the murder investigation in episodes one and two. Walters will soon start shooting his feature directorial debut, starring — of course — Graham. The Walters and Graham family seemingly extends far beyond their two children and labradoodles.
“If we know that someone’s brilliant, then we’ll take them forward again,” says Graham. “It’s like a team.”
And of course, no mention of the “Adolescence” cast is complete without discussing Owen Cooper, who plays the teenage boy at the center of the story. Cooper hadn’t worked with Walters or Graham before, but only because he hadn’t worked with anyone before — the show being his very first acting role. Graham credits Drama Mob, a “fantastic local drama school” in Manchester for training his young lead, whose head-turning breakout has already landed him a part in Emerald Fennel’s “Wuthering Heights.”
There was one piece of casting in “Adolescence” that required some coercion — Walters herself. Despite having appeared in all of Matriarch’s previous productions (she plays the maternal sous chef in “Boiling Point” and us one of the Forty Elephants’ gang members in “A Thousand Blows”) and numerous other projects alongside her husband, she had opted not to star in “Adolescence.”
But Thorne had other ideas, writing her a small role as a teacher in episode two.
“So we had to persuade her and bully her — and basically forced her to be in it,” says Graham.
As Walters notes: “I even lost another job!”
Given the impact of “Adolescence,” she’s probably gonna be alright.
From Variety US