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Stephen Graham had a stellar 2025. He didn’t just play Bruce Springsteen’s father in biopic Deliver Me from Nowhere but, of course, co-created and starred in Netflix mega-hit Adolescence – the game-changing drama that sparked global debate about online misogyny, incel culture and the “manosphere”.
His friend and regular collaborator Steven Knight watched admiringly from afar as the devastating four-parter became event TV. “My God, it was a cultural phenomenon,” he says, puffing out his cheeks with pride. “Adolescence got people talking who don’t normally talk, about things they don’t normally talk about. Is there any finer achievement than having a direct, immediate and positive effect worldwide on human relationships? It’s like putting something on screen which is medicine. It’s actually good for you.”
“Making an impact like that was beyond our wildest hopes,” says Graham. “Having a fella come up in Tesco and say: ‘I just want to thank you. I had a really good chat with my son the other night after we watched your programme.’ No disrespect but you can keep your awards and all that shiny bollocks. That’s the real accolade.”
He has already won an Emmy for Adolescence and was recently nominated for a Golden Globe but Graham retains a healthy scepticism about awards recognition. “What we do isn’t football,” he says. “It’s not competitive sport. There aren’t winners and losers. It’s subjective. I might think something’s a bag of shite and it gets five fucking Baftas. That’s happened quite a few times, in fact. I might get myself into trouble here but Cillian Murphy, right? Wonderful actor. He’s never won a Bafta for playing Tommy Shelby [in Peaky Blinders]! One of the finest performances I’ve ever seen. What the fuck’s that about? Things like Adolescence, which make an impression on the collective consciousness, come from nowhere. The fact that we got it made is in itself a win.”
I am sitting down with Stephen and Steven to discuss the pyrotechnic return of their pugilistic period thriller A Thousand Blows. The debut run was a smash hit for Disney+ last year. Now comes the sequel, which interweaves the illegal bare-knuckle boxing scene with the fortunes of the Forty Elephants, an all-female crime syndicate who specialised in pickpocketing and confidence tricks.One year after the events of the first season, Jamaican boxer Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) is a shadow of his former fighting self. His deadly rival, Henry “Sugar” Goodson (Graham), is in even worse shape – estranged from his family and drinking himself to death. As the series begins, he’s straggly haired, bushy bearded and falling face down in puddles. He even has a nasty case of trenchfoot.
“I know, it’s gross,” says Graham. “Those manky feet are a metaphor for the path Sugar has trodden in the time we’ve been away. He’s at his lowest point ever. Now he has to rebuild his sense of self.” As we know from his virtuoso turn in Shane Meadows’s The Virtues, for a teetotaller, Graham is uncannily good at playing drunk. “I was the kind of kid who sat in working men’s clubs, getting cans of Coke and bags of crisps bought for me. I saw a lot of great pissheads! I tap into that.”
Graham transformed his physique for the first series. With fewer fights this time, has his training slacked off? “No, I’ve still got it going on,” he says, pulling up his T-shirt to flex impressive biceps. “Look at them! This season, the fight Sugar is having is mainly with himself. But I’m still working out. I’m filming something at the minute where I play a prisoner, so I’ve adjusted the regime.” He rubs his shaven head to illustrate the point. “More of a prison workout plan with a low-carb diet.”
Season one climaxed with Sugar beating his younger brother, Edward “Treacle” Goodson (James Nelson-Joyce) half to death. “These two boys went through hell growing up,” says Graham. “Everything Sugar did, he did for his brother. Now he’s betrayed that, so he’s questioning who he is as a human being.” That’s one beauty of basing his story on real historical figures, says Knight: “The truth gives our scripts authority. Records show that Sugar did badly beat his brother in a fight. All you need is that fact, then you’ve got a ton of stuff before it and after it to imagine.”
Nelson-Joyce has come a long way since that fateful meeting in Nando’s a decade ago, when he approached Graham and was taken under his idol’s wing. “He really has,” says Graham. “After I gave him my details, Hannah [Walters, his wife, co-star and co-producer] looked at me and went: ‘I reckon he could play your brother one day.’ And here we are. I’m dead proud of the way James’s career is progressing. He deserves every bit of his success.”
The punchy series comes out swinging for round two. This time, the bone-crunching violence spills out of the boxing ring and on to the streets of the East End. “There’s a lot more explosions and those are always exciting days to be on set,” grins Graham. “All these mad fellas and women come in and go: ‘Right, let’s blow something up over here.’ So they do it, then they always say: ‘We need bigger bangs and bigger flames. Let’s turn up the gas!’ It’s huge fun and when you see it on-screen, you go: ‘Wow.’”
“Action scenes are great as long as nothing hits you,” says Knight. “Because it does happen. Scripting a fight feels ludicrous: ‘He swings a punch, he ducks, he swings again.’ But I genuinely think our show has the most authentic boxing sequences I’ve ever seen. The punches feel real.” He pauses. “Mentioning no names, but we’ve all seen how easy it is to do them badly.”
Just as Wapping’s underworld is lacking leadership, Mary Carr (Erin Doherty), self-styled queen of the Forty Elephants, bursts back on the scene to reform her gang and reclaim her crown. As always, canny and charismatic Mary has a plan. This time, it’s riskier than ever. “Erin is unbelievable,” says Knight. “You can’t imagine anyone else playing Mary Carr. Somehow she just becomes her. I’m sure it isn’t effortless but Erin make it look like it is.”
“The only word I can use for Erin is mesmeric,” says Graham. “I could watch her reading the phone book. Mary looks after Sugar while he’s in recovery. We shot a whole day’s footage of her helping me through detox and there were scenes as an actor I’ll never forget. At one point, we sat on the floor of a bedroom above a pub and she just held me. It was a very vulnerable situation but the crew were so respectful, allowing us to stay in the moment. It was special. Something I’ll cherish deeply.”
The Forty Elephants reflect the changing world of the late Victorian era. “It’s the truth. Real social history, rather than the stuff you read in textbooks. They ran their own organisation and were incredibly successful. Newspapers of the time were outraged and said: ‘How shocking that ladies are doing this,’ but nobody on the streets was surprised. Most working-class families are run by the mother. The only place equality wasn’t acknowledged was in the political system. In their own way, the Forty Elephants are like the suffragettes, looking around and saying: ‘Wait a minute, this is ridiculous.’”
The two Steves are regular partners in crime, having worked together on Peaky Blinders, Taboo and A Christmas Carol. What do they admire about each other’s work? Graham goes first: “Growing up, I loved writers who told working-class stories, like Alan Bleasdale, Jimmy McGovern and Willy Russell. They’re one of the reasons I’m an actor today. Steve has that quality, too. You can imagine him writing Educating Rita. He creates these magical worlds with humour, heart and human struggle. To be in his thought process when he writes is an honour. It’s the food that gives me life.” “The motivation for me is that he’s just so good,” says Knight. “If it’s possible to get Stephen into something, then I will, because I know he’s going to be fantastic.”
Next up for the pair is the long-awaited Peaky Blinders film, The Immortal Man, which dons its razor-sharp cap and swaggers on to screens in March. “I’m not allowed to talk about it but it’s fucking brilliant,” Knight says proudly. “I’m so excited that it’s coming soon.” Graham reprises his role from the TV series as Liverpool dockyard union leader Hayden Stagg. “It was a total riot to make,” he says. “I don’t normally get to do the kind of things I do in this film, so I had a lot of fun.” What kind of things? “I can’t say, can I? You won’t catch me out!”
Knight is now writing the screenplay for the next James Bond film. “I can’t say anything about that either. Apart from it’s a dream come true.” If he’s in the market for a scouse 007, he doesn’t need to look far. “I’d rather be a villain,” says Graham. “It’d be more fun.” Knight nods: “Every great actor that I’ve spoken to has said that. They’d all rather be the villain.”
He’s also been working on the third series of BBC wartime romp SAS: Rogue Heroes. The drama has led to petitions in parliament to award maverick hero Blair “Paddy” Mayne (played by Jack O’Connell) a posthumous medal. “I’m 110% in support of the campaign to give Paddy the recognition he deserves,” says Knight. “His incredible courage, mental strength and battlefield intelligence helped turn a crucial chapter of the war in favour of Britain. There’s no logical reason not to acknowledge this.”
Knight’s approach to period drama views society from the bottom up, not the top down. “Why wouldn’t you do it that way?” he says. “The best stories are in those places. In any taxi or Uber, the driver’s story will almost certainly be more interesting than the passenger’s. The themes of A Thousand Blows – poverty, migration, prejudice, family, ambition, the fight for survival – are just as relevant today. There’s loads more stories I’d like to tell. I want to do something about Shakespeare.”
The pair are both frighteningly prolific. Are they the busiest men in showbiz? “Quite possibly!” laughs Graham. “It’s taken me 30 years to become an overnight success but that’s sweet. I adore what I do. I’m a grownup Mr Benn and I love it.”
“Me too,” says Knight. “I’d sit down and write stuff even if nobody wanted me to. It doesn’t feel like an effort, it’s just putting it into words fast enough.” Knight didn’t write Peaky Blinders until his 50s. Does he wish he’d become a dramatist earlier? “I do, actually. It all goes back to class. It takes 20 years to recover from a working-class upbringing. It took me that long to believe I was as good as other people, if not better.” This chimes with Graham: “It took me ages to get rid of that imposter syndrome. It’s only dissipated completely in the past five years.”
Hectic schedules permitting, will A Thousand Blows be back for round three? “Fingers crossed,” says Graham. “Steve has ideas for it that are next level! If the stars align, there could be a whopper on its way. That’s all I’ll say.” Knight is staying tight-lipped. “I refer you to the answer previously given by my honourable friend,” he smiles.
I leave the Steves lamenting the fortunes of their respective football teams, Liverpool and Birmingham City. “We’re the only team in Europe who failed to score a goal during the reign of a pope,” says Knight. “That’s our proud boast.” Graham is delighted by this: “That’s an amazing stat! You’ve got to squeeze that into a script sometime.” You wouldn’t put it past him.
A Thousand Blows is on Disney+ from Friday 9 January.
