Adolescence star Ashley Walters has said he ‘f***ing regretted’ saying yes to his hero Stephen Graham after gruelling hours on the set of the Netflix show.
The intense drama, which is inspired by 24 Hours in Police Custody, centres on a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering a schoolgirl, and is the brainchild of Stephen.
Top Boy actor Ashley takes on the role of DI Luke Bascombe in the critically acclaimed four-part production, uniquely shot in nearly hour-long continuous single takes.
At the show’s premiere at Bafta headquarters in London, Ashley spoke of his delight at being asked by his ‘friend and mentor’ Stephen, 51, to take part in the hard-hitting production.
Ashley, 42, said: ‘Regardless of what the job was going to be, I would have said yes anyway.
‘You never say no to Stephen Graham.
Adolescence star Ashley Walters has said he ‘f***ing regretted’ saying yes to his hero Stephen Graham after gruelling hours on the set of the Netflix show
Top Boy actor Ashley takes on the role of DI Luke Bascombe in the critically acclaimed four-part production, uniquely shot in nearly hour-long continuous single takes
‘He has a heart of gold, he’s one of the purest guys in this industry, as far as I’m concerned.
‘I’ve worked with a lot of people, they are not all like him. So to work with people that you love, respect, is so rare in this game.
‘So when you get the opportunity, you do it. And that’s what it was.’
The whole series took three months to film. Each episode took three weeks to complete, with the first week devoted to script runthrough, the second week to technical rehearsals, and the third to filming.
As the show makers needed a perfect hour of television in one continuous take, it required multiple versions to be filmed.
The cast and crew filmed 10 single-take versions over episode one of the series, and ended up using take two. While it wasn’t until take 14 when they got it perfect for episode two.
But Ashley had not anticipated quite how gruelling the unique filmmaking method would be, and humorously confessed: ‘When I got there… I f****** regretted it.’
He continued: ‘It was the hardest thing in the world. No, no it was. I was so insecure. I was so insecure, and it’s a lot. I had to learn the whole script.
‘And I had a lot to say in that first episode. And you’re leading a lot of it, as well. A lot of it is police jargon and whatever.’
The drama which is inspired by 24 Hours in Police Custody, centres on a 13-year-old boy (Owen Cooper, left) accused of murdering a schoolgirl, and is the brainchild of Stephen
As the show makers needed a perfect hour of television in one continuous take, it required multiple versions to be filmed
His confession prompted laughter from the crowd and was followed by a vivid account of the experience. ‘Every day, Phil [Barantini, the director] will tell you, I was in tears! Every day I was going home, crying in my script.’
Ashley also revealed his behind-the-scenes preparations when he joined a real police raid in Liverpool with his co-star, Stephen’s cousin – who Stephen clarified ‘was the copper, by the way’.
Despite the top police operation turning out to be an ‘anti-climax’ he found it beneficial.
He said: ‘It was all irrelevant. It was fun and I got to see procedure and stuff like that, but actually, the heart of that character is him being a dad. That’s the connection.
‘And, I think, for Bascombe, someone who’s dealing with these sorts of cases a lot, he wanted justice for the little girl, he wanted justice for that family.’
The upcoming Netflix series sees Stephen play the father of a 13-year-old boy, played by Owen Cooper, who is arrested for the murder of a young girl.
As an Executive Producer on the show, Stephen said the idea for the series came to him from looking at the epidemic of knife crime in the UK.
Speaking at the Next On Netflix event, the father of two said: ‘The idea came as – over the past ten years or so – we’ve seen an epidemic of knife crime amongst young lads, up and down the country.
‘And for me, there were certain instances that really stuck out where young boys – and they are young boys, you know, they’re not men – were killing young girls.
As an Executive Producer on the show, Stephen said the idea for the series came to him from looking at the epidemic of knife crime in the UK
‘We’re all guilty of it, because that’s the easy common denominator. I just thought, “what if that’s not the case at all?” That was it.’
Speaking about playing alongside 13-year-old Owen, Stephen said he was very aware of turning young kids down, resulting in one scene having 400 children in it.
‘We were conscious not to say, “thank you very much, and see you later, ta-rah”,’ he said.
‘And without being disrespectful, when these things are on the news, your judgement instantly goes to blaming the family, you blame the mum and dad.
‘We knew that we wanted one kid, but the others in the final selection – we gave them the opportunity to play other characters within our piece.
‘You can break their little hearts in this position. And that’s not what you want to do.
‘You want to make these kids go, “wow, okay, I can”. So they all have roles within the show. Each and every one of the kids were absolutely superb.
‘In episode two, there’s 400 in one shot.’
All four episodes of Adolescence are available to stream on Netflix now.
