Stephen Graham criticises the portrayal of working class families in British dramas and claims they are made to look 'miserable'

Stephen Graham has criticised the portrayal of working class families in British dramas.

The actor, 51, who claims to have a working class background, feels it is often misinterpreted in TV shows.

Stephen revealed he grew up in a 'block of flats' with his mother and had a lot of laughter in his childhood.

In a recent interview with The Sunday Times, Stephen said working class families are often treated 'like an art project' and shown as 'miserable' in TV.

He said: 'Things can be hard but there’s also a lot of laughter. My childhood was full of it and being able to represent where I’m from is integral to me. Too often I’ll watch stuff and think they’re treating the working class like an art project.

'It’s very condescending. "Ooh, look at the poor!" But I’m proud to be this mixed-race working-class kid from a block of flats. [Graham has a Jamaican grandfather].

'Pops was a head paediatric nurse and Mum was a social worker. She worked really hard and wanted a better life for herself and for me.'

It comes after Stephen revealed how he gave all the kids who auditioned for a role in his new series, Adolescence, a part because he couldn't ‘break their hearts’.

The upcoming Netflix series sees Graham 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, Graham, 51, 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.

‘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’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.’ 

Each episode of the series is filmed all in one take without any cuts and is said to give the viewer an ‘immersive feeling’.

Speaking about playing alongside thirteen-year-old Owen Morris, Graham 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.

‘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.’

The four-part series also stars Ashley Walters, 42, and Erin Doherty, 32 and will premiere on Netflix March 13.

Other shows announced at the event included Havoc, an action thriller fronted by Tom Hardy, an untitled Victoria Beckham documentary and  Lena Dunham romcom Too Much.