Adolescence’s Hannah Walters had to buy new suitcase to hold show’s awards

Adolescence actress and producer Hannah Walters said she and her husband, co-creator Stephen Graham, had to buy a new suitcase in order to hold the show’s many awards.

The 51-year-old said they had to make the purchase after the Netflix drama series won eight Emmy Awards, including one for Walters and three for Graham.

She told the Christmas edition of the Big Issue magazine: “The past three years has been chaotic and exciting, and it ramped up this year.

“It’s gone pretty bonkers, we never imagined it would be like this.

“We had to buy another suitcase when we came back from Los Angeles, because Stephen got three and I got one (trophy).

“When the luggage was coming round on the carousel, we let our bag of clothes go round about four times because we were too busy looking for the new suitcase with all the Emmys in it.”

The star of the four-part drama, Owen Cooper, 16, become the youngest male actor to win an Emmy, when he took home the award for outstanding supporting actor in a limited or anthology series or movie, then aged 15.

Speaking in the Big Issue, three-time Oscar-winner Daniel Day Lewis praised Cooper, and called Adolescence an “outstanding piece of work”.

He said: “That lad, Owen Cooper, is extraordinary, the scene he has with Erin Doherty, who is a wonderful actress, the two of them, is incredible.

“Everything. There’s no point separating one piece from another because it’s so integral.

“Even the stuff they shot in the school, I couldn’t believe it. How did you do that with these throngs of hostile school kids roaming around?

“Somehow they made it work. I’m so proud of Stephen Graham – we worked together briefly many years ago and kept in touch.”

Adolescence features This Is England star Graham as Eddie Miller, the father of 13-year-old Jamie, played by Cooper, when armed police burst into his home to arrest his son.

Eddie is then chosen as Jamie’s appropriate adult, accompanying him at the police interview and learning the extent of what his son is accused of doing.

The programme, co-written by Graham and Jack Thorne, examines so-called incel (involuntary celibate) culture, which has led to misogyny online and bullying using social media.

Adolescence has prompted a national conversation around online safety, with Graham and Thorne accepting an invite to a parliamentary meeting on the subject by Labour MP Josh MacAlister.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has also praised the show, urging Parliament and schools to watch it, and saying he had watched the show with his own children.

The full interviews can be read in the Big Issue Christmas Spectacular, on sale from Monday for the next two weeks from street vendors across the UK.