{"id":2162478,"date":"2026-09-24T05:17:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T02:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2162478"},"modified":"2026-09-24T05:17:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T02:17:50","slug":"special-to-write-book-with-adolescence-actor-stephen-graham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2162478","title":{"rendered":"‘Special’ to write book with Adolescence actor Stephen Graham"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/0fcf\/live\/4e2d1a20-b763-11f1-8e7f-6f99c81f3136.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"DominicDominic Soar<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Letters to Our Sons, inspired by the Netflix hit series Adolescence, comes out on Thursday<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A Brighton-based lecturer who worked with Adolescence creator and star Stephen Graham on a book exploring manhood says there is “something really special” about how it has come together.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Emmy-winning actor Graham invited people to share their experiences for a book called Letters to Our Sons, published on Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Orly Klein, who described the collaboration with Graham as “an amazing stroke of luck”, said while big names pepper the book, it makes clear that fatherhood is a “great leveller”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She told BBC Radio Sussex: “It doesn’t matter how successful you are, it doesn’t matter how cool the entire world thinks you are, your teenager still finds you mortifying.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"NetflixNetflix<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Jamie, played by Owen Cooper, with Stephen Graham as his dad in Adolescence, which sparked significant national conversation<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Danny Dyer, Romesh Ranganathan, Louis Theroux, and Loyle Carner are among those who have contributed, though their entries are mixed in with others rather than being “highlighted”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Dads across Sussex, including Dan Flanagan, founder of Worthing-based Dad La Soul, also submitted letters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Graham previously said he hoped the book would be a be a “continuation of the message of Adolescence”, the Netflix series which explored toxic masculinity and the impact of mobile phones and social media on teenagers and family life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Psychology lecturer Klein said the project was inspired by her decision to ask men to write to her son when he became a teenager.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The subject? “What they think makes a good man,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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After receiving about 20 “funny” and “moving” letters, Klein began telling people about what she had read.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“There was a comment from someone one day saying, ‘that would make a great book’, so I started working on the proposal,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The link up with Graham, who contributed a letter to his own son for the book, was “an amazing stroke of luck”, Klein said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She was talking with a friend visiting from Australia who had recently started working at a literary agency and was happy to receive her proposal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A day after she sent it, her friend replied that she thought it was a good idea, adding: “By the way, I know Stephen Graham, would you mind if I ran this past him?”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Klein paused for “0.3 seconds” before agreeing, she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Klein added: “All these dads have just taken the time to sit down and think about what they wanted to say, and how they were going to say it, and I think there’s something really special about that.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Follow BBC Sussex on <\/i>Facebook<\/i>, on <\/i>X<\/i>, and on <\/i>Instagram<\/i> and listen to BBC Radio Sussex <\/i>on Sounds<\/i>. Send your story ideas to <\/i>southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk<\/i> or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c69v9223g84no”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/0fcf\/live\/4e2d1a20-b763-11f1-8e7f-6f99c81f3136.jpg”] Dominic Soar Letters to Our Sons, inspired by the Netflix hit series Adolescence, comes out on Thursday A Brighton-based lecturer who worked with Adolescence creator and star Stephen Graham on a book exploring manhood says there is “something really special” about how it has come together. Emmy-winning actor Graham invited people to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-2162478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2162478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2162478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2162478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2162478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2162478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}