The original version of this article was written by Jess Bacon and published on 2 September 2024.
Stephen Graham has appeared in some of the most successful British dramas and Hollywood blockbusters in the past two decades. The Liverpudlian actor got his break with small roles in Guy Ritchie’s crime comedy, Snatch, from 2000 and Martin Scorsese’s historical drama, Gangs of New York in 2002, but it wasn’t until 2006 when he landed the role of Andrew Gascoigne in the This is England that he confirmed his place as one of the most exciting English actors of his generation.
Despite becoming something of a Scorsese regular, Graham’s best roles have arguably come on the small screen, where the actor has used the time and space awarded by long-form drama to showcase the breadth of his talents. With three richly deserved Emmys for his work on Adolescence in the bag, it feels like the right time to round up the actor’s finest work. We’ve ranked ten performances in ascending order; use the guide below to find out where to stream them on platforms like BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere.
10. Public Enemies (2009)
Set in 1933, Public Enemies focuses on the FBI manhunt to capture John Dillinger and is one of the many mob-based stories that Graham has featured in over the course of his career. If you liked Graham in movies like The Irishman or shows like Boardwalk Empire, this is an earlier role you might want to check out.
Johnny Depp stars as Dillinger with Christian Bale playing FBI agent Melvin Purvis, the man in pursuit. Director Michael Mann cast Graham to play Baby Face Nelson, a notorious bank robber who became Dillinger’s right-hand man—it’s a role that suits his abilities to the ground.
9. Snatch (2000)
When people think of Guy Ritchie’s Snatch, they usually think of the way Brad Pitt says “dags”, but the movie was also Stephen Graham’s big break. Fans of Ritchie’s and Jason Statham’s early movies like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels will want to see this.
Statham and Graham play Turkish and Tommy, two boxing promoters who end up way over their heads when their fighter, Gorgeous George, gets knocked out by Pitt’s bare-knuckle boxer and Irish traveller, Mickey O’Neil. It’s a great early example not only of Graham’s screen presence but also his comic timing.
8. The Irishman (2019)
Graham was already well established in the Scorsese roster when the legendary director offered him the role of Tony Pro, a powerful member of the Genovese crime family, in The Irishman—a movie for fans of epic mob sagas like Once Upon a Time in America and The Godfather.
Again, Graham plays a supporting role here, but his scene-stealing performance is incredibly memorable, not least for a particularly fiery showdown with Al Pacino’s Jimmy Hoffa. Even he can’t seem to believe that he got to do it.
7. Line of Duty (2019)
Not everyone loved Line of Duty Season 5, but even the detractors had nothing bad to say about Graham’s performance. Focusing on an organised crime group, it’s probably the murkiest season of the long-running anthology show. If you’re into series like Gangs of London and Luther, though, you’ll definitely enjoy getting into Line of Duty’s expansive world.
Graham is typically nuanced and hard to pin down as undercover officer John Corbett, a character who keeps you guessing for the series’ six-episode arc.
6. Boiling Point (2021)
Boiling Point is a nerve-wracking cooking movie that fans of The Bear and The Menu will love. It’s also the first time that Graham collaborated with Philip Barantini, the director of Adolescence, and fans of that show will be just as drawn to this movie’s intensity and single-shot structure.
Taking place over the course of a couple of hours in a London restaurant, just as service starts up, Graham is brilliantly unhinged as the coked-up head chef trying to keep it together as the world around him falls apart.
5. Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014)
Boardwalk Empire is one of those shows that deserves to be considered in the pantheon of TV’s second Golden Age—so if you like the high-quality HBO series from that time, like The Sopranos and The Wire, it’s about time you gave this one a shot.
Again, Graham isn’t playing the lead here (that’s left to great actors like Steve Buscemi and Michael Pitt), but as usual, he steals every scene with his performance as Al Capone.
4. The Virtues (2019)
In 2019, Graham reunited with Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne, the director and co-writer of This is England, to make The Virtues, a low-key triumph about a man struggling with addiction who returns to Ireland to find a sister he hasn’t seen in years. The Virtues might not have quite the same name recognition as Graham’s most famous work, but for any fan of his and Meadows’ work, this is highly recommended viewing.
The show is one of the many projects that Graham and Thorne have collaborated on, so if you admire what they recently achieved with Adolescence, you might want to give it a shot.
3. Time (2021)
Sharing the screen with the great Sean Bean, Graham was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the television BAFTAs for his performance in Time, a prison-based anthology drama that won best miniseries at that year’s awards. You won’t want to miss it if you’re interested in British prison dramas like Starred Up.
Over three episodes, Graham brings incredible depth to the role of Eric McNally, a prison officer tasked with supervising Bean’s prisoner, Mark Cobden. Written by fellow Liverpudlian Jimmy McGovern, it’s a portrayal of the UK prison system that offers social critique along with a welcome amount of empathy. And as usual, Graham is incredible.
2. Adolescence (2025)
It might have just missed out on the top of this list, but Adolescence is undoubtedly the crowning achievement of Graham’s career so far. If you like issue-based drama and gripping storytelling (the exceptional Riz Ahmed show The Night Of comes to mind), this is one you should binge immediately.
Re-teaming with his Boiling Point director Philip Barantini, and longtime collaborator Jack Thorne, Graham did the unlikely: create a thrilling, technically daring, megahit show that also tackled some of the biggest issues of the day—namely the dehumanising side effects that screens might be having on young people.
Graham is phenomenal as Eddie Miller, a father attempting to process the unprocessable. The show has won eight Emmys, three of which went to the actor and co-writer—a wonderful achievement that has only further confirmed him as a national treasure.
1. This Is England (2006 — 2015)
No one who saw Shane Meadows’s This Is England ever forgets the experience, and Graham’s career-defining and still career-best performance as Cosmo, the skinhead with a soul, is one of the main reasons why. Meadows captured lightning in a bottle with his young cast, especially lead actor Thomas Turgoose as his stand-in, Shaun, but it’s Graham’s jagged warmth that holds the film together, giving it its spark of electricity and lurking danger.
Meadows’ examination of Britain’s 1980s far-right subculture was met with widespread critical acclaim that continued with three additional series: This is England ’86, This is England ’88, and This is England ’90. Graham appears in all of them, but it’s Meadows’ 2006 original that remains, IMO, the actor’s finest moment.
