Stephen Graham calls out Bafta after years of snubbing Peaky Blinders star: ‘What’s that about?’

Stephen Graham has called out Bafta for never awarding Cillian Murphy for his performance in Peaky Blinders.

Graham, 52, made the comments in a wider discussion about how acting is subjective and how he remains sceptical about award recognition.

“What we do isn’t football,” he told The Guardian. “It’s not competitive sport. There aren’t winners and losers. It’s subjective. I might think something’s a bag of shite and it gets five f***ing Baftas.”

He added: “That’s happened quite a few times, in fact.”

The This is England star went on to use Murphy as an example of when he doesn’t agree with award bodies.

“I might get myself into trouble here, but Cillian Murphy, right? Wonderful actor. He’s never won a Bafta for playing Tommy Shelby [in Peaky Blinders]!” he said.

“One of the finest performances I’ve ever seen. What the f***’s that about?”

Murphy portrayed the ruthless gangster Tommy Shelby in all six seasons of Steven Knight’s crime drama between 2013 and 2022.

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While his performance in the hit series is acclaimed, Murphy never won an Emmy or a Bafta award for the role, despite receiving a Bafta nod in 2023.

Acknowledging his own awards success with Netflix’s Adolescence, Graham noted: “Things like Adolescence, which make an impression on the collective consciousness, come from nowhere. The fact that we got it made is in itself a win.”

Since its release in March last year, Adolescence won a total of eight Emmys and is expected to continue its awards momentum into next year at the Bafta, SAG and Golden Globe awards.

More important than any award is how a show like Adolescence can get people talking, according to Graham.

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“Adolescence got people talking who don’t normally talk, about things they don’t normally talk about,” he said. “Is there any finer achievement than having a direct, immediate and positive effect worldwide on human relationships? It’s like putting something on screen which is medicine. It’s actually good for you.”

“Making an impact like that was beyond our wildest hopes,” he continued. “Having a fella come up in Tesco and say: ‘I just want to thank you. I had a really good chat with my son the other night after we watched your programme.’ No disrespect, but you can keep your awards and all that shiny bollocks. That’s the real accolade.”

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Graham is currently starring opposite Malachi Kirby and Erin Doherty in Knight’s period thriller A Thousand Blows, which returns for a second series on Disney+ on 9 January.

Graham plays renowned bare-knuckle boxer Henry “Sugar” Goodson, who is suffering from alcoholism in the second series.

Asked how he has become so good at playing drunk, Graham said: “I was the kind of kid who sat in working men’s clubs, getting cans of Coke and bags of crisps bought for me. I saw a lot of great pissheads! I tap into that.”

Graham notably also played an alcoholic in the 2019 Shane Meadows series The Virtues.