Stephen Graham has played skinheads, pirates and New York gangsters throughout his celebrated career, but the Bafta winner may have just taken on his most sinister role yet.
The reviews are in for Apple TV+ crime drama Nocturne ahead of its debut on Friday, with critics saying that Graham’s performance as a sadistic serial killer is up there with Anthony Hopkins’ turn in Hannibal.
Based on Lars Kepler’s novels Lazarus and The Sandman, Nocturne stars Liev Schreiber as homicide detective Jonah, who returns to an abduction case he’d previously abandoned when one of the two missing children turns up three years later. He must come face-to-face once again with convicted serial killer Jurek Walter, whom he previously suspected of being behind the kidnapping, to get answers.
Reviews of the show have been mixed, however all have praised Graham’s performance as one of the most frightening of his career.
“I think the torch may finally have passed from Anthony Hopkins as the screen’s most profoundly unsettling and instantly-absorbed-by-the-cultural-imagination serial killer,” The Guardian wrote in its four-star review, adding that the actor is “mesmerising and utterly terrifying” as the “manipulative monster”.
Meanwhile, Digital Spy gave the drama five stars, describing Graham’s creepy turn as “one of the most terrifying performances this year”.
“Graham pairs Jurek's unstable demeanour with a chilling laugh that is terrifyingly childlike, innocent yet laced with something dark and bitter,” they added. “You can't help but be mesmerised by the way he makes your skin crawl.”
The Radio Times was less effusive about Nocturne, giving it just two stars and arguing that “multiple characters, timelines and plotlines get in each other’s way” – although, Graham, they said, is “the main attraction”.
“His take on a Lecterish monster is a deliberately jarring mix of muscular physical presence and a wheedling sing-song voice, with extra freakiness in the details,” they wrote.
Speaking earlier this year about the role, Graham revealed that he watched a number of true-crime documentaries about serial killers to prepare.
“What I learnt through studying all those documentaries is the manipulation they’re capable of. They have to be charming in a certain way,” he told The Times. “I like to immerse myself in the research, really understand it, and then throw it away and be in the moment.”
He also revealed that he wouldn’t have been cast in the role if it hadn’t been for the success of his Netflix drama Adolescence.
Earlier this year, the harrowing crime drama – written by Graham and Jack Thorne – made Bafta history when it swept the television awards. It took home four trophies, winning best limited drama, best leading actor (Graham), best supporting actress (Christine Tremarco) and best supporting actor (Owen Cooper).
While Thorne previously revealed that there were no plans for a second series of the hit show – which follows the family of a 13-year-old schoolboy when he’s accused of murdering a girl at his school – it was reported in July that Kate Winslet had been tipped to star in a follow-up to the drama.
Nocturne arrives on Apple TV+ on Friday 30 October.
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