Stephen Graham received rave reviews when Boiling Point arrived on Netflix in early 2022, but he never expected to be reprising the role of troubled chef, Andy Jones.
Shot in one continuous 90-minute take, the movie told the tale of a stressful shift for Andy and his employees at an upmarket restaurant — yet ended with him collapsed on the floor after a suspected heart attack.
So Stephen was very surprised when the film's director Philip Barantini got in touch telling him the BBC had asked them to make a spin-off series!
"I said 'That sounds like a great idea, but I'm dead!' He just replied 'Or are you?'" explained the 50-year-old star at a recent press event. "The film stands alone and we were all slightly reticent. Can we touch it, can we not? But in the end we put our heads together and found a way of picking up the story while maintaining the film's integrity."
The four-part series rejoins the team six months after the night of Andy's collapse, with his former sous chef Carly (Vinette Robinson, Six Four) now leading their old team as head chef at a new restaurant, Point North.
The new restaurant's aim is to put a modern twist on traditional Northern food, yet keeping the business afloat during increasingly straightened times for the hospitality sector is no mean feat.
With the restaurant desperate for cash, Carly is keen to impress a group of investors who come for a tasting session, yet when her elderly mother’s emergency alarm is activated she’s forced to leave the kitchen on a night that could make or break the restaurant’s future.
"I think that window into Carly’s home life shows why she throws herself so forcefully into the kitchen," explains Vinette. "Addiction is one of the themes of the show and Carly is addicted to her work. She tries to be the opposite of Andy as she doesn’t want to be that volatile head chef who’s shouting at people, but I think all of that just comes out in a different way for her."
After leaving her second-in-command Freeman (Ray Panthanki, Marcella) in charge things soon start to unravel, especially for new arrival Johnny (Stephen Odubola), who’s lied about his qualifications in a bid to get a job in Carly’s kitchen.
Meanwhile, an embittered Andy sits at home contemplating his bad fortune until his old colleague Emily (played by Stephen’s real-life wife, Hannah Walters) pays him a visit in the hope of raising his spirits.
"Emily’s relationship with Andy is vital and it’s also the only way we could think of getting me back in the show," says Stephen. "We knew Carly had moved on, but we wanted to think of a way for Andy’s story to run alongside the drama that was going on in the restaurant. Andy and Carly were good friends, but now there’s this rift between them, so we had to find a way of bringing them back together."
The 2021 film was lauded by critics and viewers alike for the cast and crew’s skill at shooting the entire movie in one uninterrupted take and director Philip Barantini says the BBC asked him to do the same with this series.
Yet Philip soon realised filming a four-part series like that would limit the scope of the drama, however this week’s first episode does begin with a tense 11 minute one take that re-introduces viewers to the team.
"In order to tie in the film with the show we opened with a one-take and there are other long takes in the series," explains Philip, who's seen on set with Stephen Graham below. "But ultimately we wanted to explore these characters out of the kitchen and go home with them and follow other stories. If we’d followed them home one-take it would be an episode of them sitting on the tube!"
Philip and Stephen Graham have been good friends since starring in Band of Brothers together in 2001, yet in recent years Barantini has increasingly swapped acting for directing. Indeed a short version of Boiling Point filmed in 2019, upon which the 2021 one-take feature film was based, was made with the sole purpose of getting him an agent.
"The concept was brilliant," says Stephen. "We shot the short film over a weekend and then I showed it to my agent, who said it was fantastic. She showed it to everyone in her office and asked if anyone was interested in taking Philip on and within a couple of days he had an agent. That was the main objective at the start, so we never dreamed it would end up getting a feature film and a BBC spin-off series!"
But the success of the film has allowed Stephen — whose production team has created the series — to give opportunities to people who wouldn’t normally have found themselves in the limelight.
"We wanted to create a platform for people to show their skills," he explains. "There were a couple of roles we could have given to big name actors, but we didn't want to do that, because we wanted to create opportunities for people. All the performances are brilliant and I’m so proud of it as a piece of television."
Boiling Point begins on BBC1 on Sunday 1st October at 9 pm
