Killed with one blow: the true story behind Punch at the Young Vic

As in his state of the nation dramas like Sherwood, This House, Dear England and the recent Brian and Maggie, Graham again uses an individual story to examine systems. “Jacob goes through most of the systems in our society: school, the police, the courts, job centres, prison, probation, youth work, social work,” he says. “What’s refreshing and exhilarating for me, as a writer lucky enough to talk about big picture ‘national’ themes, is that this is politics on a local level – the place most people interface with the state and experience all of its shortcomings, and – occasionally – its potential.”