{"id":38839,"date":"2023-10-29T10:00:44","date_gmt":"2023-10-29T09:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1914739"},"modified":"2023-10-29T15:56:04","modified_gmt":"2023-10-29T14:56:04","slug":"time-season-2-review-prison-drama-is-bbc-at-its-very-best","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/time-season-2-review-prison-drama-is-bbc-at-its-very-best\/","title":{"rendered":"Time season 2 review: Prison drama is BBC at its very best"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jodie Whittaker, Tamara Lawrance and Bella Ramsey star in the follow-up to Jimmy McGovern’s award-winning series. <\/p>

By Abby Robinson\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Sunday, 29 October 2023 at 09:00 AM<\/p>

\n\n
<\/div> 4.0 out of 5 star rating<\/span> <\/span> <\/div> <\/div>

The first season of Jimmy McGovern\u2019s prison drama Time was, in my humble opinion, the very best of 2021, and one of the most affecting pieces of television I\u2019ve ever watched. Long after the final credits had rolled, I couldn\u2019t stop thinking about Sean Bean\u2019s Mark Cobden in particular, but I was also haunted by the unthinkable dilemma faced by prison officer Eric McNally (Stephen Graham), and the story of young prisoner Daniel (Jack McMullen).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It moved me in a way I simply didn\u2019t anticipate from a story set within that world. I didn\u2019t expect to care so much<\/em> about those men, even with the full knowledge of the crimes they had committed, which speaks to my own preconceptions and prejudices about the incarcerated.<\/p>\n

That remains a key concern of the drama\u2019s second season<\/a>, which McGovern co-wrote alongside Helen Black. He<\/span> had no plans to revisit Time, but the BBC floated the idea of shifting the focus to a women\u2019s prison, which McGovern thought was \u201cinteresting\u201d.<\/p>\n

After some thought he was on board, but he wanted a female writer working alongside him. Black, whose credits include Life and Death in the Warehouse, a searing indictment of the exorbitant pressures placed on warehouse workers, had exactly what he was looking for.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say men can\u2019t write female characters well, but would a male writer consider what it would be like for your period to expectedly start in prison when you don\u2019t have any sanitary products? Possibly, but possibly not.<\/p>

That happens to Orla (Jodie Whittaker) in the first episode. Until she can get herself sorted, she shoves wads of toilet paper in her underwear, an uncomfortable situation many a woman will recognise, and one of the many small but crucial details in Time that grounds the series in reality.<\/p>\n

Orla\u2019s crime? Caring for her children. The single mother-of-three has been sentenced to six months for \u201cfiddling\u201d her electricity usage after mounting bills simply became too much, a desperate reality<\/a> for thousands of people across the UK right now in the current cost of living crisis. It\u2019s staggering that someone so clearly in need would have their life ripped apart at the hands of the state, but it happens, and McGovern and Black want you to sit with that.<\/p>\n

Whittaker is perfectly cast as Orla, a first-time offender who\u2019s best described as a deer in headlights when she enters prison. You can feel her blind panic and desperation pulsing through the screen as she struggles to come to terms with the turn her life has taken. We see her scrambling to arrange care for her children while behind bars, who she dropped at school that morning but can\u2019t collect following her sentencing. The scenes when they visit her at the prison, during which Orla\u2019s young daughter clings to her for dear life, will break your heart and show the true cost of her punishment.<\/p>\n

\"A\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Jodie Whittaker as Orla in Time season 2<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC Studios\/Sally Mais<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

We\u2019re also introduced to Kelsey (Bella Ramsey<\/a>), a 19-year-old heroin addict in an abusive relationship whose habit is \u201cmiles bigger than last time\u201d she was inside. Ramsey was arguably given the most challenging role in portraying someone who is in the throes of addiction \u2013 they told Radio Times magazine<\/strong> that they \u201cgot too into\u201d the performance on one occasion, adding: \u201cI was starting to lose my sense of self\u201d \u2013 but anyone who has watched them in The Last of Us<\/a>, although a very different show, will know that they thrive on challenge.<\/p>\n

Kelsey is pregnant, which is far from ideal given her double predicament, but the way in which her arc unfolds over the three episodes will surprise some viewers. Time consistently subverts expectation and Kelsey, more than any other character, will nurture your sense of hope, against\u00a0all odds, which is remarkable from a story set within such a brutal world, and one of the reasons the first season moved me as much as it did.<\/p>\n

\"Kelsey\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Bella Ramsey as Kelsey in Time season 2<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC Studios\/Sally Mais<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

There\u2019s also Abi, played by Tamara Lawrance, who reveals she\u2019s serving a life sentence for murdering her sister-in-law. When one of the inmates steals her hair oil and cream, she doesn\u2019t hesitate in letting rip, but there\u2019s something about the way she carries herself, even when throwing her weight around, that suggests this doesn\u2019t come easily to her.<\/p>\n

Abi stands apart from the others in a number of ways, one being her background. She comes from a level of privilege that is alien to the other women around her, although that didn\u2019t insulate her from the conditions that contributed to her imprisonment. The role, which initially seems like a relatively straightforward one, shows itself to be deeply layered and deceptively tricky over the course of the series as we learn more about Abi, which Lawrance seamlessly navigates.<\/p>\n

Her inclusion also emphasises that the prison population isn\u2019t a monolith that moves and breathes as one, but contains all manner of people who have done all manner of things, both unintentionally and with white-hot intent.<\/p>\n

\"Abi\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Tamara Lawrance as Abi in Time season 2.<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC\/Sally Mais<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Given that there are now three leads as opposed to two in Bean and Graham, this season of Time does feel more stretched than the first chapter, and could possibly have benefitted from an additional episode. Kelsey\u2019s addiction, in particular, isn\u2019t tackled robustly enough.<\/p>\n

The big Victorian building that housed the male inmates in season 1 has also been replaced by a very different set up here \u2013 director Andrea Harkin described it as being like a \u201csh*tty halls of residence\u201d \u2013 which dilutes the claustrophobic atmosphere that made season 1 such a compelling watch.<\/p>\n

And as much as my heart repeatedly broke for Orla, Kelsey and Abi, Bean\u2019s award-winning performance got under my skin in a way that hasn\u2019t been matched here. But others will, of course, feel differently. Graham\u2019s storyline as the compromised prison officer, which led to that extraordinary exchange between the two men in the final episode, was a genius bit of storytelling that also gives season 1 the edge.<\/p>\n

But this latest instalment has a strong social conscience that makes the show as relevant as ever, delivering an antidote to the statistics and inflammatory headlines that colour our view of what it means to be a criminal \u2013 but never at the expense of the victims, I should add, whose pain is laid out in unflinching detail.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n