TV Pick of the Week: Time - review by Yvette Huddleston
Time BBC iPlayer, review by Yvette Huddleston
Veteran screenwriter Jimmy McGovern has always managed to tap into the zeitgeist with his exceptional work that never shies away from exploring some of the darker and more challenging aspects of contemporary British society.
As the debate around the UK’s overstretched prison estate continues, including the controversial government strategy of early prisoner release, McGovern’s Time trilogy could not be more timely. Having explored men’s prisons in series one, followed by women’s in the second, for the third and final season, McGovern turns his attention to youth crime. Set in a fictional young offenders institution somewhere in the North East, it centres on corrections officer Bobby Bailey (David Tennant) and his colleagues’ efforts to keep the peace in a volatile understaffed environment and make some kind of a difference in the lives of the boys they are looking after.
One of the most heartbreaking themes of the drama is the disruption, chaos and trauma that these inmates, all under 18, have already experienced in their young lives. They may think of themselves as men, but essentially they are children full of insecurities and vulnerabilities. Bailey feels that new chaplain Marie-Louise O’Dell (Siobhan Finneran), a former nun, has a romanticized view of what they can actually do to help the prisoners. She holds her own however and gently keeps on, never giving up on anyone and holding on to hope.
Tennant gives one of his best performances of recent times as the conflicted Bailey, a man worn down by the relentless bleakness of his job, yet still capable of empathy and compassion for his young wards - and faced with a thorny dilemma. Finneran is equally impressive, giving a nuanced portrayal of an entirely believable crisis of faith triggered by a moving story of love versus duty.
There are outstanding performances from the young cast too, especially from Irish actor Louis McCartney as troubled James whose family has imploded after a life-changing act of violence on his part. Two cast members deliver hugely impressive performances in their screen debuts - Ollie McNulty as Peter who has a tough decision to make about whether to betray his fellow gang members, responsible for killing a man, to give himself the chance of a better life with his girlfriend and baby son and Chukwubuikem Molokwu as Christopher who has been in foster care all his life is coming to terms with finally meeting his Nigerian birth mother Amara (Nyokabi Gethaiga).