Time Review: A gripping portrait of life inside of a prison

Time, the BBC’s latest prison drama, is gripping. Directed by long time BBC stalwart Jimmy McGovern, it is perhaps the most honest and authentic look into the world of prison life yet to be shown on terrestrial television. The Corporation doesn’t have a great track record in producing realistic shows set in prison. One of the most memorable was Porridge. And admittedly, whilst it was a comedy, it still conformed to the standard tropes: the officers were portrayed as incompetent fools or impassive grunts.

This is not how Stephen Graham takes to the role. With Graham, we don’t get Mr Barrowclough or Mr Mackay. We get Eric McNally, a tough but fair prison officer working at HMP Craigmore. As the show progresses, we learn that McNally has a complicated backstory that puts him in a perilous position. This sets the show up for a tense and climactic ending.

Behind bars, we find a middle-aged man named Mark Hobden. Portrayed by Sean Bean, Hobden plays a teacher whose life is upended when he is convicted of death by drunk driving. He is sent to HMP Craigmore to serve a four-year sentence. This is where our two protagonists meet and where a vast majority of Time is set. 

Hobden’s life is thrown into turmoil as he confronts a new reality that is as far away from his comfortable middle-class existence as can be. It doesn’t take long to realise that he is out of his depth.

This is evidenced when he has to share a cell with a prisoner with a serious mental illness. It serves as a stark and harsh reminder that he is entirely out of his comfort zone. Real-world data shows nearly 20 per cent of prisoners diagnosed with mental health problems receive no care. 

With reports of prisoners suffering psychosis at four times that of the general population, it is no wonder that self-inflicted deaths are nine times more likely to occur in prison. McGovern addresses this when Hobden’s cell-mate is shown cutting himself – the man is clearly unwell, the scars that adorn every inch of his torso are a testament to the mental torment he endures. He hits the panic button, but help takes a long time to come.

I must swallow some pride, eat some humble pie and for once, commend the BBC for a job well done. This is not another example of a woke show spewed out by a politically correct institution. There’s nothing intersectional about this; on the contrary, McGovern simply holds a mirror up to society and doesn’t shy away from the grim reality some prisoners face as they enter the system.

With 173 prisoners per 100,000, England and Wales has one of the highest per capita prison populations in Western Europe – with 80,000 people locked up. According to data of the 117 prisons In England and Wales, 77 are overcrowded. When you factor in the worrying statistic that 7,000 officers have left since 2010, it leaves inmates bereft of support and exposed to violence. It is within this context that McGovern has framed Time. 

Prisoners often explode into moments of extreme violence against others. In one scene, a prisoner decides to punish another inmate who he believes ratted him out. He ‘jug’s’ him. In prison parlance, to ‘jug’ someone means to boil sugar in a kettle and throw it on someone. The sugar sticks like napalm to the skin, leaving severe burns. Once again, the panic button is raised, and yet again, due to a lack of prison staff, the alarm rings for what seems like an eternity. 

Due to his affable English charm, Hobden often falls victim to prisoners keen to take advantage of him. He is constantly bullied and exploited. To gain respect, some prisoners have to adopt a “survival of the fittest” mentality. It is only when he starts to stand up for himself that he gets left alone. 

But intertwined with the harrowing and often disturbing footage, there are genuine moments of humanity. In one touching scene, Bean helps teach one inmate to read and write. 

Time may not be a comfortable watch for some, but the way McGovern portrays the two protagonists as flawed but honourable people keeps you engrossed as the story unravels. 

As the prisoner’s arc nears conclusion, the officers reach a fever pitch. McNally lives with the uncomfortable reality that his son is serving a sentence in another jail. Inmates get knowledge of this and bribe him, so he will do their bidding. It’s a tortuous moral dilemma, and without giving anything away, McGovern shows us that corruption, no matter however innocuous or righteous, exists within the prison system. 

Beautifully paced, Time unfolds over three hour-long episodes. McGovern offers us a warts-and-all peek into a life most of us will never know. With elements of brutal, visceral realism interspersed with moments of humanity and hope, Time is one of the best programmes I have seen in a long time.