I've never told my story before

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2023 

#23 : Time 

When Jimmy McGovern wrote his deeply affecting and stressful prison drama starring Stephen Graham and Sean Bean as a guard and an unlikely inmate, it was hard to imagine it could be repeated. But he and co-writer Helen Black found new ways to bring us impressive, propulsive drama – and show how the penal system fails so many – by transporting us to a women’s prison this year. From Bella Ramsey’s teenage addict Kelsey to Jodie Whittaker’s Orla, who went to prison for fiddling her leccy meter, then ended up on the streets living in a tent the prison provided for her, it was a vision of how deep the rot has set in that left you both weeping and cursing.

I "enjoyed" the last season of this and I expect this to be very similar - if not worse.

Oh yes, this is worse. Whilst, at the same time, being possibly better. We follow three characters - Orla (Jodie Whittaker) who is fundamentally "good" but is struggling to get by and ends up on a downward spiral, Kelsey (Bella Ramsey) who is an addict and Abi (Tamara Lawrance) who killed her child, but you just know it's not going to be as simple as that. And, for a lot of this, bad things happen to them.

It's just so, so grim because everyone is so badly let down by the system - in a better world, none of the main characters would be in prison, but that probably wouldn't make for such good drama. And it is good drama - very well written with believable and flawed characters whilst being both entertaining and educational. Once again, I'd struggle to say I really enjoyed it because the constant expectation of a downward spiral was just a bit too wearing for me, but I'm pleased to report there are some positive notes throughout the three episode run (otherwise I'm not sure I'd have managed to get to the end). In fact, if anything, the ending is considerably more upbeat than I was expecting - which was nice for a softy such as me!

It's all very well acted with Jodie, Bella and Tamara all being excellent - Jodie is so, so, so much better than all that manic Doctor Who nonsense she gave us, Bella is as good as I expected after The Last Of Us (if not better) and I wasn't aware of Tamara, but she is just as good. Siobhan Finneran is also outstanding as the prison chaplain carrying over her role from the last season. Isaac Lancel-Watkinson is also very good as Kyle, Orla's son - he's young enough not to understand, but old enough to understand enough to think he knows it all.

So it''s well written, well acted and of course it's well shot - all in all this is an impressive and worthwhile piece of entertainment, so it's a strong recommendation from me. So go and check it out on iPlayer!

#22 - A family favourite finishes
#24 - Too tense for me!

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