BOXED IN (TIME)

Prison dramas, whether they are for cinema or for television, have certain beats their creators tend to follow.

Usually they are built around the experience of a fish out of water.

It can be an innocent man or woman, someone from middle class background or a naive young offender thrown behind bars who the audience immediately latches onto.

We watch in trepidation as the central character negotiates a scary world of prison bullies and sadistic prison guards and just tries to survive.

Usually, they try to escape the grim reality of life behind bars through education, sport, music, art or drama.

Often, there's a kindly prison officer and also a fixer who knows how to get things.

Sometimes that fixer is malevolent and plays prisoners off other prisoners, extracting a pound of flesh for the protection or contraband he or she offers.

He or she is also adept at wrapping prison officers around his or her finger.

A lot of these elements can be found in Jimmy McGovern's gritty three part BBC1 prison drama 'Time'.

But instead of feeling stale, 'Time' feels powerful, urgent and very relevant.

McGovern's drama, superbly directed by Lewis Arnold, is built around two principal characters.

Sean Bean's Mark Cobden is an alcoholic who has killed a cyclist while driving under the influence.

A disgraced teacher, he is way out of his comfort zone the moment he steps into the prison van transporting him from court where he has been given a four year sentence.

Stephen Graham's Eric McNally is a firm but fair prison officer who runs the wing that Mark is housed in.

The prisoners call him "boss" as he inducts them, ferries them to their workshop to sew clothes or to the chapel to talk to young people about why they shouldn't end up behind bars.

Mark is petrified as soon as he sets foot in the jail.

James Nelson-Joyce's loudmouth Johnno takes an instant dislike to him, seeing him as easy prey.

He bullies Mark, taking his food, sometimes spitting on it and muscling him out of his allocated phone call.

When he's not doing that, Johnno is calling Bobby Scofield's fellow prisoner Baz a rat because he got a smaller sentence and arranges for him to be scalded with boiling water which is laced with sugar to intensify the pain.

Brian McCardie's sinister fixer Jackson Jones observes Johnno's behaviour and advises Mark that if he doesn't hit back, he will be easy pickings for everyone in the jail.

Jones is a classic manipulator and bides his time at the prison pool table or on the landing, waiting for Mark to come to him for protection for which he will extract a heavy price.

Mark's first cellmate is Aneurin Barnard's Bernard, a deeply troubled young man who self-harms.

He later shares a cell with Jack McMullen's Daniel who is facing a lengthy prison sentence and who like a lot of the inmates is haunted by the crime he committed.

In a heart crushing moment, Jonathan Harden's Belfast-born inmate Brendan Murphy goes before a parole board refusing once again to reveal why he killed a man.

In a moment of shame and rage, he eventually blurts out the reason when confronted by his victim's brother about the devastating impact of his crime.

Mark is haunted too, getting flashbacks in his cold prison cell of his crime and openly admitting to the prison authorities and fellow inmates his struggle with guilt.

He wishes to write a letter of apology to his victim's wife, Anna Madeley's Anne Warren but is warned by McNally that the prison authorities will need to check first if she wants to receive it and censor it if it is too insensitive.

McNally says the letter may also take ages to get to her and even longer to elicit a response.

However it is not all doom and gloom.

Despite being a lapsed Catholic, Mark strikes up a good relationship with Siiobhan Finneran's prison chaplain Marie-Louise, helping her outreach work with young people.

Mark teaches Terrence Maynard's fellow prisoner Kavanagh as well how to read after helping him craft a Valentine's Day card.

These are small but not insignificant chinks of light in an otherwise tough drama.

The harshness of life behind bars is rammed home during the prison visit sequences where Mark tries to conceal his unhappiness and put on a brave face for his elderly parents, Sue Johnston and David Calder's June and John Cobden.

His estranged wife Nadine Marshall's Alicia Cobden is less sympathetic to his plight, while his teenage son Lee Morris' Tom is more forgiving.

Eric McNally has to wrestle too with the trauma of prison visits, visiting his son Paddy Rowan's David who is in another jail.

David's predicament is known by some of the inmates in the prison where Eric works and sinister threats are soon made against him.

Eric initially explodes with rage when these threats are issued but after David is attacked, he comes under pressure from his wife Hannah Walters' Sonia to do whatever it takes to guarantee their son's safety.

That's when Jackson Jones steps in, offering protection for David at a price.

Eric has to smuggle drugs from time to time into the prison under his shirt, having regular rendezvous with Michael Socha's Kenny Meadows who supplies him with each stash.

Fiercely loyal to his son, Eric is still disturbed as he watches prisoners in his care overdose and try as he might, he cannot wriggle free from the grasp of Jones.

McGovern crafts another TV drama that oozes authenticity.

Born out of his own experience from 1982 of conducting writers' workshops with inmates in various jails, he told the BBC recently the series has been in gestation for four decades.

"I'm always looking for stories and the thing about a British prison is it's always full of stories," he confessed.

While McGovern clearly appreciates the need for jails, it is clear he believes the penal system is failing many criminals seeking rehabilitation.

Locked up a lot of the time in their cells, the educational and job training pathways open to them are too limited and leave them unstimulated.

That's how drugs and other criminality takes hold.

Critics of the BBC will no doubt bemoan McGovern's drama as left wing propaganda that is far too sympathetic in its portrayal of prisoners.

However that is a rather simplistic take on 'Time' which hunts for humanity in characters who have carried out terrible crimes but also exposes the sheer barbarism of others.

Some viewers may take exception to some of the brutality depicted onscreen - particularly a scene involving the boiling kettle.

But again, 'Time' is rooted in a rich tradition of British realist dramas and is so well directed by Arnold that even that single act of violence is observed not up close but from a distance, making the viewer think they have seen a lot more than they actually have.

There's no disputing the potency of McGovern's writing which reaffirms his position as British television drama's most effective voice of conscience.

As you would expect in a McGovern drama, the performances are uniformly excellent.

Bean and Graham provide solid anchors for the miniseries.

As Mark Cobden, Bean brilliantly conveys how a mild mannered, educated man can struggle to maintain his dignity and values in a system that warps rather that mends broken souls.

Neither Bean nor McGovern plays down the shame of Mark's crime which is graphically depicted but his desire, bordering on desperation, to make amends is also palpable.

Graham is terrific too as a decent prison officer and father forced to do uncomfortable things to protect his son. 

As the miniseries unfolds, Eric increasingly feels like a drowning man, overwhelmed by the criminality that envelops his family.

It is a heartbreaking performance from an actor who has become the true successor to Bob Hoskins - full of nervous energy and engaging our sympathy.

Barnard, McMullen and Harden also tug at the conscience of viewers as prisoners who are haunted by what they have done and are being failed by the prison system .

Maynard too engages the audience with his portrayal of Kavanagh, as does Kevin Harvey as another prisoner Paul whose gambling addiction has resulted in him landing in prison for robbing a betting shop.

James Nelson-Joyce does a good job too as Johnno, the loudmouth bully on the wing but it is Brian McCardie, who many 'Line of Duty' fans will recognise as the gangster Tommy Hunter, who delivers the most sinister performance.

As the hawk-eyed Jones, he observes the comings and goings in the prison from the landing or while playing pool and then swoops down on his vulnerable prey.

It is a typically nasty performance from McCardie, executed with brutal efficiency.

Sue Johnston and David Calder turn in heartfelt performances as Mark's concerned but helpless parents, while Nadine Marshall is effective as a wife who struggles with the shame of an alcoholic husband who has killed someone because of his drinking.

One of the other strengths of 'Time' is the way it honestly and sensitively tackles grief and shows how there are no easy pathways to forgiveness for causing a violent death.

Some of the prisoners are consumed with regret for what they have done.

However that is dwarfed by the grief experienced by the parents of Daniel's stabbing victim or the brother of Brendan's friend.

Anna Madeley, in particular, captures the struggle many relatives have to forgive those who have robbed them of a loved one.

Amid the darkest moments of McGovern's drama, the always reliable Siobhan Finneran provides McGovern's drama with a huge dollop of desperately needed compassion.

In a drama packed with strong performances, Scottish actor Cal MacAninch also deserves a mention for his performance as the stern prison officer Galbraith, while Hannah Walters handles the difficult role of Eric's desperate but complicit wife well.

'Time' is not an easy watch nor should it be.

However it is a valuable piece of television that raises disturbing questions about the prison systen and whether it is capable of preparing inmates for a fresh start in life when they leave the confines of as prison.

Many viewers, including Tony Blair's former press secretary Alastair Campbell, have remarked how 'Time' makes a compelling case for an overhaul of the prison system.

However in a society consumed by a desire to return to the freedoms we enjoyed pre-Covid and also by the trading frictions caused by Brexit, it is difficult to see Boris Johnson's Government making prison reform a priority.

In a media landscape that is also becoming increasingly fragmented, there is a real fear too that dramas like McGovern's are preaching to the converted.

But preach he must because the day when the BBC stops commissioning dramas like 'Time' is the day we should all dread.

Even if McGovern's voice of conscience spurs a handful of viewers into lobbying the Conservative Government on reform, then it is worth the effort.

'Porridge' it ain't but that's ok.

('Time' was broadcast on BBC1 from June 6-20, 2021, with all episodes also made available immediately on the BBC iPlayer)

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