FREE YOUR MIND (TIME, SERIES TWO)

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Jimmy McGovern certainly doesn't shy away from tough subjects as a film or television writer.

Over the years he has given us hard hitting dramas about alcoholism, PTSD, repressed homosexuality, rape, multiple sclerosis, police and military cover-ups, strikes, Catholicism, marital strife, domestic violence and poverty.

The creator of 'Cracker' has also taken on the Hillsborough football disaster, Bloody Sunday, the Liverpool Dockers Strike and the Gunpowder Plot.

In recent years he has also carved out a niche, examining different aspects of the justice system in BBC dramas like 'Accused,' 'Common' and 'Time'.

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The first series of 'Time' in 2021 tackled life in a male prison.

Sean Bean played an alcoholic middle aged man jailed for accidentally killing a cyclist while drunk and struggling to adapt to prison life.

Stephen Graham also starred as a prison officer whose son falls foul of the law and who soon finds himself doing things he wouldn't do normally.

'Time' deservedly won a BAFTA for Best Miniseries as well as a Best Actor award for Bean.

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Now it's back, with McGovern teaming up with fellow screenwriter Helen Black for three episodes set in a women's jail.

Series Two gets off to a rip roaring start with Jodie Whittaker's smartly dressed Orla O'Riordan being imprisoned, just after she has dropped her kids off to school, for raiding the electricity meter.

Finding herself being carted off to Carlingford Women's Prison, she frantically tries to arrange for her sister to pick up the kids instead of her alcoholic mum.

Accompanying her in the prison van are Tamara Lawrence's former nurse Abi Cochrane who we discover has been imprisoned for killing her baby and Bella Ramsey's Kelsey Morgan, a heroin addict arrested for importing drugs.

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Sharing a holding cell with Kelsey, Abi is outraged to discover she has traded her hair products for heroin with another prisoner.

This results in Kelsey getting a beating when Abi angrily retrieves her property.

Realising she must declare her willingness to tackle her addiction to receive doses of methadone, Kelsey is also surprised to learn she is pregnant.

While her drug dealing boyfriend, Nicholas Nunn's Adam initially tries to talk her into having an abortion, she decides to go ahead with the pregnancy after hearing judges tend to look more sympathetically upon expectant mothers.

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Orla stresses out about what will happen to her children, fearing that if they are put in the care of her mother she will lose them to social services because of her alcoholism.

Her concern pushes her to extreme flashes of temper that threaten to prolong her spell behind bars.

Abi, meanwhile, has to wrestle with the torment of Alicia Forde's fellow inmate Sarah Duddy knowing the exact nature of her crime and threatening to spill the beans.

Inevitably word gets out that she killed her baby, drawing some unwelcome attention from Faye McKeever's Queen Bee on the wing, Tanya Helsby and her sidekick, Kayla Meikle's Donna Mills.

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The thread connecting Series One and Two of 'Time,' though, is the presence of Siobhan Finneran's nun Marie Louise-Dell who was a chaplain in the previous prison and now the chaplain in Carlingford.

She tries to encourage Abi to open up to her fellow inmates, believing it could help change their perceptions of her.

However the chaplain meets some resistance from her.

McGovern and Black take on some really meaty issues in this latest incarnation of 'Time' - poverty, guilt, addiction, the fear of losing children to social care and post natal depression.

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However at no stage are they overwhelmed by their subjects.

There isn't a false beat in their deftly written drama which immediately builds sympathy for the characters.

Coming hot on the heels of the second series of Channel 4's prison drama 'Screw,' 'Time' highlights how facile that show has become.

Unlike Series Two of 'Screw,' it has fully fleshed out characters, revelling in their many flaws.

The dialogue doesn't feel forced.

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Fresh from her stint as Doctor Who, it's good to see Whittaker on top form in a gritty drama, engaging our sympathies as a mum who has fallen victim to poverty and paid the price for stealing to keep her family afloat.

Lawrence is compelling as a woman haunted by the effects of post natal depression and who lives by her wits while in jail.

After charming audiences in HBO's 'The Last of Us,' Ramsey is a real revelation as a twitchy heroin addict, delivering a believable performance as a teenage mum who has fallen in with an exploitative boyfriend.

Don't be surprised to see her or Lawrence wind up on a BAFTA shortlist.

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Where 'Time' also scores is with its fringe characters.

Forde, Meikle, McKeever and Nunn bring a lot of menace to the show but they never feel like one dimensional villains.

Julie Graham is excellent as Lou Harkness, another inmate whose relationship with her adult son has been fractured.

Sophie Willan brings a lot of heart to the role of another prisoner, Maeve Wiley.

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Karen Henthorn is superb as Orla's alcoholic mum, Elizabeth as are Matilda Firth and particularly Brody Griffiths as Orla's kids, Nancy and Callum.

Lisa Millett also catches the viewer's eye as the firm but fair Prison Officer Martin who takes Kelsey, Abi and Orla under her wing.

Finneran is reliably strong as an earnest chaplain who does her best to guide the inmates.

All three episodes are impressively directed by Andrea Harkin who, along with cinematographer Paul Morris, make great use of the confined spaces of the prison and the open spaces when their characters venture into the world outside.

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Credit should also be given to editor Alex Mackie who ensures the show moves along at a brisk pace.

While there are many of McGovern's trademarks in 'Time,' there's no doubt Black has also put her stamp on this impeccably researched drama.

This feels like a significant gear shift for a writer who has cut her teeth on shows like 'Death In Paradise,' 'Grantchester' and the 5Star prison series 'Clink', building on her work on the one-off BBC3 drama 'Life and Death In The Warehouse'.

It will be fascinating to see where her work on 'Time' may lead.

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Ultimately, though, what sets 'Time' apart from other prison dramas is its humanity.

It doesn't soft soap the mistakes its inmates make but it also takes time to understand the factors that led them to prison.

It mightn't be the sort of show that will appeal to GB News viewers.

However it is another example of how well crafted, public service broadcasting drama can tackle complex issues with intelligence and genuine compassion.

Shows like 'Time' make the best argument for the television licence fee.

(Series Two of 'Time' was broadcast on BBC1 from October 29-November 12, 2023 and is available on the BBC iPlayer)