David Tennant and Siobhan Finneran are set to lead season three of the BBC–BritBox drama Time.
Jimmy McGovern’s BAFTA-winning show is set in a young offenders’ institution and first launched with Sean Bean and Stephen Graham in 2021. In the second series, Jodie Whittaker, Bella Ramsey and Tamara Lawrence starred. Now it’s Tennant’s turn, alongside Happy Valley‘s Finneran, who will reprise her role as prison chaplain Marie-Louise.
“Prison chaplain Marie-Louise comes to the young offenders’ institution having lost her faith,” a plot synopsis reads. “When tragedy strikes within the prison, Marie-Louise clashes with veteran officer Bailey (Tennant), a man in the midst of his own crisis. Bailey knows more about the circumstances that led to this major incident — but will he come clean before the guilt gets too much?”
“Meanwhile,” it continues, “two teenage young offenders, Peter and James, struggle through the terrifying first weeks and months of their incarceration… Can James ever face his broken parents after an unforgivable act of violence and will Peter tell the truth about the death of an innocent man, or does family loyalty mean more?”
Series creator and co-writer McGovern said: “Siobhan Finneran is back! And we’ve got a wonderful leading man in David Tennant. And a brilliant director in Paul Whittington. I think it’s going to be wonderful.”
Andrew Morrissey, executive producer for BBC Studios Fiction says: “It is a privilege to be making a third series of Time with such a fantastic team. We are excited to introduce the audience to a whole new part of the prison system. Once we started the research, we knew there were stories that demanded to be told.”
McGovern co-writes Time with Samuel Bailey. The series is made by BBC Studios Fiction for BBC iPlayer and BBC One, in co-production with BritBox. Filming will take place in Belfast.
