• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
'Gut-wrenching' crime drama available to watch on BBC has near-perfect ratings and a stacked cast

Home> Entertainment> TV

Published 15:58 5 Feb 2024 GMT

'Gut-wrenching' crime drama available to watch on BBC has near-perfect ratings and a stacked cast

The BBC prison series has two seasons with rave reviews

Jess Battison

Jess Battison

You just can’t beat a good crime drama, and at this point, there’s countless British ones out there.

From Fool Me Once to Killing Eve and from Criminal: UK to The Missing we can’t get enough.

But not having the subscription fees of the likes of Netflix or Prime Video, there’s an absolutely ‘gut-wrenching’ series over on BBC iPlayer.

Advert

The BBC series starred Sean Bean and Stephen Graham.
BBC

With near-perfect ratings and a properly stacked cast, this crime drama is said to be one of the best out there.

Series one of Time first premiered back in June 2021.

Starring Sean Bean, Stephen Graham and Siobhan Finneran, it received rave reviews.

The show follows Mark Cobden (Bean) who is racked with guilt after accidentally killing an innocent man while drunk driving.

Advert

While undergoing a four-year sentence in prison, he is soon targeted by 'one of the most dangeous inmates' who 'identifies his weakness' and must learn to defend himself while Eric McNally (Graham), faces a choice between his principles and his family.

And more recently, a second series of Time landed on BBC iPlayer, this time taking us to a women’s prison. Watch the series two trailer here:

Returning with truly devastating scenes that left some viewers calling it 'traumatic', series two starred Bella Ramsay, Jodie Whittaker and Tamara Lawrance.

The three star as inmates, Orla, Kelsey, and Abi, who are 'thrown together to face an unfamiliar world' when arriving at Carlingford Prison.

Advert

However, despite 'the ever-present threat of violence within its walls', the trio soon discover 'an unexpected sense of community, and a shared understanding, still might be possible'.

Ramsay’s Kelsey is a scam artist struggling with a drug addiction, while Whittaker plays Orla, a single mum doing time for stealing electricity and Lawrance plays Abi, a woman who is three years into a life sentence for murder.

Tamara Lawrance, Bella Ramsay, and Jodie Whittaker in series two of Time.
BBC

Time has an impressive 96 percent average on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer with a respectful 87 percent average audience score.

Critics called the show ‘gut-wrenching’, with much praise directed to the actor's performances, while viewers wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that it’s an ‘incredibly difficult watch’.

Advert

One person put: “My word. This was one hell of a piece of TV. Binged last night. Writing, acting, everything just phenomenal. Heart-breaking but so worth the watch!!”

And while others say it’s so ‘powerful’ they don’t have the ‘bandwidth’ for it, or that they weren’t overly impressed, many say it’s ‘drama at it’s very, very best’.

Featured Image Credit: BBC

Topics: BBC, TV and Film, Stephen Graham, Sean Bean

Jess Battison
Jess Battison

Jess is a Senior Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include asking everyone in the office what they're having for tea, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021.

X

@jessbattison_

Advert

Advert

Advert

  • BBC viewers praise gangland drama starring Sean Bean that's being compared to Kin
  • Viewers left 'traumatised' by graphic opening scenes as hit BBC drama returns after nine years
  • Stephen Graham reveals gesture he made to teenage Jodie Comer in BBC scene where his character sexually assaulted her
  • Netflix viewers who loved Black Doves urged to watch BBC series dubbed ‘The Crown meets Mad Men’

Choose your content:

an hour ago
2 hours ago
  • Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic
    an hour ago

    Sarah Paulson made brutally honest admission about 32-year age gap with partner Holland Taylor

    The couple have been in a relationship since 2015

    Entertainment
  • Michael Caulfield/WireImage for Sony BMG Music Entertainment/Getty Images
    an hour ago

    Britney Spears responds to ex Kevin Federline's claims that she watched sons sleep 'with a knife in her hand'

    Kevin Federline made the claims in his new memoir You Thought You Knew

    Entertainment
  • Wiktor Szymanowicz/NurPhoto via Getty Image
    an hour ago

    Stephen Fry admits 30-year age gap from husband has 'insane' side effect

    The actor and comedian explained that his husband Elliot Spencer keeps him young at heart

    Entertainment
  • jfizzy/Star Max/GC Images
    2 hours ago

    Celebrity tattoo artist speaks out over Kat Von D's 'first-of-its kind' lawsuit before she blacked out entire body

    Claudio Traina told LADbible why he reckons the legal claim lodged by Jeff Sedlik was 'ridiculous' - and something of a 'money grab'

    Entertainment