Time returns with a long-awaited series 3 this month, and the three-part drama doesn’t shy away from some seriously difficult subjects – some of which are based on a true story.
Jimmy McGovern fans will know the writer is no stranger to difficult issues. Far from it, in fact. Time is an unflinching look at the UK prison system, one which the Liverpool-born writer firmly believes needs to change.
In Unforgivable, the writer focused on paedophilia and sexual abuse. In Hillborough, he wrote about the 1989 football disaster, while Sunday centred on events on January 30, 1972, in Derry. That day, British Army paratroopers shot 26 unarmed civil rights protesters and bystanders during a march against internment without trial, killing 14 people.
In Time, Jimmy shines a light on the criminal justice system, exploring flaws, harsh conditions, and rehabilitation. Series 3 takes viewers inside a young offenders institution, where teenagers are imprisoned in often inhumane surroundings.
So, what part of Time series 3 is based on a true story? Here’s what you need to know, with no major spoilers.
Chukwubuikem Molokwu’s Christopher, later renamed as Ushindi, is loosely based on a real person (Credit: BBC One)
Is Time series 3 inspired by a true story?
David Tennant and Siobhan Finneran lead the cast of Time series 3, a “powerful new story” from Jimmy McGovern. In the three-parter, which follows on from series 1 in 2021, and series 2 in 2023, we meet prison chaplain Marie-Louise again.
She goes to a young offender institution having lost her faith. When tragedy strikes in the prison, Marie-Louise clashes with veteran officer Bailey, 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?
The major incident involves a young man called Christopher, played by newcomer Chukwubuikem Molokwu. The character is tormented because of his stammer. But his real turmoil comes from his childhood, in which he feels abandoned by his parents. When he is reunited with his mother, he later asks to be called his African name of Ushindi.
And Christopher’s story in Time series 3 is inspired by an emotional true story.
‘Mother and son cannot speak each other’s language’
In Time series 3, Chukwubuikem Molokwu’s character Christopher (later Ushindi) was abandoned at the age of around four by his mother. He didn’t have a role model, because there wasn’t a father figure, and eventually got involved in the wrong stuff.
Jimmy McGovern explained: “We’d done pretty good stories about a male prison and pretty good stories about a female prison. But we went into our first young offender institution and honestly, we didn’t have a single story idea at all. In the course of talking to people, somebody told a story about a young prisoner whose mother comes to visit him.
“The backstory was that it was the first time he’d ever had a visit from his mother; he wasn’t born in this country. She comes and she cannot speak English and he cannot speak her language. That story was just told to us in passing. And from that story, everything developed. That story established every other story, it was such a wonderful moment to find that.”
Viewers will see that story play out in Time series 3, through Christopher (later Ushindi) and his mum.
Writer Jimmy McGovern & co-writer Samuel Bailey behind the scenes of Time series 3 (Credit: BBC/BBC Studios/Peter Marley)
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