Third series of award-winning drama Time starring David Tennant to air on BBC

The BBC has announced it is to air the third series of award-winning drama Time starring former Doctor Who actor David Tennant.

Written by Jimmy McGovern and Samuel Bailey, the three-part series, which also stars Happy Valley actor Siobhan Finneran, will be shown on BBC One, iPlayer and BritBox.

The show will see 54-year-old Tennant play prison officer Bailey while Finneran, 59, will reprise her role as Marie-Louise, a prison chaplain.

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.”

Set within a young offenders institution, the series will explore its impact on teenagers and the effects on those who look after them.

Marie-Louise comes to the institution having lost her faith, and when tragedy strikes within the prison, she clashes with veteran officer Bailey, a man in the midst of his own crisis.

The show also sees two teenage offenders, Peter and James, struggle through their first weeks and months of incarceration, with an unlikely friendship between them shifting the trajectory of their futures.

Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama, added: “Jimmy McGovern is a master at creating brave, thought-provoking dramas that deeply resonate with BBC viewers, so we are thrilled to be back for a third run of Time.

“With David Tennant and Siobhan Finneran leading the cast, Samuel Bailey co-writing, Paul Whittington directing and the team at BBC Studios Fiction producing, we are all set for another powerful and memorable piece of work from Jimmy.”

The programme’s first two series are currently available to stream on BBC iPlayer and BritBox while a release date for the third series has yet to be announced.