Time Series 3 sees the return of the Jimmy McGovern prison drama series, as does Siobhan Finneran (Unchosen) as chaplain Marie-Louise O’Dell, who’s arrived at a Youth Offenders’ institution, where she’s going to run shoulders the wrong way with prison Custodial Manager CM Bobby Bailey (David Tennant – The Hack).
This includes where she wants to help Ushindi (Chukwubuikem Molokwu), a lad with a stammer, so he can speak on the phone to his mum – since he had trouble in the visitor booth – with the help of a translator. Bobby won’t let him use the office phone, justifying that if one uses it, they’ll all want it. And why can’t they use the in-prison phone? Because Ushindi smashed it(!)
Meanwhile, he has his own issues in life, as his wife, Erica (Vinette Robinson – Suspect Series 2), is playing away – right under his nose, which leads to an interesting meeting with the other party, played by Warren Brown and Jo Joyner, so nothing’s spared on getting some good talent in even the smaller scenes.
For the prisoner intake, certain lads with histories of violent assaults aren’t meant to meet up, otherwise they’ll punch each other into next week…
…Oh, and don’t keep pressing the buzzer all night, unless you want to incur the extreme annoyance of the prison officers.
At the time of writing this, I’ve only seen the opening episode, but I’ll check out the other two ASAP and update this. However, without giving spoilers, it’s as powerful as the previous two series and another great entry in the series.
As an aside, thankfully, this is shot at the usual 16:9 aspect ratio. None of that 2.00:1 pseudo-widescreen nonsense.
Time Series 3 continues tomorrow night on BBC1 at 9pm, and concludes next Sunday at 9pm also. BBC1’s missed a trick by not streaming it across three nights, since waiting another six days for the finale is crazy. I’m sure Blue Lights could’ve moved one night across to Wednesday for a week, given that all it would be replacing is a repeat of Who Do You Think You Are?
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
All episodes are now on the BBC iPlayer.
Director: Paul Whittington
Producer: Amanda Black
Writers: Jimmy McGovern, Samuel Bailey
Cast:
CM Bobby Bailey: David Tennant
Marie-Louise O’Dell: Siobhan Finneran
OSG Grace: Alison Cain
Chaplain Adnan: Ash Tandon
Patsy Flynn: Louis Shelton
CM Fred Jennings: Daniel Ryan
SO Carmel Sinclair: Rachel Morris
Christopher Madubuko (Ushindi): Chukwubuikem Molokwu
Peter Palmerston: Ollie McNulty
Chaz: Jack Barnes
Toby: Paul Smith Junior
Mark: Finn Kearns
James Hennessy: Louis McCartney
PO Hall: Kate Dobson
Erica Bailey: Vinette Robinson
Amara Madubuko: Nyokabi Gethaiga
Governor Rice: Gavin Spokes
PO Williams: Olivia Fenton
Albie: Warren Brown
Nicola: Jo Joyner
Jietang: Victor Zhao
Jayden Spriggs: Ethaniel Davy
Dying Man: Andrew Dickson
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.