People are calling for Stephen Graham to ‘win all the awards’ following Time finale

Fans of the new BBC prison drama Time have been praising the performance from lead actor Stephen Graham and the rest of the cast following the season finale last night.

The crime drama, written by Jimmy McGovern, saw the Scouse actor take on the role of prison officer Eric McNally, while Game of Thrones star Sean Bean portrayed Mark Cobden, a teacher, husband and father who is handed a four year sentence after killing an innocent man in an accident.

But when his own son is sent to prison, Eric does whatever it takes to protect him from violence behind bars, with the devoted officer even being forced to commit crimes himself after he is delivered a sinister threat from one of his own inmates.

BBC

The heart wrenching finale saw the two main characters in opposite circumstances to how they started – Eric was caught out for smuggling drugs into his prison and sentenced to four years behind bars. Mark, on the other hand, serves two years of his four year sentence, and makes amends (kind of) with the wife of the man he killed.

While the show has been available to binge in one go on BBC iPlayer (guilty), many admirably patient fans have been watching along week-by-week, so many had only just got round to watching the finale when it aired on BBC1 last night.

Reacting to the ‘utterly fantastic’ ending, people said that both actors deserved ‘all the awards’ for their performances throughout.

“Sean Bean, Stephen Graham, Jimmy McGovern and everyone involved in #Time deserve every award going,” one person wrote on Twitter.

Another wrote: “Devastatingly good. #JimmyMcGovern never an easy watch but so powerful. Deserves every award this year.”

Time has been aired as a limited series, but many fans are now keen for a second instalment, now that the roles of the two main protagonists have reversed – fingers crossed!