Stephen Graham’s wife stars alongside him in BBC drama Time

Fans have been delighted to find out that Stephen Graham is acting alongside his real-life wife Hannah Walters in the BBC’s hit new crime series, Time. 

The new show sees the Scouse actor take on the role of prison officer Eric McNally, while Game of Thrones star Sean Bean portrays 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 and his wife, Sonia McNally, do whatever it takes to protect him from violence behind bars, with the officer even being forced to commit crimes after he is delivered a sinister threat from one of his own inmates.

BBC

And, when one of the most dangerous inmates identifies his weakness, Eric faces an impossible choice between his principles and his love for his family.

While the show, written by Jimmy McGovern, has proven to be a smash hit, viewers couldn’t help but notice one thing – Stephen’s on-screen wife was actually portrayed by his real-life wife, Hannah Walters.

Hannah, who has starred in a whole array of on-screen projects such as Whitechapel and even the 2011 Pirates of the Caribbean movie, On Stranger Tides, was put forward for the role by her husband, who is also an executive producer.

Though she wasn’t too pleased with him doing this, with her revealing on The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X: “I really told him off.

“I really told him off. [I said] ‘What are you doing? Why are you putting my name in there? You shouldn’t have done that.'”

Stephen then added: “And then she put herself on tape and obviously out of all the actresses that had put themselves on tape, he picked her because she was the best for the role.”

“Because, fortunately, we had quite good chemistry,” Hannah joked. “It would have been shocking if we didn’t!”

BBC

The couple met when they were in training at the Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance. 

They grew closer in 2006 while filming the British drama This Is England together, and they ultimately chose to tie the knot two years later. They now have two children together.

Episode 2 aired on BBC1 last night and the third and final part will be showing on June 20th.