Time star Stephen Graham opens up on ‘phenomenal’ scenes with wife Hannah

Time: Stephen Graham and Sean Bean star in dramatic trailer

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Jimmy McGovern’s new prison drama, Time, is set to premiere on BBC One tonight (June 6). The three part series stars Stephen Graham and Sean Bean who portray two very different men in the British penal system. As well as acting alongside Sean, Stephen got to share a number of scenes with his wife Hannah Walters and he opened up about the experience in a recent interview.

Time follows the story of Mark Cobden (played by Sean Bean), a former teacher who has been sentenced to four years imprisonment.

Mark’s sent to prison for drink-driving, after a road accident he was involved in left a cyclist dead.

During his time in prison he comes across morally upright prison officer Eric McNally (Stephen Graham).

The series depicts a struggle for power in a British prison and the bleak realities of life behind bars.

Playing Eric’s partner Sonia in the series is Stephen’s real life wife Hannah.

In a recent interview with Express.co.uk and other press, Stephen opened up about his experience acting alongside his wife.

The star revealed: “For me it was phenomenal. For me it was absolutely phenomenal.”

Stephen and Hannah first met while studying at Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance and have been married since 2008.

Stephen explained how proud he was of his wife for landing the part alongside him in the show, as he’s previously seen her lose out on big roles.

He explained: “I watched Hannah back in drama school back in the day and thought she’s brilliant.

“There’s some self tapes that I’ve done with Hannah when she’s gone for parts and she’s auditioned for parts.

“She’s always kind of like, got down to the last two for big roles and then that whole cliche thing of, you know ‘we’ve gone with someone who’s more famous. We’ve gone with someone who’s more well known’,” Stephen said.

The actor admitted he’s always been impressed with Hannah’s performance skills.

Stephen said: “Just watching her read, and doing scenes with her, you know, over the course of our time of being together and also while she’s been a working actress.

“I’ve just been blown away, but in reading the scene I was just thinking, wow, wow man she’s amazing,” he added.

Stephen even hinted he felt like he had to up his acting game in Time when he was sharing scenes with Hannah.

“I remember looking and thinking ’s*** I had better put my boots on properly this is, she’s gone for this’ and it was lovely,” he revealed.

Stephen also confessed that the characters he and Hannah play in the new drama are very different to themselves so it was a challenge to portray a different relationship.

“The characters we played are nothing like us two as well. So that was really lovely to explore,” he concluded.

Time will premiere on Sunday June 6th at 9pm on BBC One, with the full series available as a boxset on BBC iPlayer once episode one has aired.

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