Prisoners' WivesBBC1, Thursday 14th March 9pm - 10pmThere was some sniffiness and indeed snobbishness about last year’s first series of Julie Gearey’s drama. But I loved it and I’m glad it’s back because solid, well-written ensemble dramas with believable women characters don’t come along often enough.
So we return to Sheffield and the lives of a handful of very different women with husbands and sons behind bars in HMP High Cross. The splendid Polly Walker and Pippa Haywood are back as tough Francesca and sweet Harriet, and there are new characters — Kim (Shameless’s Sally Carman) and Aisling (Karla Crome, currently also starring in Lightfields).
Kim’s happy family life is torn when her husband faces a monstrous false accusation, while Aisling is desperate to make sure her old lag of a dad behaves himself and gets out of prison in time for her wedding. As for Franny, little has changed, though she unwittingly becomes even more deeply involved in her gangster husband’s bloody business.
1/4. New series. The return of the drama about women struggling to cope while the men in their lives are on the inside. Career criminal's wife Francesca finds herself at the heart of an escalating gangland war, while Harriet is delighted that son Gavin appears to have forged a friendship with a group of Muslims. But it seems they are not all they appear to be. There are also two new characters - Kim, whose perfect world is turned upside down when her loving husband and the father of her three boys is accused of a terrible crime - and bride-to-be Aisling, exasperated that her repeat offender father is back in jail. Sally Carman (Shameless), Karla Crome and Anne Reid join the cast, with Polly Walker, Pippa Haywood, Iain Glen and Nicola Walker.
CastKim Sally Carman
Aisling Karla Crome
Harriet Pippa Haywood
Francesca Polly Walker
Mick Enzo Cilenti
PaulIain Glen
Brendan Owen Roe
Frank David Bradley
DCI Fontaine Nicola Walker
Margaret Anne Reid
Lauren Phoebe Dynevor
Matt Harry McEntire
Gavin Adam Gillen
Ian Adrian Rawlins
Blake Chris Overton
Chris Paul David-Gough
Liam Stuart Wolfenden
Imam Munir Khairdin
Jack Callum Lambert
Charlie Joshua Lambert
Reece Jack Mitchell
Danny Ben Batt
Jaiden Jordan Bennie
Vicky Emma Matthews
DS Hagan Tony Bell
DS Sankey Laura Frances-Morgan
Ben Osi Okerafor
Stan Gary Overton
Uniformed cop Adam Foster
Visits hall guard Tom Tunstall
Gang leader Allan Hopwood
Magistrate Jeanette Rourke
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