Time: Stephen Graham's Partner Hannah Walters Played His Wife In BBC Drama

Many of us were absolutely gripped by the BBC's new prison drama, Time. In fact, people are even calling for Stephen Graham to win awards for his stellar performance as prison officer, Eric McNally.

But what many of Line Of Duty favourite Stephen Graham's super-fans don't know is that his wife actually starred with him in the drama.

Actress Hannah Walters - who has been married to Stephen since 2008 - appears as his on-screen wife Sonia McNally in the series.

Speaking about their casting, Stephen's wife explained on Radio X that she had originally been annoyed when her husband suggested she audition for the role.

BBC)

"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," she said.

Stephen 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!"

Despite stating that his wife's hiring was nothing to do with nepotism, Stephen said that he did get to have some say over casting in the Jimmy McGovern drama, seeing as he was also an executive producer.

Shutterstock)

"This time, fortunately, I was involved in the respective - I was an executive producer. I'm sitting at the grown up's table, you know what I mean?," he added.

"I was able to make some suggestions along with casting and things like that and [director Lewis Arnold] was fantastic and really accommodating and that's where I threw a few names in the hat - the likes of Bobby Schofield, James [Nelson] Joyce," he added, before the radio host, Chris Moyles asked: "Hannah Walters?"

"Yeah and that's how it kind of happened. I said, 'You know, maybe-' and he was like, 'Yeah of course, definitely that sounds great,' and Hannah was reluctant at first."

BBC)

The pair appear in the series alongside Sean Bean, who plays Mark Cobden - a convict at the jail Eric is working at. Meanwhile, other stars include Kadiff Kirwan, James Nelson-Joyce, Bobby Schofield and Siobhan Finneran.

Time was originally pegged as a limited series, but many fans are also vying for a second instalment.

As for whether Stephen, Hannah and the rest of the cast will be back is still unconfirmed...

Topics: TV News, TV Entertainment

Joanna Freedman

Joanna is a journalist at Tyla with a particular interest in highlighting women's issues and telling inspiring first person stories. She's also their resident foodie, and loves covering exciting new beauty launches, too. Contact her at [email protected].

@joannafreedman