Liverpool Film Office offers funding to support second series of Jimmy McGovern’s BBC drama Time using cash from a £3m production fund. Tony McDonough reports

A second series of Liverpool writer Jimmy McGovern’s acclaimed TV drama Time will go ahead thanks to investment from Liverpool Film Office (LFO).

Cash for the investment, the value of which was not disclosed, will come from the £3m Liverpool City Region (LCR) Production Fund. This is the eighth investment made by the fund which offers discretionary investments of up to £500,000 per project.

Previous investments have included The Snow Spider, a five-part fantasy adventure series, and The Responder, a police drama written by Merseyside writer Tony Schumacher and starring Martin Freeman.

Time, which portrays life in a women’s prison, stars former Doctor Who, Jodie Whittaker, along with Tamara Lawrance and Bella Ramsey. It will be screened in three parts and is currently filming across Liverpool, Halton, Wirral and Knowsley.

The Fund also supported the first series of Time starring Sean Bean and Stephen Graham. This was both a critical and ratings hit in the UK and went on to secure two BAFTA TV awards including Best Mini-Series in 2022.

Co-written by McGovern and Helen Black (Life and Death in the Warehouse), the second series is produced and distributed internationally by BBC Studios for BBC One and iPlayer (as well as Britbox North America.

Managed by the LFO, the LCR Production Fund was launched to increase the number, range and scale of productions made in the city region and is supported by the Combined Authority through Mayor Steve Rotheram’s Strategic Investment Fund.

Head of LFO and fund manager, Lynn Saunders said: “This latest boost for the production fund is fantastic news for the Liverpool City Region especially following on from the award-winning success of the first series of Time.

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“By providing investment to productions, we are having a huge positive impact on the region with over £6 for every £1 of investment being directly spent in the local economy.

“The Fund also provides opportunities for local crew with over 34 trainees and 402 FTE jobs being supported to date through projects such as this.

“With the addition of The Depot (new studios at Edge Lane) and our expanding LFO team we are now drawing more productions than ever before into the region, allowing us to offer a real wraparound service.”