Prison chaplain Sr Marie-Louise – played with gentle strength by Siobhan Finneran – is back, this time in a young offenders’ institution where lost boys beat their heads against the walls of the cells.

THE THIRD series of Jimmy McGovern’s prison drama has dropped – and among its many effects it reminded me of how formulaic most other TV dramas have become. McGovern goes where no one else does: to the most unfashionable, most familiar and yet unexamined regions of the human heart. His characters are powerless, trapped and lonely – and yet they draw comfort and redemption from small acts of mercy and compassion. This series is written in collaboration with Samuel Bailey and is a formidable piece of cleared-eyed life work.

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