Harsh time in Channel Island (5)
I believe the answer is:
stark
'harsh' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'time in channel island' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'channel island' becomes 'sark' (I've seen this before).
't' put within 'sark' is 'STARK'.
(Other definitions for stark that I've seen before include "Harsh, bare" , "Blunt, absolute; Freya ---, travel writer" , "Unclothed - unvarnished" , "Arrant" , "Utterly" .)