Waiting For The Out presents with a young man, Dan Stewer (Josh Finan – The Responder), teaching a philosophy class in a prison full of men who’ve been locked away for a fair amount of time.
He’s a bit OCD. I can be about certain things, but then he’s constantly studying his gas oven to make sure it’s off, before leaving his flat. Then again, mine’s electric, and I just use the air fryer, anyway. He’s buying new shoes which take a while to break in… yep, I’ve been there; and his new girlfriend of 8 weeks, Jess (Jude Mack – Back In Action), is having a baby via a donor’s sperm.
It’s well-written and directed, bringing in all of the prisoners into the open discussion, although the conversation sometimes gets diverted to the prisoners’ day-to-day problems. There’s also some very dry humour in this, as the chat develops, and even before that, such as when Dan wants to take his phone into the prison with him, but is informed he must only leave it in his locker.
You start off thinking that it’ll all end up in a punch-up, because they’re in prison, but instead, it results in deep conversations between all of them, and comes off absolutely brilliant as a result. Either way it could go, it does feel like a tinder box waiting to kick off, and it’s backed up by a superb melancholic score. I just hope Waiting For The Out doesn’t get overlooked amongst all the other recent new dramas, including the widely-publicised The Night Manager, Red Eye and Netflix’s Run Away.
The whole cast is great, including all of those as prisoners, and Ronke Adekoluejo (Doctor Who) as sarcastic prison Officer Stephens.
And Dan REALLY needs to sort those shoes out! Oh, and remember that when you buy new ones, DON’T throw the old ones out. You can still use them occasionally, or otherwise in an emergency.
As an aside, I did wonder how Shameless‘ Gerard Kearns would be old enough to be in the cast as Dan’s Dad – since he still looks the same as he did back then, but when you watch this, you’ll understand how he fits in.
Thanks to our friends at BBC for the screeners prior to release.
Waiting For The Out begins tomorrow night on BBC1 at 9.30pm.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
However, you can buy the memoir/novel The Life Inside, by Andy West, on which the series is based.
Once broadcast, the episodes will be on BBC iPlayer.
Director: Jeanette Nordahl
Producers: Ken Horn, Louise Sutton
Writer: Dennis Kelly
Music: Sion Trefor
Cast:
Dan Stewer: Josh Finan
Lee Gifford: Stephen Wight
Dan’s Dad: Gerard Kearns
Keith McKellar: Alex Ferns
Officer Stephens: Ronke Adekoluejo
Officer Guthrie: Neal Barry
Jamie Lawson: Daniel Monks
Greg Turner: Josef Altin
Daniel ‘Macca’ McKenzie: Steven Meo
Wallace Robson: Ric Renton
Tom ‘Junior’ Kouame Jr: Tom Moutchi
Malik Zahir: Nima Taleghani
Zac Colton: Charlie Rix
Officer Campbell: David Stoller
Jessica Atherton: Jude Mack
Shoe Shop Clerk: Darryl Mundoma
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.