Waiting for the Out follows a man who teaches philosophy to prison inmates
The BBC has been slapped with complaints as viewers fumed over a new prison drama on Saturday (January 3).
New six-part drama Waiting for the Out has been penned by award-winning screenwriter Dennis Kelly from Andy West’s memoir, The Life Inside.
It follows Dan Stewer (played by Josh Finan), who decides to teach a group of male inmates about dominance, freedom, luck and other topics that have troubled philosophers for thousands of years. These topics also gain a new meaning when seen through the prisoners’ eyes, both igniting passions and creating tension.
The official synopsis continues: “Through his work, Dan begins to dig deeper into his own past – growing up with a father (Gerard Kearns) who ended up in prison, as did his brother Lee (Stephen Wight) and uncle Frank (Phil Daniels). Dan took a different path, but this time working in a prison begins to make him worry, obsessively, that he belongs behind bars just like his father.
“As Dan’s personal crisis deepens, his actions begin to threaten both his own future, and his family’s.”
The show’s cast also includes Samantha Spiro, Phil Daniels, Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo, Neal Barry, Alex Ferns, Francis Lovehall, Steven Meo, Ric Renton, Tom Moutchi, Nima Taleghani, Sule Rimi, Charlie Rix and Jude Mack.
The first episode saw Dan begin his first day teaching philosophy in a men’s prison. The lesson soon unravelled as he realised he’d underestimated his audience – and the weight of his own past.
Fixating on small details, Dan lost control of the class, risked his chance to become a father and broke an important promise to his new girlfriend. But when a familiar face resurfaced, Dan was soon forced to confront someone he thought he’d left behind.
BBC viewers were quick to share their complaints after watching the episode, with many sharing their frustration on X (formerly Twitter). “Well this is 45 mins of my life I won’t get back,” one person wrote.
Another added: “This is so weird,” while a third said: “God this is awful. Fella has no survival instinct. I’d be out of there. Don’t think they’d lock him in there alone with no way out.”
Meanwhile, other viewers were impressed with the contents of the episode, with one person writing: “Wow very interesting style! Quite different from anything else I’ve seen,” while another shared: “Just watched #WaitingForTheOut and I think it’s going to be brilliant.”
Andy West, executive producer and author of The Life Inside, previously said in a statement: “I’m so thankful to the writers, directors, producers and everyone involved in adapting The Life Inside. They have brought extraordinary creative and moral imagination to the stories in the book. We all hope to make a series that goes beyond the clichés about prisons and the families inside them and that touches people either side of the wall.”
Writer and executive producer Dennis Kelly added: “It’s not at all unusual for the men in Andy West’s family to end up in prison – but Andy is the only one that chose to be there. His book is funny, insightful, beautiful, genuinely heartbreaking and nothing like what you’d expect it to be – we’ve tried to take that into the series. God alone knows if we’ve succeeded, but we’ve tried…”
Waiting for the Out is available to stream on BBC iPlayer
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