BBC Commissions SISTER’s Waiting For The Out

The BBC has ordered the tentatively titled Waiting For The Out, a six-part series based on Andy West’s memoir, The Life Inside.

From Dennis Kelly (Together, Utopia, Matilda The Musical), the series is being made for BBC iPlayer and BBC One by SISTER, with filming having begun in and around Liverpool. Josh Finan (The Responder) stars as Dan, a philosopher who begins teaching a class in prison. BBC Studios will handle global sales.

Lindsay Salt, director of BBC Drama, commented, “Waiting For The Out offers an inspiring and nuanced new take on male identity, forgiveness and self-discovery from one of the U.K.’s greatest writers. It’s a joy to have Dennis back on the BBC and to be working with the SISTER team to bring his thoughtful, funny and moving scripts to life.”

Kelly, writer and executive producer, said, “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 who 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…”

West, who is an executive producer, added, “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 cliches about prisons and the families inside them and that touches people either side of the wall.”

Chris Fry and Katie Carpenter, executive producers for SISTER, noted, “Andy West’s brilliant memoir offers a compelling, thought-provoking exploration of masculinity, guilt and freedom. We feel so lucky to be working with Dennis Kelly on the adaptation; from the first draft, we knew he had something urgent and profoundly moving on our hands. The quality of his writing has rightly attracted a remarkable cast, led by the brilliant Josh Finan, and directors Jeanette Nordahl and Ben Palmer. Waiting For The Out is a story that asks big questions but resists easy answers. We hope it will resonate deeply with audiences. We’re delighted to partner with the BBC on a project that quietly challenges the way we think about our justice system and the lives lived both on the inside and the out.”