The BBC has greenlit Matilda: The Musical scribe Dennis Kelly’s adaptation of Andy West’s hit memoir about his life teaching philosophy in prisons.
BAFTA-nominated Josh Finan (The Responder) leads the cast as Dan, a philosopher who begins teaching a class of men in prison. The character is based on West and the show currently has working title Waiting for the Out.
Finan is joined by Gerard Kearns (The Day of the Jackal), Samantha Spiro (Sex Education), Phil Daniels (House of the Dragon), Stephen Wight (Bergerac), Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo (Rain Dogs), Neal Barry (Rain Dogs), Alex Ferns (Andor), Francis Lovehall (A Thousand Blows), Steven Meo (House of the Dragon), Ric Renton (One Off), Tom Moutchi (Gladiator II), Nima Taleghani (Heartstopper), Sule Rimi (The Day of the Jackal), Charlie Rix (Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) and Jude Mack (Such Brave Girls).
Through his work, the show follows how Dan begins to dig deeper into his own past – growing up with a violent father (Kearns) who ended up in prison, as did his brother Lee (Stephen Wight) and uncle Frank (Daniels). Dan took a different path, but his 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 heartwrenching memoir was published two years ago.
Deadline first told you about the drama several weeks back and it comes from Black Doves and The Split producer Sister. Sister boss Jane Featherstone first alluded to it earlier this year when she was discussing the struggle to fund TV shows in front of a parliamentary inquiry.
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 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.”
West, who is also EPing, 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.”
The series will be directed by Jeanette Nordahl (The Responder) and Ben Palmer (Douglas is Cancelled), with Louise Sutton (Black Mirror) serving as producer. The executive producers are Kelly, Featherstone (Black Doves, This is Going to Hurt), Chris Fry (Black Doves, Giri/Haji), Katie Carpenter (Kaos, Landscapers) and West for Sister, and Tanya Qureshi for the BBC. The project is backed by BBC Studios, which will handle global sales.
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