MAN ON THE INSIDE

Actor Josh Finan tells us about thought-provoking prison drama Waiting For The Out, based on Andy West's acclaimed memoir

- JO BERRY

Actor Josh Finan says it was “eerie” filming scenes for the new BBC prison drama Waiting For The Out in a former prison in Gloucester.

The drama is based on the memoir The Life Inside by Andy West, which has been adapted for TV by Dennis Kelly. It follows Josh’s quiet character Dan as he takes a job teaching philosophy to a class of men in prison.

“It was interesting and eerie, because it still feels like a real prison,” says Josh. “But it's amazing how quickly everyone adjusts to the fact that it's another day at work.”

“I walked around it with Andy, because he also plays the escorting officer who brings Dan into prison on his first day. We had a little wander around and Andy observed things, like there were these snakes made of stone on the walls and he said he'd never seen a detail like that in a prison before. It was cool to see it through his eyes, and one thing he said was about the prison classrooms we have in the series. He said, ‘I've never worked in a classroom that's this big and bright and where the chairs haven't been graffitied or f****d up in some way.”

It also turned out that there was a connection between the location and Andy's real-life childhood experience of having relatives, including his father and brother, sent to prison.