The Guardian view on a new prison drama: Waiting for the Out speaks quietly but powerfully | Editorial

Fri, 06 Feb 2026

This BBC series hasn’t made the same the splash as Adolescence. But its reflections on men in prison are valuable

Dennis Kelly, the author of the BBC’s six-part drama Waiting for the Out – now on iPlayer, with its final episode to be broadcast on Saturday – told an interviewer that fear is the secret hidden inside his latest series. The drama, about a man who takes a job teaching philosophy to a group of men in a prison, is based on Andy West’s memoir The Life Inside, which describes his real-life experiences teaching in prisons. Visiting jails for his research, Kelly picked up echoes of the debilitating shame that marred his own youth and early adulthood.

In his thirties, Kelly tackled his alcohol addiction, and began to write and recover. He is now the author of highly regarded TV series including Utopia and Pulling, and won a Tony award for his script for the smash-hit musical version of Roald Dahl’s Matilda.

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