A prison drama with a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes has found a renewed popularity on BBC iPlayer. Based on a memoir by Andy West, who recounted his experience teaching philosophy in prison, Waiting for the Out stars Josh Finan as protagonist Dan Stewer.
The actor, recently seen in Netflix's How To Get To Heaven from Belfast, plays a philosophy teacher who's assigned to teach to men in a high-security correctional facility. As he gets to know his students, Dan starts obsessing over his own family's history of incarceration as his father, brother and uncle have all been in prison.
The series has made a surprise return onto iPlayer's trending chart months after its January premiere.
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Waiting for the Out is now at number eight in the Top 10 of the 'most popular' content on the platform, being the only non-soap TV series alongside The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which is at number ten.
Finan stars alongside Samantha Spiro and Gerard Kearns as Dan's mum and dad, as well as Nikhil Parmar as Rayan, Stephen Wight as Lee Gifford, Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́ as Officer Stephens, and Neal Barry as Officer Guthrie,
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Rounding up the cast are Josef Altin as Greg Turner, Steven Meo as Daniel 'Macca' McKenzie, Ric Renton as Wallace Robson, and Tom Moutchi as Tom 'Junior' Kouame Jr.
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An adaptation of West's The Life Inside: A Memoir Of Prison, Family and Learning to be Free translated for the screen by Dennis Kelly and Levi David Addai, Waiting for the Out has received positive reviews, earning a perfect critic score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes out of 5 reviews.
The Guardian has described the philosophy prison series as "totally magnificent TV", while BBC.com praised it as "one of the most accurate but heartfelt depictions of what it's like to be living with OCD".
Waiting for the Out is streaming on BBC iPlayer.
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Reporter, Digital Spy
Stefania is a freelance writer specialising in TV and movies. After graduating from City University, London, she covered LGBTQ+ news and pursued a career in entertainment journalism, with her work appearing in outlets including Little White Lies, The Skinny, Radio Times and Digital Spy.
Her beats are horror films and period dramas, especially if fronted by queer women. She can argue why Scream is the best slasher in four languages (and a half).
