Waiting for the Out

The start of 2026 has brought some cracking television already. With glossy big-hitters like The Traitors and The Night Manager returning to our screens, or the cultural phenomenon that was the finale of the sinister paranormal horror/coming-of-age series Stranger Things, it would be easier to miss some of the more genuinely unusual gems on television.

Waiting for the Out is one of these. The language at points might be strong, but it will make you laugh, make you cry, and certainly make you think. Waiting for the Out is a six-part BBC series (available on iPlayer) based on the memoir The Life Inside by Andy West, about his experience going from academia to teaching philosophy to prisoners, while the men in his own family had spent time behind bars.

Each episode is 45 minutes – just long enough to feel substantive, but not too much. And each episode is a lot. Fascinating and funny, dark but not grim, this looks at not only the life of those inside prisons, but how their time there impacts those around them. Dan, played by BAFTA-nominee Josh Finan, is the Andy character, the teacher we see right from the start of his first day at work in the prison, anxious about how the system inside works. His anxiety initially looks notable but normal. As the series unfolds we learn more about him and his past, and see the impact this has had on him. His quiet turmoil and OCD symptoms and later his private prison of fear that he will become like his dad. The prison he goes to work in is presented as a sort of pressure cooker. (Dan’s actual cooker gets significant screentime in its own sinister way.) It is well cast, well written and well acted, but it isn’t glossy or showy. This is a character drama, and one where compulsive behaviours are shown sensitively. It is trying to go beyond clichés into something more meaningful. about what it might be like doing prison chaplaincy, the cost to all those who work in prisons – and how I might better pray for those who are called to either of these roles, as well as those in prison.

The philosophy lessons we see Dan teach beautifully weave the classic conversations about the ship of Theseus, the frog and the scorpion, with the men opening up about their reality as prisoners. For Dan “irritating questions is the point of philosophy” and teaching in a university, the questions had all just got “a bit less irritating”. As they look at Locke and Descartes, the inmate’s questions might look different from those of the usual undergraduate, but no less genuine. Their discussions about hope, luck and choice provide them with “a two-hour holiday in the head”.

The theme of what it means to be a man comes through, both in their conversations and in the reflections Dan has as he explores his past and inherited pain. What does dominance really mean; “in order for me to be a man, someone has to lose”. The reflections here are very different to the challenges presented in last year’s Netflix hit Adolescence. There are no easy answers here, in the philosophy nor in the men’s incarceration experiences. But this is a show not looking for easy answers, nor obvious redemption. The focus is on connection, not rehabilitation – although you could argue that genuine connection becomes redemptive in its way.

Josh Finan, playing Dan, has said how pleased he was that “all the characters and prisoners felt very humanised, not demonised”. Each character, whatever their past or problems or choices, is indeed shown with empathy. However great their present struggle – or the struggle with the past – it is never too late to write your own story.

Faith is not depicted as a significant part of that story here, but we know we can choose for each of our stories to be put under Jesus’ Lordship. Whether the prison that holds people is bars and walls, or their past trauma – it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.