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Waiting for the Out Premieres on BBC One With a Reframing of Andy West’s Prison Memoir

Dennis Kelly reshapes Andy West’s memoir into a six-part study of family legacy within prison life.

Overview

  • The six-part drama debuts Saturday 3 January at 9:30pm on BBC One.
  • Josh Finan plays Dan, a philosopher teaching in a men’s prison who grapples with a family history of incarceration and a mounting fear he belongs inside.
  • Writer Dennis Kelly renames the protagonist, expands the father’s role and merges multiple prisons and people, while lifting authentic classroom dialogue from Andy West’s memoir.
  • Creators reject conventional violent prison tropes in favor of a quieter, often humorous portrait of routine, moral complexity and the intellectual refuge of philosophy classes.
  • West serves as a consultant and continues to teach inside UK prisons, with coverage situating the series against documented overcrowding, underfunding and understaffing.