TV with conviction

Obviously, the thought of Nick Knowles and Nadia Sawalha going to jail is full of comedic potential. Hence, I couldn’t resist but look in yesterday morning on Behind Bars, a BBC1 morning show in which the duo: “talk to convicts and staff about life in Cardiff Men’s Prison and Drake Hall Women’s Prison, Stafford”.

Broadcast live, as is the law for these type of shows, it proved that an inmate who’s taken on the role of barber-behind-bars for 20p a haircut is never going to make the most verbose interviewee. “What do you spend the money on?” indeed.

But, I post here not to lambast this aspect of the show, or say all that much about it, really. Instead, I just want to record the fact that on this edition, all hell suddenly broke loose when a prisoner assaulted a guard. As alarms rang out, Nick and Nadia clearly wished they could be anywhere else, but pressed on regardless with their cheery links to camera: “Now here’s a woman who thinks the short, sharp, shock treatment doesn’t work, and wishes that she’d been given a longer sentence from the start!”.

And then, later, as Nick cosied up to the staff for a chat, you could still plainly hear the prisoners shouting abuse in the background.