Prison bars can't cage this slow-burn romance — but Victorian rules might.
Alan and Sylvia fall in love and Alan gains a renewed sense of purpose. He begins to hope for an eventual release on licence. However both he and Sylvia have to face the fact that, for the foreseeable future, they cannot enjoy any physical intimacy. They decide to treat their affair as a long Victorian courtship.
Acting
Pauline Collins carries aching restraint in every scene.
Direction
Haggard's TV background makes prison claustrophobia viscerally intimate.
Director
Piers Haggard
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of ITV's 'Knockback' anthology on British prison life, reflecting Thatcher-era anxieties about incarceration and rehabilitation.
Derrick O'Connor researched actual prisoner correspondence to develop Alan's physical stillness — every gesture coded as monitored.
GB
