Is Waiting for the Out based on a true story?

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The new BBC drama, Waiting for the Out, features Josh Finan as Dan, a philosopher who begins teaching a class to inmates. They explore complex topics like power, liberty, and the role of chance.

Dan comes from a family with a history of imprisonment – his brother, father, and uncle have all been to prison. This makes him fear he’s destined for the same fate, and even feel like he deserves it.

This show is packed with interesting concepts, but at its heart, it’s a very personal tale. Many viewers are wondering if that story is based on real events, if the character Dan is inspired by a real person, and what the series’ creator, Dennis Kelly, has shared about it.

Read on for everything you need to know about the inspiration behind Waiting for the Out.

Is Waiting for the Out based on a true story?

Waiting for the Out is based on the true story told in Andy West’s memoir, The Life Inside, which details his experiences with prison, family, and philosophy. Writer Dennis Kelly adapted the memoir for this production.

I recently came across this fascinating book, and the premise really grabbed me. It’s about a philosophy teacher named Andy West who teaches in prisons. What makes it even more compelling is that Andy carries a lot of personal baggage – his father, uncle, and brother have all been incarcerated. He’s managed to create a different path for himself, but he constantly wrestles with the fear that he might somehow end up following in their footsteps. It’s a really powerful setup, exploring themes of family, fate, and breaking cycles.

He spends his days talking with prisoners, learning about their lives, hearing their thoughts and emotions, and helping them consider different perspectives on what’s happening to them.

The characters grapple with profound questions about freedom, morality, and redemption – like whether someone incarcerated could actually be more free than someone living outside, if shame is necessary for goodness, and what truly makes a person deserving of forgiveness. Through these discussions with his students, Andy also seeks to understand his own path to liberation.

How closely does Waiting for the Out follow Andy West’s true story?

While the film, Waiting for the Out, draws inspiration from Andy West’s life and experiences, it also takes significant liberties with the story. To avoid confusion, the main character, played by Josh Finan, is named Dan instead of Andy.

Kelly explained that adapting the book for television was challenging because it didn’t have a clear, central storyline. While the book is full of interesting stories, there wasn’t one that immediately lent itself to a TV series. So, they developed a new focus for the show: Dan’s strong desire to learn about his father, a mystery that doesn’t interest the character of Andy at all.

We didn’t try to bring his father back to life, so to speak. I simply used memories described in the book. I didn’t discuss it much with Andy because I specifically wanted to avoid recreating that particular man. This father figure is different, but the memories themselves belong to Andy and are based on things that largely happened as he remembers them. I made sure to preserve a lot of those past experiences, or versions of them, in the portrayal.

I saved a lot of material, and surprisingly, the dialogue was often excellent – good enough to use directly in the book. In some cases, we could take conversations straight from the classroom without changing a word. That’s rare, because dialogue that works well in a novel often doesn’t translate to the screen. But in this case, the existing dialogue was actually very helpful and usable.

There were so many characters that I had to combine them into a single character and setting – a single prison – because we really wanted to focus on the people in the story.

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I recently spoke with Kelly, and he told me something interesting about working with West. Apparently, West was surprisingly receptive to suggestions and changes as they adapted the material – he was ‘pretty open’ to the process, which is great to hear.

It’s interesting how many roles Andy has in this project,” Kelly said. “Not only is the story about him and based on his life, but he also wrote the original book – it’s truly his creation. On top of that, he’s working as a consultant on it as well.

When people want information about prison life, they usually speak with Andy, as he’s very knowledgeable about the subject. He’ll likely be working in a prison around January 3rd, and continues to work in that environment, giving him a deep understanding of the prison system and the community within it.

Kelly reiterated that the changes happening in Dan’s family life were the hardest part for him, especially when compared to West’s situation, as she was approaching the matter from a different angle.

He explained that his father was the central challenge. The book features a recurring feeling—the ‘executioner’—where the character constantly anticipates things going wrong. While effective in the novel, he felt this internal struggle wouldn’t translate well to a visual medium.

He’s haunted by a voice in his head constantly warning him he’ll be arrested and that he’s carrying drugs, and this anxiety is what causes his obsessive checking of the stove. I felt the only character who could realistically portray this internal struggle was his father, though it wasn’t always a comfortable dynamic for Andy, who doesn’t want a relationship with him.

Kelly added that the show explores contrasting desires around parenthood, specifically Dan’s longing to be a father versus Andy’s lack of interest. However, as she worked on the series, she realized it ultimately became a story about the meaning of family.

Waiting for the Out will premiere on Saturday 3rd January at 9:30pm on BBC One.

Don’t forget to add “Waiting for the Out” to your watchlist on the TopMob app! Download it now to get daily TV recommendations, exclusive features, and stay up-to-date on everything happening in the world of TV.

Authors

James HibbsDrama Writer

James Hibbs writes about TV dramas for TopMob, covering shows on streaming services and traditional channels. Before becoming a writer, he worked in public relations, first at a business-to-business agency and then at Fremantle, an international TV production company. He has a bachelor’s degree in English and Theatre Studies and a Level 5 Diploma in Journalism.

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2026-01-03 11:40