Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Nina Sosanya, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, Laura Checkley, Faraz Ayub, Stephen Wright, Ron Donachie, Ben Tavassoli, Lee Ingleby, David Judge, Barnaby Kay, Nicholas Lumley, Chicho Tche, James Foster, Bill Blackwood, Mark Newsome, Nathan Vaughan Harris, Riley Carter Millington, Leo Gregory.
The representation of the British penal policy can be traced through almost every genre and system of delivery known to media as one of progression and brutal truth.
That truth is that for the most part is that prison is not a deterrent, it is the final chapter of a series of failures by society to reign in the fears and angers that are noticeable from childhood, and which then manifest themselves into adult criminality. The problem is compounded by the degrees in which we look upon criminal behaviour, to place a person in jail for falling behind on life, their whole being having been shaken by circumstance, perhaps the death of a loved one and the metal health breakdown saw them break a law in unusual character, alongside the person who sees the prospect of jail as one in which to continue to terrorise society, to spread their evil with a greater list of contacts at their disposal.
The prison drama is as much an institution as the police serials that have littered television screens across the decades, it arguably is down to the urge to of the viewer to see how the restoration of justice is carried out, the need to feel assured that once the convicted leaves the dock with the judge’s damning words ringing in their ears, they feel the full force of anger allowed under the law.
The second series of Screw frames this narrative of truth as it continues the interlocking stories of prisoner and guard, the expectation of remorse, the complexity of a system that scapegoats both the guilty and those who are charged with their safety and rehabilitation; it is in this intense situation of lives thrust together under a cramped and often hostile situation that lives are lost, bonded over, and broken…and sometimes found to be rejoiced.
For anybody whose lives have been influenced by the service, a close family member serving time or who works within the confines of government rules and regulations, Screw is one of the most poignant and deliberate observances of its kind, and with absolute towering performances from the entire cast, including Nina Sosanya, Ron Donachie, the ever-reliable Lee Ingleby, the sensational David Judge, and Laura Checkley, the Rob Williams created drama dares to inspire in what could be seen as a bleak desperation but finds a way, a compassionate way to show the structure of dependency on both sides of the cell.
It is impossible to come away from watching this second series without being impressed by the cohesive nature of the storylines that merge and weave, in Screw, the viewer can understand that we need to demand a better way to help those helping the inmates, without losing sight of the fact that locking people away does nothing to help them readjust to being a model citizen.
Ian D. Hall