Life and Time: Release

James Fritz's award-winning drama about the UK prison system returns with two contrasting stories of release, told from the perspective of prisoners and staff alike.

In this first episode, a prisoner (who listeners met in Series 1) leaves with his paperwork signed and a discharge grant in his pocket, convinced his prayers have been answered. What he doesn't know is that a single clerical error, buried for years in a box of court paperwork, means he should never have been let out at all. As an overstretched prison scrambles to find him, the press whips up a manhunt and ministers demand a name, one question echoes from the courtroom to Whitehall: how could something like this happen?

Written by James Fritz

Lee ..... Carl Prekopp

Yas ..... Yasmin Mwanza

Clare ..... Maddy Lenny

Jenny ..... Emma Handy

Carly ..... Laura Dos Santos

Rihanna ..... Rebekah Murrell

Prison Director ..... Ben Crowe

The Box Officer ..... Harry Myers

Toby/Reverend ..... Joe Jameson

Minister ..... Ian Dunnett Jnr

Production Team:

Producer and Director, Tracey Neale

Sound Design, Keith Graham, Sam Dickinson and Andrew Garrett

Production Co-Ordinator, Ben Hollands

A BBC Studios production.

James Fritz has won the Imison and Tinniswood Awards, Best Single and Best Series at the Audio Drama Awards, and Gold and Bronze at the ARIAs. For his theatre work he has won the Critics' Circle Award and the Bruntwood Prize, and was nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. He is under commission to the RSC, on attachment to the National Theatre, and is currently writing a TV drama and adapting his play The Flea into a feature film.