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Prisoner — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Notable quotes

“Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilisation.”
— Winston Churchill, letter to Home Secretary Herbert Morrison (November 21, 1943); Churchill, Closing the Ring (vol. 5 of The Second World War; 1951), p. 679.
“While there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”
— Eugene V. Debs, Statement to the Court Upon Being Convicted of Violating the Sedition Act, September 18, 1918
“Mr. Emerson visited Thoreau at the jail, and the meeting between the two philosophers must have been interesting and somewhat dramatic. The account of the meeting was told me by Miss Maria Thoreau [Henry Thoreau's aunt]—"Henry, why are you here?" Waldo, why are you not here?”
— Attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Arthur Samuel Jones, Thoreau's Incarceration [As Told by His Jailer], p. 15 (1962). This exchange was supposed to have taken place on July 23 or 24, 1846, in the Concord, Massachusetts, jail where Thoreau was placed for nonpayment of poll taxes. There are many versions of this story, but Thoreau's account does not mention a visit by Emerson, in his Reform Papers, ed. Wendell Glick (1973), p. 79–84, so it is probably apocryphal.
“The least I can do is speak out for the hundreds of chimpanzees who, right now, sit hunched, miserable and without hope, staring out with dead eyes from their metal prisons. They cannot speak for themselves.”
— Jane Goodall as reported in Janelle Rohr, Animal rights: opposing viewpoints (1989), p. 100; Jane Goodall and Jennifer Lindsey, Jane Goodall: 40 Years at Gombe (1999), p. 6. Occasionally misreported in truncated form, as "The least I can do is speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves", in, e.g., quote honored on EarthE eco money.
“The newspapers are gonna be tough on you. And prison is very, very hard on people who hurt kids. If you get the opportunity, you should kill yourself.”
— "Rust" Cohle, played by Matthew McConaughey, True Detective (TV series), Haunted House, written by Nic Pizzolatto
“As if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel.”
— Ezekiel. X. 10

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Article

Prisoner is a British thriller television series created by Matt Charman, directed by Otto Bathurst, and starring Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle. The series premiered on 30 April 2026 on Sky Atlantic. In May 2026, the show was renewed for a second series.

Contents

Premise

A prisoner and the prison guard escorting them survive an ambush.

Cast and characters

Main

Tahar Rahim as Tibor Stone, a genius hitman and witness against Dempsey

Izuka Hoyle as Amber Todd, a prison transport officer for SEF Security Services

Leonie Benesch as Nina Drâgus, an assassin trained by Stone working for Dempsey

Finn Bennett as Olly Hatton, Amber's husband and the father of her daughter, Mia

Laurie Davidson as Declan Dempsey, Harrison's son

Ken Nwosu as Phil Hawkins, a supervisor for SEF Security Services

Sam Troughton as Will O'Neill, an agent with the National Crime Unit

Kitty Reed as Jade Butler, a prison transport officer for SEF Security Services

Daniel Betts as Marcus Turner, a prison transport officer for SEF Security Services

Selorm Adonu as Jamal Azumah, a prison transport officer for SEF Security Services

Brían F. O'Byrne as Harrison Dempsey, the leader of organised crime group Pegasus

Catherine McCormack as Josephine Campbell, Director of the National Crime Unit

Eddie Marsan as Alex Tebbit, Director of Operations for the National Crime Unit

Supporting

Steven Elder as Joe Sutherland, a prison transport officer for SEF Security Services

Jessica Barker-Wren as Nancy Howard, an agent with the National Crime Unit

Youssef Kerkour as Miles Zahidi, Harrison Dempsey's lieutenant

Marie Bunel as Carla Dumont, Stone's estranged mother

Michele Austin as Kelly Douglas, Amber's mother in prison for armed robbery

Guest

Lisa Palfrey as Tara Evans, a criminal associate of Kelly Douglas

Ace Bhatti as Viraj Mundhra, the Home Secretary

Production

The series is written by Matt Charman, who also serves as showrunner. The series is produced by Binocular Productions and received a series order from Sky Television in October 2024. Haleema Mizra is deputy showrunner and writer. The series is directed by Otto Bathurst, with later episodes directed by Pia Strietmann. Executive producers are Charman, Foz Allan, Bathurst, and Adrian Sturges for Sky Studios. Barney Reisz is the series producer.

In February 2025, Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle were announced to lead the cast with Eddie Marsan, Catherine McCormack, Leonie Benesch, Finn Bennett, Sam Troughton, Laurie Davidson, Ken Nwosu, Brían F. O'Byrne, and Youssef Kerkour in supporting roles.

Filming took place in Wales in 2025, with filming locations including Cardiff. Aspects of funding for the series came from the Welsh government.

On May 14, 2026, Sky renewed the show for a second series.

Broadcast

The six-episode first series premiered on 30 April 2026 on Sky Atlantic.

Article from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), where it is maintained by volunteer editors.