EastEnders Sid Owen explains what BBC soap gets wrong about prison life
EastEnders star Sid Owen has revealed what the show gets wrong about prison after being incarcerated for a new Channel 4 series.
The 51-year-old actor, best known for playing Ricky Butcher on the BBC soap, is one of seven celebrities taking part in Banged Up, a four-part series about what life is really like inside UK prisons.
The show sees a mix of politicians, artists and TV personalities jailed in the decommissioned HMP Shrewsbury in London for eight days, where they are forced to live by the rules of former officers and live alongside ex-convicts. Produced by Shine, the ground-breaking social experiment aims to explore the impact of the UK's prison system on criminals, victims and society.
Sid's own father was locked up for robbery when he was just four years old, while his brothers have been in and out of prison throughout his adult life. He's also experienced a jail environment on screen, with Ricky having visited both Bianca and Sam in prison on separate occasions in the past.
Sid Owen joins Tom Rosenthal and Marcus Luther in Banged Up (Colin Hutton / Channel 4)However, after finally experiencing prison for himself, Sid now believes that soaps fail to paint an accurate picture of the reality of life inside. "You don’t get to see a good insight. It’s always a visiting room," he noted. "With this, I went in with open eyes, open arms, it can’t be that difficult, it’s only eight days. I’ve sat in the jungle [ I'm a Celebrity] for 3 and a half weeks and that was seriously boring at times. But when you’re in that sort of environment you can never prepare yourself. The jungle was easier because while some celebrities can be crazy…with prison, the whole noise, the shouting, the screaming, the anger, that’s what really gets you in the end."
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Ricky visiting Bianca in prison in 2011 (BBC)In the first episode of Banged Up, viewers saw Sid trying to escape the jail just days into his sentence. He sneaks past the prison guards and out into the yard, but he's quickly caught and taken back to his cell.
The TV actor is then made to wear a bright yellow and blue uniform to make him more visible and easier to capture if he attempts another breakout. He initially refuses to put on the colourful outfit, leading to a tense standoff with the guards.
"I sort of was joking and I wasn't...[trying to escape]. You get very little time out of your cell, like an hour, an hour and a half," Sid explained. "After a couple of days, I was just trying to get used to it, chat to people, get to know people. But you know, I just wanted a little bit of extra time."
Sid ends up in segregation, a solitary confinement cell for prisoners who are a danger to themselves or others. While this is meant as a punishment, the former Strictly star admits he found it to be a relief.
"That was alright because I was on my own. It was probably the only bit of downtime that I had," he recalled, before adding that he was grateful for a break from "the noise, the shouting, the screaming, the anger."
Sid also said that he felt safer in segregation than he did in the communal areas of the prison, where inmates who have committed crimes of varying degrees are forced to rub shoulders.
"It's a concrete jungle," he recalled. "You never feel safe. They're all big characters. Some serious criminals as well... the whole noise, the shouting, the screaming, the anger, that's what really gets you in the end."
Banged Up premiered on Tuesday 31st October on Channel 4, with episode two airing on November 7th at 9:15pm.
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