George Thatcher
'The control of my life had been taken from me and I was in a wilderness....'
Sentenced to hang for a murder he insists he did not commit, George spent four weeks in the condemned cell before the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. In 1973, to protest his innocence, he wrote a play which was smuggled out of prison on scraps of paper and performed in the West End of London.
The Only Way Out is based on his experience of living next door to the gallows. Towards the end of his 18-year sentence he fell in love with a prison visitor.
Through this relationship and the discovery of a talent for writing and painting, he changed his life from one as a professional thief to one as a successful artist. And throughout his imprisonment he developed a personal philosophy based on experience of crime and punishment.
Actors James Ellis and Brian Croucher re-enact three scenes from the play. Producer FAY WOOLF
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