Episode:
1 of 10 Production house:
Endemol Southern Star Press contacts:
Natalie Phillips
natalie.phillips@itv.com Picture contacts:
James Hilder
james.hilder@itv.com 

Sean Bean narrates this hard-hitting series produced by Endemol Southern Star, especially for ITV4 this September. Real Prison Breaks is about those who refuse to surrender to incarceration and introduces some of the most elaborate and unimaginable prison escapes of all time. This series features dramatic reconstructions, as well as interviews with those involved in the outrageous prison breaks. 

Episode one details the mass break-out of the IRA, a court room massacre in Atlanta, and a love struck girlfriend who takes a helicopter pilot hostage, so she can free her imprisoned lover in Australia. 

During the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland, the British government was forced to build a new high security prison for captured IRA members. In 1983 Her Majesty’s Prison, The Maze was opened. During the prison’s operation, 30 officers were shot dead and 50 committed suicide. 

38 of The Maze prisoners were deemed high risk and consequently a special cell block was built to house them, simply called H, which consisted of escape-proof cells and corridors, as well as masses of barbed wire surrounding the outside walls of the prison. This particular prison housed a central control room where one button could shut down all 38 cells, as well as two central crossing corridors which meant that all four on-duty prison guards could see each other at all times. Over time these 38 prisoners befriended the prison guards, which was the first step of their cunning escape plan. Their plan was for one cell-mate to over take the central control room and release all the other prisoners; they would then hijack the delivery truck and drive out of the prison gates unnoticed. A simple plan, but was it successful? Tune in to find out.