You know the feeling when you’ve waited ages for a bus, then two come along at once? It seems like only yesterday that I reviewed Jimmy McGovern’s prison drama, Time, and referenced it as a rare example of authenticity – one of the few works that gave me a feeling of being back in prison. Then along comes Screw (Channel 4), which is every bit as good.
When I started writing about prisons – as a change from committing the crimes that occasionally landed me in them – a press officer at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) asked me if I would stop referring to prison officers as “screws”, as it was somewhat demeaning. My dictionary agreed; it defines the word as: “informal, derogatory, a prison warder”. I wonder if the MoJ have complained to Rob Williams, Screw’s creator?
