There Is No Escape

**There Is No Escape** is the third episode of The Goes Wrong Show's second series, which was first broadcast on BBC One on 11 October 2021.

## Summary

An American prison break drama is this week’s offering from the Cornley Drama Society, full of intrigue, excitement and double-cross. It’s also full of errors, as the cast struggle to escape from the set, their costumes and a phone box.

There’s a bizarre talking bird, a flying system which operates at random and a prosthetic chin with a life of its own. And Robert’s terrified niece Lucy Grove makes her debut, with predictable disaster. It doesn’t help that none of the cast understand the plot.

Plot

Set in an Indiana prison in 1976, Prisoner Billy Wheeler (Chris) narrates the story as well as being a central character. (The voiceovers have a habit of getting out of sync with the action)

Wheeler is in prison for the murder of his wife Andrea, but claims he is innocent - she was a journalist who had been on the point of exposing corruption in the prison service when she was murdered.

The kitchen orderly, Ol' Wallace (Max) can communicate with people outside the prison using his trained bird Marty (Dennis). Marty delivers a message from one of Wheeler's contacts outside, who says he can get him out, but he will need the help of his cellmate Stu Malone (Vanessa). Malone initially refuses, because he believes, from his experience in building the prison in which he is now an inmate, that escape is impossible.

In a phone conversation between Wallace and his daughter Olivia (Lucy), who has been investigating Wheeler's case, she says that it appears all the files on Wheeler's wife's murder have gone missing. (There is a brief unscripted intervention by an additional character invented (and played) by Robert: Olivia's brother Timmy)

Wheeler, Malone and Wallace have an altercation with two lother inmates: Mick the Muscle (Annie) and his sidekick Rex (Sandra), which is broken up when the Prison Governer (Robert) summons Mick to his office. Wheeler's Appeal against conviction is due next week, and new evidence has come to light that will prove Wheeler is innocent. The Governer is keen for Wheeler to miss this court date, and also wants Malone disposed of, and offers Mick parole if he can arranged for Wheeler and Malone to be put out of the way. This conversation is overheard by Malone, who tells Wheeler, and they agree to escape, Malone planning the breakout and Wheeler arranging a getaway car through Jones (Jonathan), his contact on the outside,

A further altercation between Mick and Malone in the shower results in the latter being fatally wounded (by a spoon, in compliance with the BBC's anti-knife crime policy). With his dying breath Malone tells Billy that the only way out of the prison is through the window in the Governer's office.

Wallace gets Marty the bird to steal a key from a prison officer and take it to his daughter Olivia to be copied and returned to him. Wallace then smuggles the copy into Wheeler's cell. Wheeler encourages Wallace to escape with him, knowing that it would mean everything to Wallace to be with his daughter on her birthday.

Having used the key to get out of his cell, Wheeler makes his way through the prison, meeting up with Wallace on the way. They are confronted by Mick, but he is killed by Rex (with a ladle!) who has decided to join the breakout. Although Wallace objects, Wheeler agrees Rex can join them. They make it to the Governer's office, where the Governer and a prison officer called McKenzie (Vanessa) find them. The Governer reveals that he was the real murderer of Wheeler's wife, and he had ensured Wheeler was placed in his prison so he could keep an eye on him. In a bid to ensure his secret does not get out, the Governer decides to shoot everyone present, starting with McKenzie, but Marty the bird attacks the Governer, giving the three prisoners a chance to escape through the window and over the wall, where they are picked up by Jones and make their getaway - (in a phone booth, as Jonathan had been unable to get out of the it after his earlier scene).

In the final scene we see Wallace reunited with Olivia (and Timmy) whilst Wheeler and Rex make a break for the border.

## Cast

* Chris Bean as Billy Wheeler
* Vanessa Wilcock-Wynn-Carroway as Stu Malone/Mackenzie
* Sandra Wilkinson as Rex
* Annie Twilloil as Mick the Muscle
* Max Bennett as Old Wallace
* Robert Grove as The warden
* Dennis Tyde as Marty the Bird
* Jonathan Harris as Jones
* Trevor Watson as himself
* Lucy Grove as Olivia

## Gallery

Max and Dennis the birdMax and Lucy's phone call
## Trivia

* This was the first episode from series 2 (excluding the Nativity) to be shot. It was filmed without an audience.
* This is the only production in which Robert's niece Lucy plays a named female character: ("Tootles" in Peter Pan and "Tiny Tim" in Christmas Carol are both boys)