Life and Time: Release
Drama of the Week
BBC
3.7 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 19 June 2026
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
James Fritz's award-winning drama about the UK prison system returns with two contrasting stories of release, told from the perspective of prisoners and staff alike.
In this first episode, a prisoner (who listeners met in Series 1) leaves with his paperwork signed and a discharge grant in his pocket, convinced his prayers have been answered. What he doesn't know is that a single clerical error, buried for years in a box of court paperwork, means he should never have been let out at all. As an overstretched prison scrambles to find him, the press whips up a manhunt and ministers demand a name, one question echoes from the courtroom to Whitehall: how could something like this happen?
Written by James Fritz
Lee ..... Carl Prekopp Yas ..... Yasmin Mwanza Clare ..... Maddy Lenny Jenny ..... Emma Handy Carly ..... Laura Dos Santos Rihanna ..... Rebekah Murrell Prison Director ..... Ben Crowe The Box Officer ..... Harry Myers Toby/Reverend ..... Joe Jameson Minister ..... Ian Dunnett Jnr
Production Team: Producer and Director, Tracey Neale Sound Design, Keith Graham, Sam Dickinson and Andrew Garrett Production Co-Ordinator, Ben Hollands
A BBC Studios production.
James Fritz has won the Imison and Tinniswood Awards, Best Single and Best Series at the Audio Drama Awards, and Gold and Bronze at the ARIAs. For his theatre work he has won the Critics' Circle Award and the Bruntwood Prize, and was nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. He is under commission to the RSC, on attachment to the National Theatre, and is currently writing a TV drama and adapting his play The Flea into a feature film.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.9 | You clearly love a podcast, so this July, why not join us in Sheffield for the UK's biggest podcast and party, Crosswires Festival. |
| 0:15.6 | You can see live episodes of your favourite podcast for free at the BBC Sound and Radio 4 Fringe. |
| 0:22.9 | Shows like Newscast, sort your lifeout unpacked and the traitors unclosed with me. |
| 0:28.3 | Your favourite traitor, Mina. |
| 0:30.2 | To book your free ticket, go to crosswires. live forward slash fringe. |
| 0:35.6 | This is Drama of the Week. |
| 0:44.5 | Life and time. |
| 0:47.3 | Three days. |
| 0:49.4 | By James Fritz. |
| 0:52.3 | A person's life is their record. A person's life is their record. |
| 0:55.0 | A person's record is their life. |
| 0:59.0 | In prison, you know, there's very little difference. |
| 1:04.0 | The manhunt continues today for the prisoner Lee Kirk, who is still at large two days after being mistakenly released |
| 1:10.9 | from prison. Kirk, who was serving a nine-year sentence, was accidentally released on Monday. |
| 1:16.5 | Prisoner at large, Lee Kirk. |
| 1:19.4 | Police have requested anyone with information about prisoner Lee. |
| 1:22.9 | Information about his whereabouts to contact police in need. |
| 1:26.3 | The Ministry of Justice has released his... |
| 1:28.5 | If cited the prisoners should not be approached by any... |
| 1:30.7 | Accidentally released prisoner, Lee Kirk... |
| 1:33.3 | ...to not approach. |
... |
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