It is no disrespect to the incarcerated to say that the experience of being sent to prison generally realises a narrative. A narrative, more to the point, whose structure is often as formally constrained as the person placed behind bars.

Naturally, Hollywood tends to stylise these psychological templates to the point of absurdity, but as Faith in Freedom, a three-part, John McCarthy-hosted World Service documentary in the Heart and Soul strand demonstrates from one moment to the next, the patterns of confinement are quite as applicable to “ordinary” life.