Unlocking the cells at HMP Wakefield: Channel 5 to reveal secrets of 'the English version of Alcatraz'

It’s a warehouse for the worst Category A prisoners, home to some of the most terrible men in British criminal history, like Roy Whiting, Jeremy Bamber, Charles Bronson, and Robert Maudsley.

Through interviews with ex-inmates, retired prison officers, and relatives of Britain’s most infamous inmates, a new Channel 5 programme will unlock the cell doors and uncover the secrets of life inside the UK’s toughest jail, decribed in the programme as 'the English version of Alcatraz'.

HMP Wakefield: Evil Behind Bars, which will be showing on Channel 5 tonight, will show life on the mixed wings where hated sex offenders and child killers are abused and attacked, and even killed, as they fight for their lives.

And we find out from exclusive personal letters written to his nephew Gavin how the most dangerous prisoner in Britain, Robert Maudsley, is coping alone in his specially glass cage in the basement of the prison.

Exclusive phone-calls from one of the UK’s longest serving inmates Charles Bronson reveal first-hand what life is really like as inmate in Wakefield Prison.

Bronson’s son George recounts how his life changed forever when he was summoned to the prison to meet the Dad he never knew he had. And we hear never before told stories from inside the walls of Wakefield about Jeremy Bamber, arguably as famous for his fight to get out of prison than for the crimes he committed to be sent there.

Many of HMP Wakefield inmates are in for life, some will never be released and will die as pensioners behind bars. So, should we be treating the worst of the worst more humanely in jail?

Or does society prefer to lock them up, throw away the key and forget about them?

HMP Wakefield: Evil behind bars will air tonight, Monday, March 28 at 9pm.