Project: Breakout
Client: Hot Shot Films
Broadcaster: BBC NI


Documentary about the IRA’s mass breakout from the Maze Prison in 1983 which was the biggest escape in British penal history. Thirty eight prisoners broke free with nineteen of them making it to the Republic of Ireland and four getting as far as the United States.

This intriguing minute-by-minute account shows how the prisoners successfully took over an entire H Block in what was regarded as one of the most secure prisons in Europe. It is told by three of the key strategists – Bobby Storey, Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane and Gerry Kelly, now a Junior Minister in the Northern Ireland Executive - as well as providing an account from the Prison Officers’ perspective via Campbell Courtney who, along with seven colleagues, was later commended for his bravery after being shot in the leg as he pursued a fleeing prisoner. Fellow officer Jimmy Ferris died from a heart attack after being stabbed.

Glowfrog provided motion graphics and models of the prison to show in detail how the escape was made.