20 Things You Didn’t Know About Midnight Express
1. From Guard To Inmate
During the movies final act, Billy Hayes is now incarcerated in a prison wing exclusively for the criminally insane. Hayes slowly walks around the crowded cells in a catatonic state. His exercise consists of running away from guards and walking around a stone column.
After coming in contact with his girlfriend again, Billy’s sanity returns to him. He begins thinking independently and defies the usual direction which people usually will walk around the column. During this scene, Billy is confronted with a softly spoken inmate who accuses Hayes of not realising he is a ‘broken machine.’ Hayes intimidates his fellow convict before leaving to make his successful escape.
The softly spoken Englishman was played by Peter Jeffrey. For keen-eyed classic comedy fans, Jeffrey was much better known for his one-off appearance in the 1970s prison sitcom, Porridge. Appearing as the new prison guard, Napa Wainwright, he acted as the antagonist of the episode, as he scrupulously targeted Fletcher and his contemporaries.
Despite both appearances taking place in a prison setting, the characters whom Peter Jeffrey portrays couldn’t be more different.