Mr. Barrowclough

Mr. Barrowclough is one of the prison officers at Slade, a gentle, anxious man who plainly wishes he'd ended up somewhere kinder than a jail landing. He believes in rehabilitation, worries about his charges' feelings, and is forever undone by his own decency, which the inmates, especially Fletcher, spot instantly and exploit.

Brian Wilde plays him with a wounded, apologetic softness that makes him the perfect foil to Mackay's bark and Fletcher's cunning — you can watch him lose an argument in real time, blinking, before he's even finished making his point. The comedy is gentle because he is, and that gentleness never curdles into stupidity.