ITV are to launch a ‘Big Brother’-style reality series about prison life.
The channel are said to be planning to air a new show called ‘Island Prison’, which will follow the goings-on of inmates banged up in a jail on the Isle of Man.
An ITV insider said: "After ‘Big Brother’ and ‘Love Island’ there aren’t many new avenues to take this sort of warts-and-all format.
"It will be filmed in a similar way to those shows, with producers focusing on a group of central characters and the drama that is their daily life behind bars."
Prisoners were filmed for four months during the summer, and viewers will "get to know" the inmates when the show opens its doors next year.
The source told The Sun’s Bizarre TV column: "Like all reality shows, viewers will really get to know the stars who all have their own story and nothing will be glossed over. They wouldn’t be out of place in a TV soap."
The final ‘Big Brother’ series aired on Channel 5 earlier this year, during which show bosses brought back a task from the Channel 4 days which saw some housemates act as prisoners and others as wardens in BB’s Correctional Facility.
Inmates were given a set of rules which had to be enforced by wardens.
Former ‘Love Island’ star Jonny Mitchell once compared the ITV2 dating show, which is set in a Mallorca villa, to prison life.
He said: "It’s so high pressure. Everyone thinks you’re just lying in the villa and sunbathing.
"To an extent it’s true, although after a certain point, it’s like prison."
What’s more, former ‘Love Island’ contestant Zara Holland once compared the villa to a "posh prison".
She said: "It was so controlled in there that you got told when to go to bed, when to wake up, when dinner was."
ITV to launch Big Brother-style prison reality series
