The world’s most notorious prison breaks to life in Great Escapes With Morgan Freeman

The History Channel Africa (DStv Channel 186) is bringing the world’s most notorious prison breaks to life, in Great Escapes With Morgan Freeman on Saturdays at 20:15. In the build-up to the premiere of the much-anticipated documentary series, the History Channel Africa (DStv Channel 186) also aired 7 individual 3-minute locally produced pieces around some of Africa’s Greatest Escapes.

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Great Escapes With Morgan Freeman is an eight-part series from the History Channel Africa hosted and executive produced by Morgan Freeman. The five-time Academy Award nominee and one-time Academy Award-winning actor has appeared in hundreds of films and television roles. One of his most famous and beloved performances was in Shawshank Redemption, a film focusing on the exploits of a group of inmates inside the fictional Shawshank State Penitentiary.

In Great Escapes With Morgan Freeman, he explores real-life prison breaks that have captured the attention of the world. It’s an up close and personal view of the prisoners’ meticulous planning and their suspense-filled break outs. Famous escapes from Alcatraz, Dannemora, Pittsburgh State Penitentiary and other locations are recreated with actors playing key roles and with interviews from some of the prisoners themselves, their families, their cell mates and from the guards and prison employees that tried to stop the escapees in their tracks.

“I’ve been inside the minds of prisoners in my acting career, and I’m looking forward to stepping inside the most notorious prisons in the world, like Alcatraz, Sing Sing, Rikers Island and Leavenworth. Audiences will feel like they’re making the escapes themselves as I walk them into a virtual world and through the greatest escapes in history,” said Freeman.

Africa also has its share of famous flights of freedom and the History Channel Africa (DStv Channel 186) is bringing these to life through local short-form content ahead of and during the premier run of Great Escapes With Morgan Freeman. From escaping Robben Island to making an escape from the sinking Oceanos, the series will explore these and other legendary getaways on African soil.

Churchill’s great escape in the Anglo Boer War is one such tale. A young Winston Churchill made a daring escape from a Boer prisoner-of-war camp in 1899. With no map, no knowledge of the local languages and very little to eat he made it through enemy territory before catching a freight train to freedom in East Africa.

Another great African escape segment tells the story of Albie Sachs’ miraculous escape from death in 1988, when a bomb placed by South African security agents exploded in his car. He lost an arm and the sight of one eye but went on to become a constitutional court judge. Justice Sachs was the chief architect of the post-apartheid constitution of 1996.

Tune in to the History Channel Africal on (DStv Channel 186) every Saturday at 20:15 for dramatic recreations of daring escapes on Great Escapes With Morgan Freeman.

Watch Great Escapes With Morgan Freeman on Saturdays at 20:15 on the History Channel Africa(DStv Channel 186)

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