Here are National Geographic Locked Up Abroad: The Real Midnight Express video and photos from the season 4 premiere of the critically acclaimed series. The episode will be broadcast for the first time on NatGeo Channel on Weds. June 30, 2010 at 10 pm ET.
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The highly anticipated new episode tells the real life story behind the 1978 Academy Award winning movie “Midnight Express” directed by Alan Parker from a screenplay by Oliver Stone, and starring Brad Davis, John Hurt and Randy Quaid.
It was based on the book of the same title by the American author and actor, Billy Hayes, which chronicled his 1970 arrest and conviction for drug smuggling in Turkey, during his college years, and resultant imprisonment in the infamous Sagmalcilar prison in Istanbul. Eventually, he managed to escape after being transferred to an island prison.
Due to legal reasons, he was not able to tell the full story in the book, nor in the movie. However, now for the first time he reveals what really happened to him in interviews shot for the program, interspersed with reenactments.
Click here for an overview and more pictures: National Geographic Locked Up Abroad: The Real Midnight Express
Top photo: Reenactment: Billy Hayes (actor) being held at gun point as he tries to board the plane. In 1970, he tried to smuggle 2 kilos of hash back to the USA. He was one of the first casualties of Turkey’s crackdown on drug smuggling.(Photo credit: © Raw Television)
Video – Locked Up Abroad re-examines the life of Billy Hayes, and this time, all is revealed. Link
Video – Just mere steps from his flight, Billy is caught attempting to smuggle two kilos of hash out of Turkey. Link
Video – Hayes fakes insanity in order to transfer to a mental hospital, only to find that the hospital is much worse than prison. Link
Video – n a prison surrounded by water, Billy steals out in the dead of night, jumps in a canoe, and rows hours to safety. Video Link
Photos and video courtesy National Geographic Channel
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National Geographic Locked Up Abroad: The Real Midnight Express (Video, Photos) Season 4 Premiere 2010
I was arrested in Turkey and received a similar life sentence, Purchased my drugs in Afganistan
so import and export.My sentence was redused the opposite way William Hayes was extended
He was my cell and bunk mate for 3 years.After my release on a general amnesty I was not allowed to leave the country for 6 weeks. I traveled through Iran when the penalty was death for what I was carrying before being arrested in Turkey.Also in solitary for the first 8 months.?