THE gaol drama genre, where a naïve Westerner is caught committing a crime in the developing world and thrown into a terrible prison, has previous.

Think the Oscar-winning Midnight Express – shown to me as a young teenager by a friend’s parent as a warning never to do anything silly on holiday – it still haunts, and has spawned a number of imitators.

This week sees the release of the latest in a long line of such yarns, and is based on a true story – as Midnight Express was. A Prayer Before Dawn tells the story of Billy Moore (played by actor Joe Cole), who was sentenced to a stretch in Thailand’s notorious Bangkok Hilton prison for receiving stolen goods. To survive, he begins training – he had previously been an amateur boxer – and learning the skills of Thai boxing.

Moore is a Liverpudlian who had issues with drug addiction, and after his eventual release wrote a memoir about the experience. Director Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire translates the story from page to screen with brutal results.