We Grew up on the Streets and My Dad and Brothers Did Jail Time… I Helped Them with Burglaries from Age 4, Says Sid Owen
He Grew up in a Criminal Family Where His Dad and Brothers Served Time and Even His Mum Was a Petty Thief - but Acting Saved Sid Owen from Following in Their...
HE grew up in a criminal family where his dad and brothers served time and even his mum was a petty thief - but acting saved Sid Owen from following in their footsteps.
Now the former EastEnders star, 51, has had his first taste of life behind bars after being locked up with violent cons for a new Channel 4 show.
Banged Up, which airs from Tuesday October 31, sees seven celebrities jailed in the decommissioned Victorian jail, HMP Shrewsbury, for a week.
The famous faces - including Friday Night Dinner star Tom Rosenthal, disgraced Tory MP Neil Parish, Gogglebox star Marcus Luther, singer HRVY, journalist Peter Hitchens and cabinet minister Johnny Mercer - share cells with reformed murderers, gangsters and drug smugglers in a crowded wing where the constant threat of violence hangs in the air.
Londoner Sid, whose dad David Sutton was jailed for life for armed robbery when he was a young boy, says he wanted to take part in the social experiment to understand what his family members went through.
“I grew up as a petty thief because I had three older brothers and there was violence, thieving, burglary, robberies,” he says.
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“Without acting I would have definitely done a prison sentence. That was all I knew.
“It was definitely an eye opener for me to see it from the other side and it was so sad to think what my family went through, coming to terms with being banged up for so many hours a day.
“It can send you a little bit crazy. It did feel very real and very scary.”
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Burglar at four
In the gritty four-parter, Sid jokes about his poverty-stricken childhood, saying: “We grew up poor but then we didn't really want for anything because we used to nick it.”
