The job offer that turned a jailed prison officer into a viral star
Jack Twigg was a prison guard who found himself on the wrong side of the bars after causing a car crash. A year since his release from jail, he’s now running his own Salford shop.
Jack Twigg made the papers three times before he was 29-years-old. The day he scored nine goals for his youth football team. The day he went to jail. And the day he told the world he had a new job.
Last week, Jack announced on Twitter that he’d be leaving his role as a Timpson store assistant in Stretford and taking charge of his own branch in Irlam.
“6 months ago I was struggling to find work with a criminal record,” he wrote on March 31.
“Timpson offered me a trainee role which changed my life. Today I’ve been told from April 12th I’m officially a branch manager with my own shop!! I can’t wait to get started and kick on as a manager!”
For anyone else, getting such a promotion would be a big moment. But for Jack, it was life-changing.
As soon as he tapped the send button on that tweet, his world flipped upside-down.
Within minutes of floating out into the Twittersphere, the post took on a life of its own – transforming Jack from an Oldham ex-con into a viral star.
Thousands of well-wishers flooded to congratulate him, whilst press outlets jostled with one another to grab Jack for an interview and share his story.
The likes and shares on the Tweet are still accumulating by the hour.
“Honestly, it’s gone crazy. It’s been non-stop for days,” Jack chuckles.
“It’s all been lovely.”
Jack was hired at Timpson after his release from prison / Image: Twitter
Jack’s fast-track trajectory from ex-con to store leader is the kind of classic, heartwarming rags-to-riches tale that strikes a chord; proving that human beings can clamber their way out of the darkest places and achieve incredible things.
But that’s only part of the story.
What makes Jack’s tale quite so unique is that once upon a time he was working as a prison guard. Never did he believe for one moment that’d he end up on the wrong side of the bars.
In his early twenties, Jack signed up to an HMP training programme in the Midlands – a course focused on helping staff make the next step up as prison officers.
He hated it.
The programme focused on military-based, routine-focused, regimented training which “didn’t sit well” with Jack, and it wasn’t long before he found himself slipping into a dark place.
Unhappy and homesick, Jack would slink off into the nearby town and pick up cans of lager, spending the rest of his evenings sitting in a bar before taking more beers to his room at bedtime.
“I was sat in tears on my bed drinking a can,” he remembers.
“I didn’t want to quit because I didn’t want to let everyone down. Even though quitting was exactly what I wanted to do.
“But if I walked away, I wouldn’t have a job, either. I’d just bought a house.
“It all really overwhelmed me.”
Then, one afternoon, Jack’s mental health tipped over the edge.
“I had a bad panic attack in a bar in a toilet cubicle… with really negative, dark thoughts,” he explains.
“I got in my car. Put my foot down. And I wasn’t feeling myself.”
The impact of the crash was so intense that Jack suffered serious head injuries – and his memories of the incident are fuzzy at best.
He’s still not sure whether he got behind the wheel with the intent to end his life.
“Did I want to die? I don’t know. Was I trying to kill myself? I don’t know.”
What Jack does believe, however, is that he “did something wrong and rightly went to prison for it”.
He’d come off badly in the incident, but so did another victim – and a judge determined jail was necessary.
Jack was sentenced to 28 months incarceration with a minimum of 10 months and three weeks.
At the time, it all seemed like an instant nightmare. But looking back, Jack believes the long-term warning signs had been there.
The preamble to the crash had been, as he puts it, an “accumulation of years of anxiety.”
In his younger days, Jack would be out with his friends in a busy bar or nightclub and quietly vanish to go for a pint in a quiet backstreet boozer alone for an hour.
His friends would text to ask him where he was, and he’d lie – claiming he was still in the club.
“I should have addressed that then but I never did,” Jack states.
“It just progressed over the next three or four years to bad panic attacks and really low self-esteem. Throw in the quite harsh life of working for the prison service… that just finished me off.”
Jack was immediately sent to HMP Hewell after being found guilty / Image: Chris Allen via Geograph
Prison is a dangerous place at any time. But particularly for an ex-prison officer.
Due to his former role with HMP, Jack was offered a spot on the protected wing – a part of the prison allocated for inmates who may be targeted by others.
It’s the part of a jail where you’ll find police and prison officers who’ve committed crimes. But also inmates who are sex offenders and child abusers.
“It’s a weird atmosphere [in the protected wing],” Jack says.
“They’re really well behaved and they don’t talk to each other about the crimes. It’s really hush-hush.
“I could have gone there, and they probably wouldn’t have said ‘boo’ to me. Nobody speaks on that wing.”
But Jack decided against it. He’d take his chances in general population.
Officers understood, reminding Jack he could be in danger if people discovered his past life as HMP staff. If trouble brewed, they promised to whip Jack out of his cell in the middle of the night and move him to the protected part of the prison.
Jack’s next few months behind bars were devastating, challenging and even inspiring – and he is currently chronicling the big moments in his fascinating online blog ‘Life on both sides of the cell door’.
Once his time was complete, Jack came out of prison understanding more about himself – but also more about what the justice system doesn’t do so well.
“The rehabilitation side of it is very weak for all kinds of reasons,” Jack explains.
“A lot of lads are trapped in a repeat cycle.
“I got talking to these lads. They don’t want to be there.”
“As a prison officer, you look at a file and it says: ‘Repeated burglary’. You don’t know why [the inmate did it].
“They’d never tell you the backstory when you’re in your uniform. But when you’re one of them, sat in the cell with them having a coffee – the amount I got told… it was sad.”
“There’s something in [the prisoners] if you let them get it out. 75% of lads in there would snap your hand off if you gave them a chance.”
Just months after joining Timpson, Jack will be managing his own branch / Image: Timpson
Second chances are exactly what Timpson – Jack’s employer – has become famous for. According to the company’s chief exec, James: If you offer something to someone who’s never had anything, they’re so grateful for the opportunity they’ll give you their best work. It was a message that really hit home for Jack – a philosophy that tempted him to reach out in the first place.
After being released from prison himself and struggling to find work, Jack began his blog as a form of therapy – and in the subsequent months it become a self-help website, motivational tool, and even a survival guide.
It’s already been helping other people. But its first major achievement was securing Jack a job.
After months’ of failed applications, Jack attached the blog entries in an email to Mr Timpson himself – and he was invited in for an interview.
Ever since then, he’s been thriving in a role he loves.
“It’s been brilliant,” Jack explains.
“When I came out of prison, I was in a strong position to find work – I’m educated with a good CV – but I couldn’t find anything.”
“I dread to think how hard it must be for others.”
A mere six months after signing on the dotted line to join Timpson, Jack is now being handed the keys to his own store.
It’s been quite the journey.
“They want to give the shop a new lease of life and get it firing on all cylinders.” Jack says.
“It’s a challenge which I accept. Who knows what the next step is.
“But for now, I can’t wait to get going with it.”
Read Jack’s blog – ‘Life on both sides of the cell door’ – online here.
Feature
Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | June 2025
Danny Jones
Hello there. That greeting may be giving Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars vibes, and we can’t lie, we have listened to some cantina music while working this month… but not as much as we’ve been immersing ourselves in more new Manchester artists.
You should know the drill by now, and it is very much a what-it-says-on-the-tin scenario, but every few weeks, we round up some of the music – all crucially hailing from the Greater Manchester area – that we’ve been listening to of late.
We don’t discriminate when it comes to genre either. There’s only one simple rule: if it’s good, then we listen to it and then, hopefully, so do you.
Get your playlists at the ready.
Five Manc music artists we’ve been listening to recently
1. Arkayla
First up for June are relative newcomers Arkayla, whose name is inspired by “a terrible Oasis demo” from 1991 (their words, not ours – thought it is…) of the same name, a.k.a. ‘I Will Show You’, in which describe Liam Gallagher’s now legendary as once sounding “like a dodgy Ian Brown impressionist.”
However, there’s nothing dodgy about these lot and, thankfully, they’re in an era when you don’t have to hand out tapes recorded in the Boardwalk basement on the street to be heard. The Manchester band, which only formed in 2020, may be Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, but they’ve already got a sound.
There’s an unmistakable British indie element to them and hints at everything from The Kooks to The Lathums, but most notably, there are ’60s guitar notes and some real maturity already. Standouts include ‘Ella Malone’, the acoustic version of ‘Lost In a Valentine’, where the lead singer, Cal Blakebrough, really shines, and ‘Rita’ is such an addictive track.
They don’t get more unknown, undiscovered, but sure to be up-and-coming than iNNAFIELD, who are a female-fronted psychedelia-forward five-piece with roots in Brighton but building a career in 0161. Having recently shone at The Deaf Institute playing a support slot at Academy 1, they have our interest.
If a glimpse of lead singer Jessie Amy Leask’s curly hair, 70s belts and long, flowing skirts plants Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac in your mind, you’d be right in thinking so; a listen to their other live tracks scattered across their socials confirms there’s plenty of other influences going on too, though.
Now, they’ve only got one proper recording out on Spotify called ‘Tell Me What’s On Your Mind’, but we’ve had it popping up on our algorithms everywhere, and we can see why: there’s soft, twinkly strumming, soft almost sleepy vocals before a nice big breakout at the end. Glorious stuff.
No, not that one, the Princess of Monaco isn’t back from the dead, but ‘r Grace Kelly, who is based right here in Greater Manchester, is playing her part in the ongoing country revival taking place across the music world, offering her soulful voice and faux American-folk vibes to our ears.
She may not be a Mancunian by birth, having moved from New Zealand to our shores back in 2022, and although the weather change might have been a big sea change for her, there’s no culture shock to be found in her style; from the audio to the aesthetic, it still somehow feels pretty authentic.
Uplifting acoustic guitars, drum brush strokes, solos, Southern-twang harmonies – you name it, all the ingredients are there. The thing is, if you spend enough time immersing yourself in a genre, you can still pull off tracks like ‘Carry On’, ‘San Jose’ and the intimate ‘For Us To Change’.
We’re really lane switching when it comes to genre this month; maybe it’s because festival season is in full swing and we’re just being exposed to so much different stuff in a short space of time, all we know is we’re not complaining about it.
And neither should you, especially when you’ve got names like hip-hop, grime, soul and flag-flying Afrobeats rising star, Prido, being platformed. Blending all the above with R’n’B and a sprinkling of not just Northern but easily detectable Manc slant, it makes his music stand out in the ever-thriving space.
‘Free Ur Mind’ was the first track we ever heard, so we’ve struggled to shake that as our favourite, but ‘DND’ is a supremely dancey but chill example of laid-back of the genre that you need in your mixes this summer, and we also have a soft spot for his verse on the sensual ‘Lifeboat’ by Prima.
Last but not least on our list of new Manchester artists for this June, we’ve got local DJ Josh Baker, whose name you might recognise from the headlines surrounding Parklife 2025, as his set was unfortunately cancelled due to problems out of his control.
Festival-goers flocked to The Matinee Stage for a highly anticipated back-to-back bill of Baker followed by Dutch counterpart Chris Stussy, both of whom have thrilled some of the biggest club crowds in the country – sadly, he didn’t get to do so this time. That being said, we thought we’d give him a shout-out.
We’ll confess to only having got around to his discography following this news, but ‘Back It Up’, ‘Something To Me’, and ‘You Don’t Own Me’ with Prospa and RAHH are all bangers. We’re looking forward to listening to more.
And that should just about do you; there are five artists and, at the very least, 15 new tracks for you to give a go – there should be at least of few of them you like.
But, let’s be honest: be it unheard, new, current, old or anything in between, Manchester music very rarely ends up being filed in the skippable category.
Then again, you can always check out last month’s list of Manc artists from last month and see if you get a better hit ratio.
Featured Images — Prido (via Facebook)/Arkayla (via X)/Grace Kelly (via Facebook)
Feature
You can sleep in a luxury train carriage at an old railway station in Greater Manchester
Thomas Melia
There’s an Airbnb listing in Delph where you can stay in a classic converted train carriage, and it’s even situated in an old train station, so someone buy my ticket ASAP.
Get ready to have the best train experience of your life, as the only cancellation you have to worry about is booking the day off work.
The Carriage at The Old Station is a two-person character property in Delph, Saddleworth that offers you the chance to live out your vintage fantasy by stepping back in time on a luxury static train coach.
It may be situated at an old station, but the interior is refreshing and light with mint blue beams, fuchsia cushions and a royal red carpet and curtains.
As well as a majestic interior, this carriage has an equally impressive amount of amenities, including a Bluetooth sound system, board games and its own indoor fireplace.
This Airbnb is fairly new too, with only 44 reviews to its name – the first only dating back to September of last year; don’t say we don’t find you some absolute gems.
Inside the Airbnb that’s an old converted train carriage.The interior of this Airbnb listing is bold and impressive.
One user even stated, “We regularly stay in five-star locations and this surpassed five-star easily! We highly recommend a stay here.”
While another opened her review with three simple adjectives that we also feel perfectly sum up this train carriage property perfectly: “Opulent, indulgent, extravagant”.
It should come as no surprise that this place is beautiful inside and out, as in the description, host of the property Nigel states he’s a retired designer.
The train carriage stay is also close to a proper country pub, The Old Bell Inn, as well as the Diggle canal walk if you fancy a stroll and a pint before tucking into bed in your old train carriage for the night.
Even the bathroom has pops of colour throughout.You could stay in this train carriage at an old train station.
If you’re after boarding The Carriage at The Old Station and having a fabulous overnight stay or mini holiday of your own, you can find the Airbnb listing and everything you need to know HERE.
The Manc -
8th April 2021 
