[4] After leaving school, he avoided conscription into the South African Defence Force, and worked at a variety of jobs for two years, with no particular interest in anything except motorcycle racing.

They became friends and, in a South African version of Samizdat, Jenkins and Lee sought out literature banned by the ruling National Party.

Through reading material banned by the government, they came to see the "naked reality" of apartheid and the undemocratic behavior of the ruling party, and felt a burning desire to effect positive change, which, Jenkin concluded, was only possible using unconstitutional means under the current regime.

[9] In February 1974, Jenkin and Lee left the country to join the ANC in London, with the intention of helping to bring about change in South Africa.

[10] Upon return to Cape Town in July 1975, Lee and Jenkin bought a typewriter, duplicator and stationery to print and post pamphlets and leased first a garage and then a tiny apartment.

In July, four ANC operatives including author Jeremy Cronin were arrested doing similar work in Cape Town and were given prison sentences.

[14] Undeterred, Jenkin continued the work in Cape Town, finding a new premises and regularly changing their printing equipment, and both carried out further leaflet bombings in Johannesburg.

In September, he and Lee hung a 10-metre-long banner with the words "ANC LIVES" from a high building in the centre of Cape Town, along with a timed device which distributed hundreds of leaflets over the crowds below.

Lee moved back to Cape Town in December after enrolling in a master's degree in sociology, and the two continued their undercover work, but unbeknownst to them they were by this time under surveillance by the Security Branch of the South African Police.

[16][17][18][19] They were taken to Caledon Square Police Station, the head office of the Security Branch in Cape Town, where they were separated, interrogated and put into cells, without being informed of the charges or their rights.

[20] After a spell in the notorious John Vorster Square in Johannesburg, they were returned to Cape Town and after four weeks, allowed to see family, and held at Pollsmoor Prison as they awaited trial.

[21] Along with Lee, Jenkin was charged with "producing and distributing 18 different pamphlets on behalf of banned organisations" including the South African Communist Party, the ANC and its armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, from 1975 to 1978, and urging people to join the liberation movement.

The fact that they were all in prison for their political activities and beliefs united them, and "as members of a revolutionary organisation they were disciplined and shared in their suffering collectively".

The video features excerpts from interviews with Jenkin, Lee, Moumbaris, and Goldberg filmed in 2012, between re-enacted prison escape scenes.

[37][38] Filming of Escape from Pretoria began in Adelaide, South Australia, in March and April 2019, with Daniel Webber joining the cast as Lee.