‘Jailbreak Lovers’: Catherine Bell on Telling the Real-Life Criminal Love Story

Jim Halterman July 2, 2022

Catherine Bell and Tom Stevens in Jailbreak Lovers on Lifetime — Lifetime

Love can make us do crazy things…but this? After Toby Young (Good Witch’s Catherine Bell) brings her rescue dog program to a Kansas correctional facility, inmate John Manard (Tom Stevens, above, with Bell) unleashes such strong feelings in her, she helps him escape in a pet crate!

Yes, this happened in 2006. Young (now Toby Dorr) met John when she brought her Safe Harbor Prison Dogs program to Kansas’ Lansing Correctional Facility. Connecting with Manard awakened Toby from her lackluster 28-year marriage and “milquetoast American life,” as she described in a June 2022 essay for Today.

“I jumped at the opportunity when the local prison suggested that I lead a dog rehab program. Little did I know how intoxicating purpose could be,” Toby wrote. But as Jailbreak Lovers, premiering July 2, shows, Toby’s life certainly didn’t stay boring for long.

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In Lifetime‘s interpretation, Toby is woman who always played by the rules. Losing her job prompts her to start her non-profit, but no one could have anticipated that she would end up on the run, shacked up with her younger lover John, a convicted murderer. The star-crossed lovers’ dog crate escape plan sparks a federal manhunt.

Toby’s husband “didn’t even look in her direction when she came home,” Bell says of her character. “John was the first person—certainly the first man—who ever really paid attention to her and made her feel special.”

The film includes confessional scenes using lines from actual interviews. “It helps gain insight into what Toby was thinking,” Bell says. “I hope the real Toby enjoys our version!”

Jailbreak Lovers, Original Movie Premiere, Saturday, July 2, 8/7c, Lifetime