"The quare fellow " is not only a depiction of an Irish prison before death penalty was abolished :it's a initiation of a young warden who does think that he is here to protect the society ; little by little, he discovers the other side of the picture: the doctor has to make sure that the future condemned man is healthy ,that he won't do away with himself before he mounts the scaffold ; the "undertakers" being given two stouts apiece if they finish their dirty work quickly .
It's ,like "yield to the night" ,which concerned a condemned woman (Diana Dors) ,an indictment against death penalty ; when the warden (McGoohan ) meets the sentenced to death man's wife (Syms), he learns it was actually a crime of passion ,not punishable by death ; the main setback of the screenplay is that this man ,who did not want his wife to be considered a w......, is not given a single scene in the screenplay (unless the gallows count).Well acted.