Though he's an inmate and wears the requisite white prisoner jacket, Notarbartolo radiates a sunny Italian charm.

INMATE number 61727054, known to the world as Bernie Madoff, is serving a 150-year sentence in a prison in North Carolina, and is one of the world's most reviled men.

Dressed in orange uniforms, inmates at South Africa's maximum-security Pollsmoor Prison sing and act for the cameras in a new reality series where they vie to be crowned "Jail Star".