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Prisoner (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Prisoner is an Australian television
soap opera
which was set in the Wentworth Detention Centre, a fictional women's prison
. The series was produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation
and ran on Network Ten
for 692 episodes from 27 February 1979 to 11 December 1986.
The series was inspired by the 1970s British
television drama Within These Walls
, which had achieved moderate success in Australia (Prisoner producers even approached Googie Withers
of Within These Walls to play the role of Prisoners Governor, an offer that she declined). Because of an injunction brought by UK-based ATV
, which considered the title too similar to their own series The Prisoner
, it was originally not possible for overseas broadcasters to screen the show under the name Prisoner, which necessitated a name change. It was known as Prisoner: Cell Block H in the UK and the United States
(though this extended title was not shown onscreen), and as Caged Women in Canada
.
, who had previously produced the British soap opera Crossroads from 1964 to 1973, and would go on to create such popular Australian soaps as The Young Doctors
, Sons and Daughters
and Neighbours
. Initially conceived as a sixteen episode stand-alone series, the storylines primarily concentrated on the lives of the prisoners and, to a lesser extent, the officers and other prison staff.
The themes of the show were often radical
, including feminism
, homosexuality
and social reform. When the series launched in 1979, the press advertising used the line "if you think prison is hell for a man, imagine what it's like for a woman". The series examined in detail the way in which women dealt with incarceration and separation from their families. Within the walls of the prison, the major themes of the series were the interpersonal relationships between the prisoners, the power struggles, friendships and rivalries. To a certain extent, the misfits who found themselves within the walls of the Wentworth Detention Centre became each other's family, with Bea Smith (see below) as a mother figure. Several lesbian
characters were featured throughout the show's run, notably prisoners Franky Doyle and Judy Bryant, along with prison officer Joan Ferguson.
) and Lynn Warner (Kerry Armstrong
). Travers had been charged for the murder
of her husband, while Warner protested her innocence after being convicted of the abduction and attempted murder of a child. Both women are sent to the prison’s maximum security wing (H Block) where they are horrified by their new surroundings. Karen finds herself face-to-face with a former lover, prison doctor Greg Miller (Barry Quin
), and is sexually harassed by her violent, bullying lesbian cellmate, Franky Doyle (Carol Burns
). Lynn finds herself ostracised by the other prisoners because of her crime (prison populations are known for their intolerance towards criminals who commit offences against children) and is terrorised by the prison’s “top dog”, the self-styled “Queen” Bea Smith (Val Lehman
), who “accidentally” burns her hand in the laundry steam press in one of the series’ most iconic scenes.
The other prisoners are rather less volatile, including the elderly, garden-loving Jeanette “Mum” Brooks (Mary Ward
), a bickering comic relief double act with teddy-clutching misfit Doreen Anderson (Colette Mann
) and old lag Lizzie Birdsworth (Sheila Florance
), and seductive prostitute Marilyn Mason (Margaret Laurence), who entices prison electrician Eddie Cook (Richard Moir
) into amorous encounters around the prison. The prison officers, or “screws” as they are called by the women, comprised the firm but fair Governor Erica Davidson (Patsy King
), flanked by the diametrically opposed dour Deputy Governor Vera Bennett (Fiona Spence
), dubbed “Vinegar Tits” by the inmates, and compassionate senior officer Meg Jackson (Elspeth Ballantyne
).
The early episodes are a potent cocktail of violence and mayhem; involving Lynn Warner’s punishment burning, another prisoner hanging herself in her cell, unrequited Sapphic passion, a fatal stabbing and a flashback sequence inspired by Alfred Hitchcock
's Psycho
, in which Karen Travers stabs her abusive husband to death in the shower. The first major story arc-defining event in the series is the turf war for top dog status between Bea Smith and Franky Doyle, culminating in a prison riot in which Meg Jackson is held hostage, and her husband, prison psychiatrist Bill Jackson (Don Barker
), is stabbed to death by inmate Chrissie Latham (Amanda Muggleton).
Most significantly, the series’ production schedule increased from making one-hour long episode per week to two episodes per week. This led to the departure of the show’s first breakout popular character, after just twenty episodes, Franky Doyle, when actress Carol Burns chose to leave the series, feeling that she could not continue her portrayal with the increased production rate. Introduced as a borderline psychotic given to bouts of furniture-throwing violent rage, Franky’s character was explored through her unrequited love for fellow inmate Karen Travers, who warmed to her and tried to teach her to read, finally emerging as an unloved, illiterate, deeply frustrated social misfit and a tragic anti-heroine. Franky’s exit saw her escaping from Wentworth accompanied by Doreen Anderson, and shot dead by a policeman after being on the run for three weeks.
As the series began to gather momentum, new story arcs were introduced. Karen Travers decided to appeal against her sentence and was eventually released from prison, resuming her romantic relationship with Dr. Greg Miller and becoming involved in prison reform. As original characters began to leave the series (Mum Brooks, Lynn Warner, Karen and Greg all appeared beyond the initial sixteen episodes, but had made their exits by the end of the 1979 season, with Greg leaving early 1980), new characters arrived: hulking husband-basher Monica Ferguson (Lesley Baker
), sneering career criminal Noeline Burke (Jude Kuring
), idealistic murderess Roslyn Coulson (Sigrid Thornton
) and imprisoned mother Pat O’Connell (Monica Maughan
). Chrissie Latham, a minor character seen briefly in the early episodes, returned in a more central antagonistic role, and a new male Deputy Governor, Jim Fletcher (Gerard Maguire
), added a touch of testosterone
to a female-dominated series.
After the departures of early leads such as Franky Doyle, Karen Travers and Lynn Warner, the trio of Bea Smith, Doreen Burns (née Anderson) and Lizzie Birdsworth emerged as the front-line prisoners. Bea was the tough, ambivalent yet maternal leader, softened after being a mostly unsympathetic character in the 1979 episodes. The death of Bea’s teenage daughter Debbie (Cassandra Lehman) from a heroin overdose not only explained her motivation for killing her husband on her release early in the series, but also explained Bea’s uncompromising hatred of drug offenders and clouded judgement whenever children were involved. Doreen was a well-meaning but inept tragi-comic figure and Lizzie was a mischievous elderly rascal with a dicky ticker and unquenchable taste for alcohol that saw her employed in comedy storylines, whilst also maintaining a more serious dimension, sometimes contemplating dying in prison. The Bea-Lizzie-Doreen dynamic was joined early in the 1980 run by Judy Bryant (Betty Bobbitt
), an American ex-pat lesbian who deliberately gets herself imprisoned to be with her girlfriend, scheming drug dealer Sharon Gilmour (Margot Knight
), who became a long-term central character and part of the core group of prisoners.
The mix of officers also established a template of character types. The progressive Governor Erica Davidson, whose approach to the job was to the right of warm-hearted warder Meg Jackson, but to the left of the acidic Vera Bennett, with firm but fair Deputy Governor Jim Fletcher often switching sides between Vera and Meg. Erica herself would face an uphill struggle with untenable directives from her superiors at the Department of Corrective Services, represented by bigwig Ted Douglas (Ian Smith
). As such, the storylines dealing with the prisoners’ everyday lives were somewhat cyclical – depicting harsh treatment leading to organised prisoner resistance remedied by concessions and greater freedom which the women would take advantage of, thus requiring a tightening of the prison regime.
As well as capitalising on the obvious voyeuristic
appeal of showcasing life in prison, the storylines which drove the series used familiar elements — smuggling, personality clashes between the prisoners, staff politics between the officers, organised prisoner resistance such as strikes and riots, a range of issue-based storylines, court cases and police investigations and escape plots. The series also made good use of cliffhangers, often involving dramatic escapes, crimes, and catastrophes befalling the prison and its inhabitants. The stories also ventured outside Wentworth with episodes featuring the private lives of the officers and the struggles of newly-released prisoners to adjust to life on the outside, including the forces that unfortunately led to recidivism. Bea Smith is released during the opening episodes, and with nothing and no-one on the outside since the drug-related death of her daughter Debbie, shoots her estranged husband dead to get revenge, thus ensuring her imprisonment for life. Elderly Lizzie Birdsworth is released when new evidence in her case reveals that she is in fact innocent of the poisoning charge she’d already served twenty years for. However, realising that there is no place for her on the outside, the institutionalised Lizzie deliberately commits a petty offence in order to return to Wentworth which, as with many long-serving inmates for whom the prison environment and rules turns into a way of life, had become home. Whilst the series did offer upbeat storylines where some characters, such as Karen Travers during the 1979 run, made it, it also made clear that for some, like Bea and Lizzie, prison life was the only option.
Notable storylines during the “Bea, Lizzie and Doreen” era of the show (late 1979-late 1981) included the 1979 cliffhanger involving a terrorist raid on the prison in which Governor Erica Davidson was shot and wounded. A long-running story arc involved Judy Bryant's vendetta against corrupt male warder Jock Stewart (Tommy Dysart
) after he had murdered her lover Sharon Gilmour by pushing her down a prison staircase. Angry at the way the incident had been covered up by the authorities (a verdict of accidental death was recorded and Jock was suspended), the women rioted and held a rooftop protest in which Leanne Bourke (Tracey-Jo Riley), the daughter of Noeline Bourke, fell to her death from the roof. The subsequent efforts of Judy to avenge Sharon’s death and exact vengeance against Jock involved her escaping and working as a prostitute to track down Jock and kill him, and a final confrontation when Judy was out on parole that ended with the poetic justice of Jock falling down the stairs and being left permanently paralysed. Incidentally, just before Bryant begins work as a prostitute, she admits to Helen Smart that she is a 40 something virgin (having also told Tracey Morris in episode 154 that she has NEVER slept with a man) - towards the end of the same season, her adult daughter arrives searching for her birth mother! The 1980 cliffhanger saw Bea, Lizzie and Doreen trapped in an underground tunnel after a mass escape plan staged during a performance of the pantomime
Cinderella
went somewhat awry. As Prisoner reached its 200th episode, Bea Smith suffered amnesia
, with no memory of ever having been imprisoned, after a car crash during a prison transfer.
It is at this point in the show that the steady stream of supporting characters, written into the series to complement the leading ensemble, gained in importance. The officers’ ranks were augmented by the sarcastic, militant union representative Colleen Powell (Judith McGrath
), and the bespectacled and somewhat ineffectual Joyce Barry (Joy Westmore
). The character of Colleen was poised to gain from the departure of Vera and then of Jim Fletcher a few months later, eventually taking over as Deputy Governor when Meg Morris turned down the offer. Amongst the prisoners, Chrissie Latham and Margo Gaffney, often written as antagonists of Bea Smith, had emerged as strong central recurring characters, as had prostitute Helen Smart (Caroline Gillmer
).
Towards the end of the 1981 run, the old gang of Bea, Lizzie, Doreen and Judy took a back seat to the proceedings. Bea was hospitalised for a kidney transplant operation, Lizzie was briefly paroled and Doreen and Judy were temporarily transferred to Barnhurst. The main narrative focus of the late 1981 storylines was on three new characters introduced as major players: cocky gangster’s moll Sandy Edwards (Louise Le Nay
) and the highly intelligent and enigmatic Dr. Kate Peterson (Olivia Hamnett
) were both convicted of murder while the cunning, villainous long-term criminal Marie Winter (Maggie Millar
) was transferred from Barnhurst. The cliffhanger to the 1981 run involved the newly-arrived Marie manipulating Sandy into starting an explosive prison riot to protest the increasingly oppressive prison conditions following new directives from the Department. With a copy of the prison keys and improvised weapons, Sandy leads the marauding women through the prison, and in the subsequent siege situation, new rookie officers Janet Conway (Kate Sheil
) and Steve Faulkner (Wayne Jarratt
) are taken hostage.
The first few months of the 1982 run concentrated on the power struggles, scheming and double-crossing between the characters of Sandy, Marie and Kate, which involved a number of murder attempts. As Sandy and Marie clashed for the top dog position, Kate plotted to secure her release from Wentworth, revealing her true manipulative colours and playing different sides against each other for her own advantage. When all three were written out of the series once their projected storylines had run their course, the focus returned once more to Bea and company. However, by this point after so many dramatic events in the prison and the Bea-Lizzie-Doreen-Judy quartet still cosily ensconced as the leading characters, the series had started to show its age. In many subtle, not immediately apparent ways, it was the end of an era and it was clear that a radical shake-up was needed to give the series a new lease of life.
). Enforcing her will through her black leather-gloved fists, molesting prisoners during unofficial “body searches” and taking her cut on all the prison rackets, Ferguson was just as corrupt, calculating and sadistic as some of the worst prisoners, but was on the other side of the bars and therefore untouchable. The addition of Joan Ferguson had also, by necessity, along with the arrival of another prisoner, softened formerly hard nosed Colleen. Despite her softening, she maintained her sarcastic sense of humor.
Bea Smith was soon awake to Joan’s villainy, and the two became deadly enemies. Joan schemed to beat Bea, while Bea plotted to oust Joan, thus beginning a new standard story arc for the series – in which the women of Wentworth try to “get rid of the Freak”. But Ferguson wasn’t going anywhere, having swiftly become an integral presence in the show, and increasingly its most iconic character, much like J.R. Ewing in Dallas
or Alexis Colby in Dynasty
.
Other developments during this period were the return of Chrissie Latham and Margo Gaffney to the show to bolster the ranks of the now somewhat empty-looking cellblock as Doreen and Judy were released from Wentworth. Doreen left the series, while Judy took charge of a new halfway house for ex-prisoners, named Driscoll House, after its first resident, young Susie Driscoll (Jacqui Gordon
). The action was then split between the prison and the halfway house, which allowed the series to explore more issue-based storylines through the Driscoll House residents. Doomed heroin addict Donna Mason (Arkie Whiteley
) featured prominently both as a remand prisoner and as a temporary resident of Driscoll House. Young biker Maxine Daniels (Lisa Crittenden
) also joined as a regular cast member, flitting between Driscoll and Wentworth.
The main driver of this period however remained the ongoing animosity between Bea Smith and Joan Ferguson. Their conflict peaked in time for the 1982 season cliffhanger, in a showdown which brought the prison, literally, to the ground. Smith decided to finish Ferguson once and for all, so she lured The Freak into a trap by falsely claiming that Ferguson's incriminating secret diaries had been hidden in isolation by another prisoner, white-collar thief Barbara Fields (Susan Guerin
) (in reality Fields had hidden them in the Governor's office). As a diversion, Chrissie Latham was to light a small fire in the prison library. A recalcitrant Margo Gaffney had angrily criticised the decoy fire idea as weak and predictable, claiming that for anyone to be fooled it had better be a pretty big fire. She refused to co-operate further with the scheme, but as the plan got underway, Margo secretly went and set a much larger fire in a storeroom. Unfortunately, a large stock of mineral turpentine
was being temporarily stored there.
The fire spread out of control while Bea Smith and Joan Ferguson battled it out in the isolation wing. In the confusion of the prison evacuation, Barbara Fields made her way to the Governor's office to retrieve the diaries. The fire overloaded the prison's security system, engaging the riot alarm, which caused all the prison gates to automatically slam shut and lock, leaving prisoners and staff trapped in the burning prison. Fields was overcome by smoke and collapsed in the Governor's office as the flames surrounded her (and the diaries) while two other inmates, “Mouse” Trapp (Jentah Sobott
) and Paddy Lawson (Anna Hruby
), found themselves trapped. Paddy managed to escape through the air ducts, while a panicking Mouse ran through the corridor trying each door in turn. She then found the source of the fire in one of the doors, but the mineral turpentine exploded in her face sending her running down the corridor screaming with the top half of her body on fire; her body was later recovered. Meanwhile, Governor Erica Davidson valiantly ran back inside the prison to try to unlock the security gates.
Ferguson had beaten Smith unconscious, but when the gates slammed shut, she was trapped in the cell block with Smith - along with Ferguson's dropped keys - lying just out of reach on the other side of the locked gate. In the final scene of the episode, a vengeful Smith regained consciousness, and, realising that having beaten Ferguson she would now be ineligible for parole, vowed she would not pass the key to Ferguson and that the two would die right there in the fire. Both survived when Paddy, having crawled through the ducting system, found them and gave Ferguson the keys - on the condition she carry the unconscious Bea to safety. The Great Fire episode ranks as the fan favorite among Prisoner fans.
), entered the fray as a new adversary for Bea and a partner in crime for Joan, becoming the first prisoner to actively collude with the Freak, running contraband rackets and plotting to seize power from the “good” top dog. Bea Smith briefly escaped from Wentworth and contacted Doreen Burns, (Colette Mann) returning for a brief cameo.
The Bea-Joan-Nola conflict reaches its height in a memorable storyline which commenced shortly after Bea was returned to the prison after her escape. Joan and Nola attempt to drive Bea to suicide by evoking the memory of her dead daughter Debbie, coercing tarot reading medium and remand prisoner Zara Moonbeam (Ilona Rodgers
) to assist them. But the plan backfires, and it is Nola, not Bea, whose corpse is taken away from Wentworth. A few months later however, Joan finally triumphs over Bea after a major confrontation in which the sadistic screw succeeds in having her old enemy transferred to Barnhurst. Having played Bea Smith for 400 episodes, actress Val Lehman had tired of the role, feeling that all possible storylines for the character had been exhausted, and resigned from the series. Shortly afterwards, actress Sheila Florance also decided to leave, leading to the departure of Lizzie Birdsworth. This now left actress Elspeth Ballantyne, alias officer Meg Morris (formerly Jackson), as the only original cast member still in the series. (Despite leaving the series, both Lehman and Florance were very active in the Prisoner fan community, a role which Florance continued until her death in 1991 and that Lehman still maintains today)
The 1983 cliffhanger involved Lizzie and David. Lizzie was waiting to hear if she had been paroled, as Coleen came out to tell her. She found a dead body in the prison ground and David Bridges revealed himself as the killer and told Lizzie should would "be set free"...
The resolution was that Lizzie had a heart attack and when Cass came to help. When David walked her into the gardening shed he turned violent and tried to kill her but Cass decapitated him with a shovel.
With Prisoner heading towards the 1984 season and the recent high-profile cast departures, the series was retooled once again. New characters had been introduced during Bea Smith’s final few months on the show, and they now enjoyed prominent roles in the series. Ann Reynolds (Gerda Nicolson
) replaced Erica Davidson as a spirited, no-nonsense new Governor and amongst the prisoners, previous background bit player Phyllis Hunt (Reylene Pearce
) was given a more expanded role amidst new arrivals, such as dreamy romantic and serial bigamist
Sandra “Pixie” Mason (Judy McBurney
) and cool, villainous vice queen Sonia Stevens (Tina Bursill
). Judy Bryant was brought back into Wentworth as a “stopgap” top dog – the Driscoll House plotline being phased out of the series after Judy had committed euthanasia
on terminally ill former inmate Hazel Kent (Belinda Davey
). Long term "Department" boss Ted Douglas was exposed as corrupt and left the series, to be replaced (albeit briefly) by Erica Davidson.
Some very dramatic storylines were introduced in this period, with "The Freak" briefly becoming Governor when Ann Reynolds was recovering from breast cancer and Colleen Powell was discredited - largely thanks to "The Freak's" interference. Erica Davison helped expose Ferguson during this time and Mrs Powell was reinstated. Shortly afterwards, Mrs Powell's family were murdered in a bomb explosion, in a plotline very similar to the one used earlier with Jim Fletcher.
Other new additions to the cast included Cass Parker (Babs McMillan
), whose slow wit and gentle nature was offset by her immense physical strength and murderous bad temper, middle-aged con artist Minnie Donovan (Wendy Playfair
) and volatile but vulnerable street kid Bobbie Mitchell (Maxine Klibingaitis
). The major players of the 1984 run, however, were antagonistic Reb Kean (Janet Andrewartha
), a dynamic but troubled young woman who had been the brains behind an armed robbery, having turned to crime after rebelling against her wealthy family and the series’ new central top dog – Myra Desmond (Anne Phelan
), a thoughtful but tough ex-prisoner of Wentworth who had previously made sporadic appearances in the show as a representative of the Prison Reform Group, now back inside for a long stretch after killing her husband (despite stating in episode 223 that she was not married!) Both Reb and Myra made enemies of the Freak – and of each other – and the series continued. During the first half of 1984, this period of transition and the storyline developments with the new cast were complemented by return appearances from departed characters such as Wally Wallace (Alan Hopgood
), Helen Smart, Erica Davidson, Doreen Burns, Margo Gaffney, Tracy Morris (albeit played by a new actress) and Marie Winter (though this also marked the final appearance of all these characters).
The 1984 and 1985 seasons are characterised by a number of cast reshuffles, preventing the series from re-establishing the continuity and focus it had enjoyed in earlier years, whilst preventing the cosiness of the Bea, Lizzie, Dorren trio that the 1981 introduction of Sandy, Kate and Marie had sought to explode. Mid-1984 saw the exits of recently introduced characters such as Minnie Donovan, Sonia Stevens and Cass Parker as well as the departure of long-time Deputy Governor Colleen Powell. In their place came juvenile prankster Marlene Warren (Genevieve Lemon
) and elderly inmate Dot Farrar (Alethea McGrath
). More enduring inmates introduced during this period were sneering troublemaker Lou Kelly (Louise Siversen
), who developed from a bit player to becoming a sociopathic wannabe top dog and the series' main villain, dopey offsider Alice “Lurch” Jenkins (Lois Collinder
) and streetwise card sharp Lexie Patterson (Pepe Trevor
), who had a tendency to dress a lot like Boy George
until The Freak retaliated against her insolence by cutting her hair.
The series became increasingly violent as it went on. The 1983 cliffhanger involved the revelation that recent escapes from the prison had in fact been a series of murders conducted by psychotic warder David Bridges (David Waters). Twisted psychologist Jonathan Edmonds (Bryan Marshall
) arrived at Wentworth to conduct research, brainwashing Cass Parker into trying to kill her best friend Bobbie Mitchell. During her final stint in 1984, the villainous Marie Winter colluded with the Freak and organised another major riot - a scheme intended to ensure the dismissal of an already reprimanded Ann Reynolds with Ferguson to take over as governor of Wentworth - in which the H-Block was ravaged, before escaping by hanging from the landing gear of a low-flying helicopter.
Serial murderess Bev “The Beast” Baker (Maggie Dence
) terrorised both staff and inmates with her thrill-seeking antics, which included almost throttling Marlene Warren, cutting open Bobbie Mitchell’s hands with a razor blade, stabbing a visiting social worker in the heart with a knitting needle and finally committing suicide by injecting herself with an empty hypodermic syringe to induce a coronary. Officer Meg Morris was brutally raped and impregnated in her own home by a masked intruder on the orders of psychopathic inmate Angel Adams (Kylie Foster
). Joan “The Freak” Ferguson faced off against her murderous male counterpart Len Murphy (Maurie Fields
) in a “bad” screw’s turf war. The series also introduced a trio of male inmates – Geoff McRae (Leslie Dayman
), Matt Delaney (Peter Bensley
) and Frank Burke (Trevor Kent
) – transferred to Wentworth for their own safety after preventing an escape at their men’s prison. Towards the end of the 1984 run, as Myra Desmond and Reb Kean had a final confrontation over the top dog position, Governor Ann Reynolds received poison-pen letters and death threats. This eventually led to both her and Meg Morris being kidnapped and left gagged and bound in a crumbling warehouse laden with bombs and lethal trip-wire booby-traps. But the 1984 season cliffhanger was not the possible explosive end for Meg and Ann but for Myra revealing Reb to be a fake and Yemil runs to the rec room to tell them to save Pixie as Lou, Fran and Alice are bashing Pixie in her cell.
Around episode 535, the prison wedding of Delaney and Warren marked the end of a number of story strands and the mass exodus of many characters. All the male prisoners left, together with Marlene Warren and Judy Bryant. The Freak was hospitalised for emergency brain surgery after having a prison library bookcase dropped on her head by Frank Burke, which had led to her suffering blackouts. Led by Myra Desmond, the women used this in an unsuccessful scheme to get rid of her, bashing Lou Kelly and framing Joan for the assault. The plan worked and Joan was dismissed, until a penitent Nun, inmate Sister Anita Selby (Diane Craig), spilled the beans to Ann Reynolds, leading to The Freak's reinstatement and the imposition of far stricter security. Reynolds refused to acknowledge Desmond as 'Top Dog' following the incident.
Perhaps to bridge the jarring cast changes, episode 536 was a "flashback" episode, containing clips from various points in the show's history as the remaining women reminisced about past storylines, presumably intending to remind viewers of the show's past characters, all of whom were now gone.
To fill the now empty cells, a mass transfer from Barnhurst after a riot there had burnt out a cellblock (and had ended in the offscreen death of Bea Smith) introduced five new inmates to the series – Nora Flynn (Sonja Tallis
), a reformed triple murderess, ageing cat burglar May Collins (Billie Hammerberg
) and her partner in crime, former fence Willie Beecham (Kirsty Child
- who had played a corrupt prison officer who was later incarcerated and murdered in the prison in early episodes), garden-loving misfit Daphne Graham (Debra Lawrance
) and shy but highly intelligent thief Julie Egbert (Jackie Woodburne
).
Perhaps the most striking story arc of this period is the infamous “Ballinger siege”. The storyline began with the introduction of the Barnhurst Five and saw both staff and inmates held hostage by armed mercenaries who had broken into the prison to spring high profile remand prisoner Ruth Ballinger (Lindy Davies
) on the orders of her drug baron husband. Holed up inside Wentworth by the police, the terrorists take the women and officers Joan Ferguson and Joyce Barry captive, threatening to shoot one hostage every hour until they are given safe passage out of the country while outside the police and Governor Ann Reynolds argue over sending in the local SWAT
unit. The siege climaxes in an airfield shoot-out with Joan as a hostage, but not before the shocking murder of top dog Myra Desmond, who selflessly sacrifices herself to save the other women.
Other characters introduced during the 1985 season were Ann Reynolds' daughter Pippa (Christine Harris
) and her former schoolmate Jenny Hartley (Jenny Lovell
), the latter ending up in H Block on remand after being accused of murdering her wealthy grandmother. Meg Morris became engaged to fellow officer Dennis Cruickshank, but the relationship ended when escapee Frank Burke shot and paralysed Cruickshank. Fellow officer Joyce Barry left her husband (who died soon after) and moved in with prison chef Mervin Pringle; eventually marrying him in the final season. Meanwhile, Joan Ferguson began an ultimately doomed relationship with fellow officer Terri Malone (Margot Knight
who had previously played inmate Sharon Gilmour). However, after yet another cast clear-out six months later, the “Barnhurst Five” was down to one, with May Collins being killed and Willie Beecham being pardoned, both after being released in order to take part in a police sting that went tragically wrong. Only Julie Egbert of the Barnhurst transferees remained in the series. At around the same time Terri Malone, Pippa Reynolds and Jenny Hartley also departed in quick succession.
The subsequent post-siege storylines were rather more low-key with Nora Flynn's run as a pacifist top dog following Myra's death. By the end of the 1985 episodes storylines began to become more lively. This included the return to Wentworth of former hard case Reb Kean, now a timid and meek figure had gone through 27 rounds of ECT
and torture at the hands of maximum security officers and inmates at Blackmoor. Meanwhile officer Joyce Barry was beaten half to death by malevolent remand inmate Eve Wilder (Lynda Stoner
) who then pinned the blame on the erratic and forgetful Reb. The death of May Collins left Ann Reynolds questioning her position and she resigned from the Governor's role. When Nora Flynn tired of the top dog power struggles in the prison and escaped, she was tracked down and murdered by a criminal-hating psychotic. Her corpse was subsequently dumped in the prison grounds. The cliffhanger for 1985 involved new evil inmate Eve Wilder and her lawyer, David Adam. As David told Eve he can no longer continue with her case he shot himself.
) who takes over as the series’ new top dog, when previous incumbent, the vicious Lou Kelly, clashed with tough temporary Governor Bob Moran (Peter Adams
) and overreached herself by igniting a bloodthirsty riot that threatened the lives of both staff and inmates. After the riot (which marked the series' 600th episode), Lou’s former stooge, Alice Jenkins, switches sides and becomes friends with Rita, who forms a new prison gang – the “Wentworth Warriors” - including Lexie Patterson, Julie Egbert, demure housewife Nancy McCormack (Julia Blake
), on remand for killing her husband but actually covering up for her son, biker chick "Roach" Waters (Linda Hartley
) and vivacious con-woman Lorelei Wilkinson (Paula Duncan
). Having worked with former inmate Ettie Parslow, running a block of flats for wayward youngsters, Ann Reynolds returned to Wentworth and resumed her role of Governor. Bob Moran was made her deputy, resulting in the demotion of Meg Morris, but this was reversed after a lightning strike organized by The Freak. Shortly after, The Freak successfully deposed Meg Morris herself and became deputy governor - against Ann Reynolds wishes. Ferguson began to plot to bring down Reynolds and began working with the Minister for Corrective Services, Julie Egbert's soon to be mother in law and corrupt inmates in an attempt to win the Governorship. She briefly got Reynolds job, but this was immediately reversed when the Minister began to realise she was not to be trusted. Rita's gang burnt Ferguson's (uninsured) house to the ground in retaliation, leaving Ferguson leaning on a male friend, Andrew, for support. After Ferguson refused to be blackmailed into bringing Heroin into the prison, Ferguson's friend Andrew was murdered, leading to her bringing in the police herself.
As well as the Freak, Rita’s chief adversary is Kath Maxwell (Kate Hood
), a middle-class woman and friend of Bob Moran, who retaliates against Rita for her brutal initiation into prison life because of her crime – the mercy killing of her terminally ill daughter - and toughens up, becoming a serious rival for the top dog role with her new hard attitude and monopoly on contraband rackets in the prison. Kath is backed up by her comic-loving cellmate Merle Jones (Rosanne Hull-Brown
). Other new inmates to arrive in 1986 include sneering racketeer Rose “Spider” Simpson (Taya Straton) and blackmailing call-girl Lisa Mullins (Nicki Paull
/Terrie Waddell
). Kath's relationship with Moran leads to him resigning from Wentworth. The officers’ ranks are bolstered by the arrival of three new trainees, including Meg Morris’ son Marty Jackson (Michael Winchester
), Delia Stout (Desiree Smith) and Rodney Adams (Philip Hyde
) who begins to emulate Ferguson in an attempt to make a mark at Wentworth.
Rita makes several attempts to murder The Freak, including sabotaging a work release project on a boat which ends with the women stranded and The Freak temporarily lost when she goes for help. While in charge of Wentworth for the day, The Freak transfers Rita to Blackmoor where she encounters the sadistic Governor Ernest Craven (Ray Meagher
). After causing a major riot at the prison, during which her brother is shot dead, Rita initiates a fire that leads to the mass transfer of prisoners to Wentworth where Craven joins forces with Ferguson to oust Reynolds once and for all. He orders the brutal rape of Lorelei Wilkinson and threatens to kill her child unless she covers for him. Reynolds is thus dismissed and Ferguson made Governor. Craven then tries to kill Rita, which leads to his own death at the hands of Wilkinson, who becomes catatonic and is transferred to a mental institution. A concurrent storyline featured a young aboriginal inmate, Sarah West, who was subjected to extreme racism, as was her social worker, Pamela Madigan, a friend of Ann Reynolds. When Craven arrived at Wentworth, Madigan had West transferred to Barnhurst for her own safety. With Craven dead, Ferguson dismisses Meg Morris, Joyce Pringle and Marty Jackson who then conspire to expose her corruption. Using an investigative TV show, they successfully get Reynolds reinstated, with Meg as her deputy and all return to the prison. Ferguson immediately resigned, but discovered that ex-prisoner Willie Beacham was now a successful and very powerful business woman, who managed to black ball Ferguson from all employment. After threatening the Minister with exposure, she was reinstated as an officer at Wentworth.
Despite these new developments and storylines, the programme's viewing figures were falling. Ratings had been in decline for some time, falling to even lower levels during 1986, resulting in Network Ten deciding in July 1986 to not renew the series for another year. Production on the series finished on 5 September 1986 and the final episode aired, on 11 December 1986.
The show's producers had several weeks notice the series was ending, allowing them to craft suitable storylines leading to a strong conclusion, one which involved the final defeat of the villainous Joan “The Freak” Ferguson. The final episodes of Prisoner deal with the redemption of the misunderstood Kath Maxwell as well as concluding the ongoing dynamic between Rita Connors and Joan Ferguson. Shockingly diagnosed with terminal cancer
, Rita conspires with a jaded Joan, totally disillusioned by the prison service, to rob a building society. But all was not what it seemed.
There have been several tie-in books, and video and DVD releases. The show's theme song, "On the Inside
", sung by Lynne Hamilton
, reached number one in Australia in 1979, and peaked at number three in the UK Singles Chart
in 1989. The song was later featured as a B-side on punkabilly group The Living End
's breakthrough EP Second Solution/Prisoner of Society
which earned some radio play on alternative radio stations, in particular Triple J
.
representative Val Lehman
(Bea Smith), went on strike due to the publication of a number of tie-in paperback novels in the United States
. The cast's objection was to the books was the inclusion of exploitative soft-core pornographic content incongruent with the actual series. Six books were published in total, entitled "Prisoner: Cell Block H", "The Franky Doyle Story", "The Karen Travers Story", "The Frustrations of Vera", "The Reign of Queen Bea" and "The Trials of Erica".
Two 'behind the scenes' books were published in the UK in the early 1990s. Prisoner: Cell Block H - Behind the Scenes was written by Terry Bourke and published by Angus & Robertson Publishers, who also released similar books about Neighbours
and Home & Away. Bourke documents the show's genesis and development, and is decorated with many stills and 'character profiles'. Prisoner Cell Block H - The Inside Story, written by Hilary Kingsley, puts more emphasis upon the plot and characters. Both books contain many factual errors and typographical errors of names.
A limited edition book The Inside Story was published in 2007 as part of the full series DVD release in Australia. Written by TV journalists Andrew Mercado and Michael Idato, this commemorative book features a background on the series, year-by-year storylines, details of characters and a number of quotes from the cast and crew. It was only available as part of The Complete Collection DVD set.
. The website houses a large amount of information about the show and sells official Prisoner merchandise. In December 2007 'On the Inside' launched an official online yearly subscription membership, with members having exclusive access to cast interviews, Prisoner Out-takes and rare cast and production images. The website plans for the future include among other things the launch of an official Prisoner magazine. The website itself gets about 80,000 hits a week. http://www.prisoner-cellblockh.co.uk
The show has a cult following in Sweden
, where it has been shown on TV4 for many years under the title Kvinnofängelset (The Women's Prison). An unofficial fan club organises an annual get-together, and also gathered several thousand signatures (including that of actress Elspeth Ballantyne
) to convince TV4 to continue airing the show in 2000. After this second run of the show ended, work began to persuade TV4 to air the show a third time with start in 2005. The attempts were futile and the show has since not been aired in Swedish television. TV4 originally screened the series in a late night 01.00 slot three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. During the repeat run, the show was accommodated in a slightly later slot around 02.15 four times a week on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. All episodes were repeated at the weekend- Friday night had the Monday and Tuesday episodes and Saturday night had the other two.
A stage version of Prisoner was produced in 1989, based on the original scripts, and enjoyed a highly successful tour in the United Kingdom
. Original actors Elspeth Ballantyne
(Meg Morris) and Patsy King
(Erica Davidson) reprised their original characters, while Glenda Linscott
(Rita Connors) played a new character, Angela Mason. A second tour followed in 1990 starring Fiona Spence
(Vera Bennett) and Jane Clifton
(Margo Gaffney). Jacqui Gordon
(Susie Driscoll) also appeared, as new character Kath Evans.
A musical version followed starring Maggie Kirkpatrick
reprising her role of Joan "The Freak" Ferguson and Lily Savage as an inmate. The new musical was essentially a send-up of the purported kitsch aspects of the original show, and again was successful during both a tour and a West End
run in 1995 and 1997. Val Lehman (Bea) was very critical towards the production, in particular why a drag queen
would be in a women's prison.
Due to the huge popularity of the show when shown in the UK in the late 1980s, the British Prisoner fan club organised successful personal appearance tours for several actresses, including Val Lehman (Bea Smith), Carol Burns (Franky Doyle), Betty Bobbitt (Judy Bryant), Sheila Florance (Lizzie Birdsworth), Amanda Muggleton
(Chrissie Latham) and Judy McBurney
(Pixie Mason). A one-off programme, "The Great Escape", was produced in 1990. The programme featured Val Lehman, Sheila Florance, Amanda Muggleton and Carol Burns on their visit to the UK in 1990 and includes extensive footage of their on-stage interview with TV presenter Anna Soubry
in which the cast members talk about their time 'inside'. It was recorded at the Derby Assembly Rooms, Derby
, UK and was made available in the UK on VHS video for a short time but has since been deleted.
Several Prisoner actors have also trod British stages appearing in both drama and pantomime, such as Val Lehman (Wizard of Oz /Beatrix Potter and Misery ), Peita Toppano
, Fiona Spence, Maggie Dence
(Bev Baker), Debra Lawrance
(Daphne Graham), Linda Hartley
(Roach Waters), Ian Smith
(Ted Douglas) and Maggie Millar
(Marie Winter).
In 1997, a video clip of Prisoner featured in the popular BBC
sitcom Birds of a Feather
. The clip was from the second episode of the series, in which Franky Doyle and Lynn Warner fight in the garden. Prisoner was mentioned several times during the 8 year run of Birds of a Feather.
, although it always remained as simply Prisoner on-screen. It was screened on ITV from the mid/late 1980s until the mid/late 1990s, depending on the region. A great many sources incorrectly state that the series did not begin being run in the UK until 1987, but in fact the Yorkshire region
had been showing it since October 1984 (with the series "going like a rocket" by June 1985), with southern region TVS
following in October 1985 (in both instances while the programme was still being produced in Australia). However, most other regions did not start to broadcast it until 1987 at the earliest (a year after it finished production), with it not starting in the Ulster region until late 1989. To note is, that a couple of smaller regions did not start at episode 1 (joining larger adjoining regions a few episodes into the run); and a couple of regions jumped chunks of episodes as they aligned their run with adjoining areas.
It achieved enduring success in the UK despite much negative criticism from reviewers, the fact that the series never received a network screening on ITV, and with many regions often changing their slot for the series or dropping it for other programmes. Many ITV contractors, though, usually screened it twice a week in as had been the pattern in Australia.
Because the series was shown on all ITV companies late at night (just before closedown at first, then as the first programme of night-time programming with the advent of 24-hour broadcasting in the late 1980s), it became a favourite of the local continuity announcers. The announcers would often joke about characters and plots before and after the programme and during the end titles. When Border, Grampian and Granada TV screened the final episode in the UK, continuity announcer John McKenzie conducted an on-air interview via telephone with Maggie Kirkpatrick who played Joan "The Freak" Ferguson.
Yorkshire Television were very strict with cutting scenes involving hanging. Notably, the attempted hanging of Sandy Edwards, and the successful Eve Wilder hanging was cut. This was mainly due to a local prison HMP Leeds in the Yorkshire region having an extremely high number of hangings in preceding years. Yorkshire also heavily edited the fight scene with Joan and Bea in episode 326. Several other regions also edited the odd sequence that they deemed inappropriate, on occasion (despite being shown well past the 9pm watershed
).
As was the practice for hour-long programmes shown on terrestrial television at that time, the ITV regions inserted two commercial breaks into each episode enabling three parts per show. The breaks were usually inserted at the point of the second and fourth break as would have been seen in Australia. At the end of the show, the cliffhanger would lead straight into the end credits, unlike in Australia where (on later episodes) a sixth break was inserted. The original Australian sponsorship was also removed from the end credits - the picture would blank for a brief moment, before resuming at the Reg Grundy page, leading into the copyright page; the song continued uninterrupted. However the time lost where the sponsorships were removed resulted in the closing credit tune very seldom being played in full. This was the case for episodes shown both on ITV and later Channel 5 (see below).
Due to the various scheduling patterns of different regions, different areas of the country had varying length runs of series. Some regions, with the increased pattern (two or three weekly episodes) not only finished running the series in its entirety, but began showing it a second time. some regions had to skip some episode around new year of 1992/1993 when number of Joint schedules were about to be introduced between some ITV stations. Tyne Tees
had to skip Episode 293/294 while Border
skip 71 episodes, ( 477 - 547).
Other regions, with less regular patterning, were only mid-way through their initial respective runs when the series disappeared off ITV in the late 1990s. In some cases the series looked set to return but never did; for example, in the London
region Carlton
(where the series was mid-run after beginning on predecessor Thames Television
)), where viewers were told, in August 1998 after episode 598, that the run would resume after a Summer break, but the series never returned. The last time an episode of Prisoner was shown on ITV was in Southern region Meridian
(formerly TVS), again still on their initial run, who finished on episode 586 in July 1999.
in 1995), This merited the series its first ever networked UK screening (although some areas were unable to receive the new channel at that time). This also meant that it gave some areas their first complete run of the series. Although the exact pattern of episodes shown a week varied over the course of 5's run, episodes were typically shown roughly five times a week in a 4:40 am slot (the run did briefly move to a late night slot, with varying times but typically around 11:30 pm, but this soon reverted back to the 4:40 am slot, reportedly after complaints from ITV that it clashed with their own various runs of later episodes on assorted regions). Channel 5's run of the series concluded on Sunday 11 February 2001, in a double bill showing the penultimate and final episode. To date, 5 have no plans to re-run the series, despite requests from viewers and several, now mostly defunct, on-line petitions.
For most of 5's run, the programme was sponsored by Pot Noodle
, with humorous Prisoner-esque sequences (set in a prison cell and usually playing on the notion of supposedly wobbly scenery and props in the series) being played before and after the episodes, and in the lead in and out from commercial breaks
.
Of note for the Channel 5 broadcasts was the commentary over the closing credits, usually from chief continuity announcer Bill Buckley (but sometimes from deputy announcers). This began in the early 100s (at which time the run had briefly moved to its late-night slot), where Buckley would make the odd quip about the episode before giving other continuity announcements. This quickly developed, into him (or the stand-in announcer) making light-hearted and humorous observations about the episode just shown, and before long, reading out related letters and trivia sent in by viewers (which Buckley dubbed "snippets"). Due to the early morning slot, where most viewers relied on video recorders
to follow the series, relevant upcoming changes to the broadcast pattern of the series were also pointed out during these commentaries to viewers when needed so that they might adjust their video settings accordingly.
Back on Australian Television
Prisoner began screening again in Australia on 7 March 2011 via Foxtel
channel 111 Hits
. It airs weeknights at 6:30pm, with a repeat at 02:00am and again the following afternoon at 1:00pm. The tapes used are the original Grundy/TEN tapes and are completely unedited.
on Region 4
, with interviews and photo galleries as special features. The first volume was also released in the UK. Volumes 1 & 2 were released in the United States, with the first released as a 25th Anniversary Edition.
as a 174-disc box set in Australia in September 2007 in 40 volumes. As well as being able to buy them individually with 16 episodes per volume.
In late 2009 the disc box set had been deleted, and during 2010 some of the individual volumes were also gradually being deleted from release.
In March/April 2011 to co-incide with the re-screening of Prisoner on 111 Hits in Australia, the individual DVDs began to be re-released. This time however using new artwork and doubling the number of episodes from 16 to 32 per volume (similar to the UK DVD releases). The new artwork primarily being the cell gates on a black background. Each volume having the cell gates highlighted in a different colour.
In October 2011 Shock Records re-released the complete 174-disc box collection with the original artwork and the same aluminium case as the September 2007 version. At about half the original retail price from it's 2007 launch.
The UK DVD releases are a combination of 2 volumes as released in Australia. For example the UK Volume 1 consists of the Australian Volumes 1 and 2.
'The Edna Pearson Story', released on UK DVD in February 2010, contains most of the previously cut scenes although episode 470 is still missing a scene.
As with the Australian versions of the DVDs, the episodes are on the whole uncut, but due to the aged source of the master tapes, sometimes minor edits are made to the episodes to cover breaks in the picture or sound
Australian television
Television in Australia began experimentally as early as 1929 in Melbourne with stations 3DB and 3UZ using the Radiovision system by Gilbert Miles and Donal McDonald, and later from other locations, such as Brisbane in 1934....
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
which was set in the Wentworth Detention Centre, a fictional women's prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
. The series was produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation
Reg Grundy Organisation
The Reg Grundy Organisation was an Australian television production company founded in 1959 by businessman Reg Grundy . It has since branched out into Europe and the USA. The company first produced game shows, before branching into soap operas in 1973...
and ran on Network Ten
Network Ten
Network Ten , is one of Australia's three major commercial television networks. Owned-and-operated stations can be found in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, while affiliates extend the network to cover most of the country...
for 692 episodes from 27 February 1979 to 11 December 1986.
The series was inspired by the 1970s British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television drama Within These Walls
Within These Walls
Within These Walls is a British television drama programme made by London Weekend Television for ITV and shown between 1974 and 1978. It portrayed life in HMP Stone Park, a fictional women's prison...
, which had achieved moderate success in Australia (Prisoner producers even approached Googie Withers
Googie Withers
Georgette Lizette "Googie" Withers CBE, AO was an English theatre, film and television actress. She was a longtime resident of Australia with her husband, the actor John McCallum, with whom she often appeared.-Biography:...
of Within These Walls to play the role of Prisoners Governor, an offer that she declined). Because of an injunction brought by UK-based ATV
Associated TeleVision
Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...
, which considered the title too similar to their own series The Prisoner
The Prisoner
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
, it was originally not possible for overseas broadcasters to screen the show under the name Prisoner, which necessitated a name change. It was known as Prisoner: Cell Block H in the UK and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(though this extended title was not shown onscreen), and as Caged Women in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Background
Prisoner was created by Reg WatsonReg Watson
Reginald James "Reg" Watson AM is an Australian television producer, best known for creating soap operas like Prisoner and Neighbours.-Career:...
, who had previously produced the British soap opera Crossroads from 1964 to 1973, and would go on to create such popular Australian soaps as The Young Doctors
The Young Doctors
The Young Doctors is an Australian early evening soap opera. The series was set in the fictional Albert Memorial hospital and primarily concerned with romances between younger members of the hospital staff, screened on the Nine Network from Monday, 8 November 1976 until Wednesday, 30 March...
, Sons and Daughters
Sons and Daughters (Australian TV series)
Sons and Daughters was a Logie Award winning Australian soap opera created by Reg Watson and produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation between 1981 and 1987. The first episode aired in December 1981, during the Christmas/New Year non-ratings period, and the official broadcast date of the final...
and Neighbours
Neighbours
Neighbours is an Australian television soap opera first broadcast on the Seven Network on 18 March 1985. It was created by TV executive Reg Watson, who proposed the idea of making a show that focused on realistic stories and portrayed adults and teenagers who talk openly and solve their problems...
. Initially conceived as a sixteen episode stand-alone series, the storylines primarily concentrated on the lives of the prisoners and, to a lesser extent, the officers and other prison staff.
The themes of the show were often radical
Radicalization
Radicalization is the process in which an individual changes from passiveness or activism to become more revolutionary, militant or extremist. Radicalization is often associated with youth, adversity, alienation, social exclusion, poverty, or the perception of injustice to self or others.-...
, including feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
, homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
and social reform. When the series launched in 1979, the press advertising used the line "if you think prison is hell for a man, imagine what it's like for a woman". The series examined in detail the way in which women dealt with incarceration and separation from their families. Within the walls of the prison, the major themes of the series were the interpersonal relationships between the prisoners, the power struggles, friendships and rivalries. To a certain extent, the misfits who found themselves within the walls of the Wentworth Detention Centre became each other's family, with Bea Smith (see below) as a mother figure. Several lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
characters were featured throughout the show's run, notably prisoners Franky Doyle and Judy Bryant, along with prison officer Joan Ferguson.
Beginnings
The viewers’ introduction to the world of Wentworth Detention Centre involved the arrival of two new prisoners, Karen Travers (Peta ToppanoPeta Toppano
Peta Toppano is an actress who found success in Australian television. She is best known for her roles in popular television series such as The Young Doctors, Prisoner, and Home & Away, as well as Return to Eden in which she played a "superbitch".-Early life:Toppano was born in Finsbury Park,...
) and Lynn Warner (Kerry Armstrong
Kerry Armstrong
Kerry Michelle Armstrong is an Australian actress on film, television, and stage. She is one of only two actresses to win two Australian Film Institute Awards in the same year...
). Travers had been charged for the murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
of her husband, while Warner protested her innocence after being convicted of the abduction and attempted murder of a child. Both women are sent to the prison’s maximum security wing (H Block) where they are horrified by their new surroundings. Karen finds herself face-to-face with a former lover, prison doctor Greg Miller (Barry Quin
Barry Quin
Barry Quin is a British-born Australian based stage and television actor, best known for his role in the original cast of Prisoner playing Dr Greg Miller. He was married to his Prisoner co-star Peta Toppano during the early 1980s, but they divorced after ten years.-Biography:A graduate of the...
), and is sexually harassed by her violent, bullying lesbian cellmate, Franky Doyle (Carol Burns
Carol Burns
.Carol Burns is an Australian actor. She has worked in film, television and theatre in Australia and the United Kingdom.-Career highlights:...
). Lynn finds herself ostracised by the other prisoners because of her crime (prison populations are known for their intolerance towards criminals who commit offences against children) and is terrorised by the prison’s “top dog”, the self-styled “Queen” Bea Smith (Val Lehman
Val Lehman
Val Lehman is an Australian actress, best known for her role as top dog Bea Smith in the Australian series Prisoner...
), who “accidentally” burns her hand in the laundry steam press in one of the series’ most iconic scenes.
The other prisoners are rather less volatile, including the elderly, garden-loving Jeanette “Mum” Brooks (Mary Ward
Mary Ward (actress)
Mary Ward is an Australian stage and television actress, who trained in England and is best remembered and well known for her roles in Prisoner as Jeanette "Mum" Brooks and Sons and Daughters as Dee Morrell. In 2000, she also appeared in Blue Heelers...
), a bickering comic relief double act with teddy-clutching misfit Doreen Anderson (Colette Mann
Colette Mann
Colette Mann is an Australian actress, most notable for playing the role of Doreen Anderson , in the Australian series Prisoner from 1979–1982, with return appearances in 1983 and in 1984....
) and old lag Lizzie Birdsworth (Sheila Florance
Sheila Florance
Sheila Florance was an Australian film and television actress.After working in theatre in London and appearing on Australian television, Florance played small roles in several Australian films of the 1970s, including Mad Max...
), and seductive prostitute Marilyn Mason (Margaret Laurence), who entices prison electrician Eddie Cook (Richard Moir
Richard Moir
-Biography:In 1990, Moir was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, the degenerative effects of which gradually brought his acting career to a premature end...
) into amorous encounters around the prison. The prison officers, or “screws” as they are called by the women, comprised the firm but fair Governor Erica Davidson (Patsy King
Patsy King
Patsy King, is an Australian charactor actress ,a Melbourne theatre performer who trained as a Shakespearean actress with the Melbourne National Theatre; she spent her early days in the United Kingdom...
), flanked by the diametrically opposed dour Deputy Governor Vera Bennett (Fiona Spence
Fiona Spence
Fiona Spence is a British-born stage and television actress. One of the most recognisable Australian television stars during the early 1980s, she is best known for her roles in the Australian television series Prisoner and Home and Away...
), dubbed “Vinegar Tits” by the inmates, and compassionate senior officer Meg Jackson (Elspeth Ballantyne
Elspeth Ballantyne
Elspeth Ballantyne is an Australian actress, born in Adelaide. Having started her career as a laboratory Technician, she then attended the prestigious drama school, the National Institute for Dramatic Arts...
).
The early episodes are a potent cocktail of violence and mayhem; involving Lynn Warner’s punishment burning, another prisoner hanging herself in her cell, unrequited Sapphic passion, a fatal stabbing and a flashback sequence inspired by Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's Psycho
Psycho (1960 film)
Psycho is a 1960 American suspense/psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins. The film is based on the screenplay by Joseph Stefano, who adapted it from the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch...
, in which Karen Travers stabs her abusive husband to death in the shower. The first major story arc-defining event in the series is the turf war for top dog status between Bea Smith and Franky Doyle, culminating in a prison riot in which Meg Jackson is held hostage, and her husband, prison psychiatrist Bill Jackson (Don Barker
Don Barker
Don Barker is a fictional character in the series Dream Team, played by Jon Morrison.Don Barker had a reputation of being a hard-nosed, tough manager, renowned for making teams achieve promotion in the lower leagues...
), is stabbed to death by inmate Chrissie Latham (Amanda Muggleton).
Increase in production
Prisoner premiered in Australia on 27 February 1979 and instantly struck a chord with the audience, initially prompting the producers to extend the series from a sixteen-part serial to twenty-parts, and then to an ongoing concern. This decision immediately impacted on format and characterisation, and a number of changes were made to the series.Most significantly, the series’ production schedule increased from making one-hour long episode per week to two episodes per week. This led to the departure of the show’s first breakout popular character, after just twenty episodes, Franky Doyle, when actress Carol Burns chose to leave the series, feeling that she could not continue her portrayal with the increased production rate. Introduced as a borderline psychotic given to bouts of furniture-throwing violent rage, Franky’s character was explored through her unrequited love for fellow inmate Karen Travers, who warmed to her and tried to teach her to read, finally emerging as an unloved, illiterate, deeply frustrated social misfit and a tragic anti-heroine. Franky’s exit saw her escaping from Wentworth accompanied by Doreen Anderson, and shot dead by a policeman after being on the run for three weeks.
As the series began to gather momentum, new story arcs were introduced. Karen Travers decided to appeal against her sentence and was eventually released from prison, resuming her romantic relationship with Dr. Greg Miller and becoming involved in prison reform. As original characters began to leave the series (Mum Brooks, Lynn Warner, Karen and Greg all appeared beyond the initial sixteen episodes, but had made their exits by the end of the 1979 season, with Greg leaving early 1980), new characters arrived: hulking husband-basher Monica Ferguson (Lesley Baker
Lesley Baker
Lesley Baker is an Australian actress, singer, dancer and comedienne.She is best known for her roles as hulking husband basher Monica Ferguson in Prisoner and Angie Rebecchi in Neighbours.-Filmography:...
), sneering career criminal Noeline Burke (Jude Kuring
Jude Kuring
Jude Kuring is an Australian actress who appeared in film and television during the late 1970s and early 80s. She remains best known for her role as Noeline Bourke in the soap opera Prisoner....
), idealistic murderess Roslyn Coulson (Sigrid Thornton
Sigrid Thornton
Sigrid Thornton is an Australian multi-award winning actress.-Early years:Thornton was born in Canberra, the daughter of Merle, a teacher of women's studies and writer, and Neil Thornton, an academic. She spent most of her formative years growing up and attending school at St. Peter's Lutheran...
) and imprisoned mother Pat O’Connell (Monica Maughan
Monica Maughan
Monica Maughan was an Australian actor with notable and well-known roles in film, theatre, radio and television.-Early life and education:...
). Chrissie Latham, a minor character seen briefly in the early episodes, returned in a more central antagonistic role, and a new male Deputy Governor, Jim Fletcher (Gerard Maguire
Gerard Maguire
Gerard Maguire is an Australian stage, voice and television actor, best known for his role as Deputy Governor Jim Fletcher in Prisoner...
), added a touch of testosterone
Testosterone
Testosterone is a steroid hormone from the androgen group and is found in mammals, reptiles, birds, and other vertebrates. In mammals, testosterone is primarily secreted in the testes of males and the ovaries of females, although small amounts are also secreted by the adrenal glands...
to a female-dominated series.
Bea, Lizzie and Doreen
As Prisoner entered into production for a second year in 1980, the long-term format and structure to the series established the previous year was firmly in place. The characters were made up of a recognisable set of archetypes. The prison population comprised a core group of sympathetic prisoners – a top dog, an elderly inmate, a wayward youngster – and other characters, such as an antagonist who threatens the top dog’s control, a middle-class prisoner out of her depth in the prison, remand prisoners waiting for their trial and hired heavies used for “muscle”.After the departures of early leads such as Franky Doyle, Karen Travers and Lynn Warner, the trio of Bea Smith, Doreen Burns (née Anderson) and Lizzie Birdsworth emerged as the front-line prisoners. Bea was the tough, ambivalent yet maternal leader, softened after being a mostly unsympathetic character in the 1979 episodes. The death of Bea’s teenage daughter Debbie (Cassandra Lehman) from a heroin overdose not only explained her motivation for killing her husband on her release early in the series, but also explained Bea’s uncompromising hatred of drug offenders and clouded judgement whenever children were involved. Doreen was a well-meaning but inept tragi-comic figure and Lizzie was a mischievous elderly rascal with a dicky ticker and unquenchable taste for alcohol that saw her employed in comedy storylines, whilst also maintaining a more serious dimension, sometimes contemplating dying in prison. The Bea-Lizzie-Doreen dynamic was joined early in the 1980 run by Judy Bryant (Betty Bobbitt
Betty Bobbitt
Betty Bobbitt, born 7 February 1939, in Philadelphia in the United States, is an Australian-based actor.Bobbitt's entertainment career in Australia began shortly after arrival in the country when she was hired to appear as a regular on a Melbourne television variety show, Daly At Night, in 1962...
), an American ex-pat lesbian who deliberately gets herself imprisoned to be with her girlfriend, scheming drug dealer Sharon Gilmour (Margot Knight
Margot Knight
Margot Knight is an Australian actress, best known for playing two roles in two highly popular television serials. In Prisoner, she played inmate Sharon Gilmour in 1980 and junior prison officer Terri Malone in 1985...
), who became a long-term central character and part of the core group of prisoners.
The mix of officers also established a template of character types. The progressive Governor Erica Davidson, whose approach to the job was to the right of warm-hearted warder Meg Jackson, but to the left of the acidic Vera Bennett, with firm but fair Deputy Governor Jim Fletcher often switching sides between Vera and Meg. Erica herself would face an uphill struggle with untenable directives from her superiors at the Department of Corrective Services, represented by bigwig Ted Douglas (Ian Smith
Ian Smith (actor)
Ian Smith is an Australian soap opera character actor and television screenwriter, best known today for his long-running role as the caring, kindly coffee shop owner Harold Bishop in the soap opera Neighbours....
). As such, the storylines dealing with the prisoners’ everyday lives were somewhat cyclical – depicting harsh treatment leading to organised prisoner resistance remedied by concessions and greater freedom which the women would take advantage of, thus requiring a tightening of the prison regime.
As well as capitalising on the obvious voyeuristic
Voyeurism
In clinical psychology, voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other activity usually considered to be of a private nature....
appeal of showcasing life in prison, the storylines which drove the series used familiar elements — smuggling, personality clashes between the prisoners, staff politics between the officers, organised prisoner resistance such as strikes and riots, a range of issue-based storylines, court cases and police investigations and escape plots. The series also made good use of cliffhangers, often involving dramatic escapes, crimes, and catastrophes befalling the prison and its inhabitants. The stories also ventured outside Wentworth with episodes featuring the private lives of the officers and the struggles of newly-released prisoners to adjust to life on the outside, including the forces that unfortunately led to recidivism. Bea Smith is released during the opening episodes, and with nothing and no-one on the outside since the drug-related death of her daughter Debbie, shoots her estranged husband dead to get revenge, thus ensuring her imprisonment for life. Elderly Lizzie Birdsworth is released when new evidence in her case reveals that she is in fact innocent of the poisoning charge she’d already served twenty years for. However, realising that there is no place for her on the outside, the institutionalised Lizzie deliberately commits a petty offence in order to return to Wentworth which, as with many long-serving inmates for whom the prison environment and rules turns into a way of life, had become home. Whilst the series did offer upbeat storylines where some characters, such as Karen Travers during the 1979 run, made it, it also made clear that for some, like Bea and Lizzie, prison life was the only option.
Notable storylines during the “Bea, Lizzie and Doreen” era of the show (late 1979-late 1981) included the 1979 cliffhanger involving a terrorist raid on the prison in which Governor Erica Davidson was shot and wounded. A long-running story arc involved Judy Bryant's vendetta against corrupt male warder Jock Stewart (Tommy Dysart
Tommy Dysart
Tommy Dysart is a Scottish-born actor, currently resident in Australia. Dysart has been a regular fixture on Australian television for several decades, frequently appearing in guest-starring roles in drama series and comedies, and in character roles in films and miniseries.High-profile early roles...
) after he had murdered her lover Sharon Gilmour by pushing her down a prison staircase. Angry at the way the incident had been covered up by the authorities (a verdict of accidental death was recorded and Jock was suspended), the women rioted and held a rooftop protest in which Leanne Bourke (Tracey-Jo Riley), the daughter of Noeline Bourke, fell to her death from the roof. The subsequent efforts of Judy to avenge Sharon’s death and exact vengeance against Jock involved her escaping and working as a prostitute to track down Jock and kill him, and a final confrontation when Judy was out on parole that ended with the poetic justice of Jock falling down the stairs and being left permanently paralysed. Incidentally, just before Bryant begins work as a prostitute, she admits to Helen Smart that she is a 40 something virgin (having also told Tracey Morris in episode 154 that she has NEVER slept with a man) - towards the end of the same season, her adult daughter arrives searching for her birth mother! The 1980 cliffhanger saw Bea, Lizzie and Doreen trapped in an underground tunnel after a mass escape plan staged during a performance of the pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
Cinderella
Cinderella
"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...
went somewhat awry. As Prisoner reached its 200th episode, Bea Smith suffered amnesia
Amnesia
Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
, with no memory of ever having been imprisoned, after a car crash during a prison transfer.
End of an era
After a lengthy break over the festive period, Prisoner was then moved to an earlier slot in the Melbourne area of 7.30pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. With a recap of the events of 1980 on Tuesday 3 February 1981, the series resumed with episode 166 in its new slot the following evening. From episode 205 onwards, the series continued in its original 8.30pm slot. During the latter half of the 1981 season, Prisoner seemed to be moving into its next phase. Central to this shift was the exit of original character Vera “Vinegar Tits” Bennett, the unpleasant warder whom viewers loved to hate, in the most high profile cast departure since the death of Franky Doyle. Vera resigned from Wentworth, having won the job of Governor of Barnhurst.It is at this point in the show that the steady stream of supporting characters, written into the series to complement the leading ensemble, gained in importance. The officers’ ranks were augmented by the sarcastic, militant union representative Colleen Powell (Judith McGrath
Judith McGrath
Judith McGrath is an Australian actress. She spent many of her formative years training at Brisbane Arts Theatre and was a company member of Twelfth Night Theatre under theatre director, Joan Whalley....
), and the bespectacled and somewhat ineffectual Joyce Barry (Joy Westmore
Joy Westmore
Joy Westmore is an Australian actress, best known to television viewers for her long-running role in Prisoner as friendly but highly ineffectual officer Joyce Barry....
). The character of Colleen was poised to gain from the departure of Vera and then of Jim Fletcher a few months later, eventually taking over as Deputy Governor when Meg Morris turned down the offer. Amongst the prisoners, Chrissie Latham and Margo Gaffney, often written as antagonists of Bea Smith, had emerged as strong central recurring characters, as had prostitute Helen Smart (Caroline Gillmer
Caroline Gillmer
Caroline Gillmer is an Australian actress, best known for her roles in various television series, such as Prisoner as Helen Smart and Neighbours as Cheryl Stark....
).
Towards the end of the 1981 run, the old gang of Bea, Lizzie, Doreen and Judy took a back seat to the proceedings. Bea was hospitalised for a kidney transplant operation, Lizzie was briefly paroled and Doreen and Judy were temporarily transferred to Barnhurst. The main narrative focus of the late 1981 storylines was on three new characters introduced as major players: cocky gangster’s moll Sandy Edwards (Louise Le Nay
Louise Le Nay
Louise Le Nay is an Australian actress, best known for playing Sandy Edwards in Prisoner in a role which spanned the end of 1981 and the beginning of 1982 on screen. In the show, Sandy became Top Dog whilst Bea Smith was in hospital, and was a popular and key character...
) and the highly intelligent and enigmatic Dr. Kate Peterson (Olivia Hamnett
Olivia Hamnett
Olivia Hamnett was a Manchester-born actress who found success after emigrating to Australia in the early 1970s. In the UK Hamnett had guest roles in such television programs as Department S and Randall and Hopkirk in 1969.She continued to act after moving to Australia, appearing in films and in...
) were both convicted of murder while the cunning, villainous long-term criminal Marie Winter (Maggie Millar
Maggie Millar
Maggie Millar is an Australian actress, best known for her TV appearances as Marie Winter in Prisoner, Elizabeth Bradley in The Sullivans and Rosie Hoyland in Neighbours.-External links:*...
) was transferred from Barnhurst. The cliffhanger to the 1981 run involved the newly-arrived Marie manipulating Sandy into starting an explosive prison riot to protest the increasingly oppressive prison conditions following new directives from the Department. With a copy of the prison keys and improvised weapons, Sandy leads the marauding women through the prison, and in the subsequent siege situation, new rookie officers Janet Conway (Kate Sheil
Kate Sheil
Kate Sheil is an Australian stage and television actress. She is probably best known for her role as prison officer Janet Conway in the cult television series Prisoner, a role lasting six months in 1981 and 1982...
) and Steve Faulkner (Wayne Jarratt
Wayne Jarratt
Wayne Jarratt was an Australian stage and television actor of the 1980s, probably best remembered for his role of friendly prison officer Steve Faulkner in the soap opera Prisoner...
) are taken hostage.
The first few months of the 1982 run concentrated on the power struggles, scheming and double-crossing between the characters of Sandy, Marie and Kate, which involved a number of murder attempts. As Sandy and Marie clashed for the top dog position, Kate plotted to secure her release from Wentworth, revealing her true manipulative colours and playing different sides against each other for her own advantage. When all three were written out of the series once their projected storylines had run their course, the focus returned once more to Bea and company. However, by this point after so many dramatic events in the prison and the Bea-Lizzie-Doreen-Judy quartet still cosily ensconced as the leading characters, the series had started to show its age. In many subtle, not immediately apparent ways, it was the end of an era and it was clear that a radical shake-up was needed to give the series a new lease of life.
Introduction of the Freak
That new lease of life was provided by the arrival of a formidable new officer – Joan “The Freak” Ferguson (Maggie KirkpatrickMaggie Kirkpatrick
Maggie Kirkpatrick is an Australian actress, who is best known for her portrayal of the iconic character Joan Ferguson, a sadistic and corrupt lesbian prison officer known to the prisoners as "The Freak" in the popular Australian television soap opera, Prisoner...
). Enforcing her will through her black leather-gloved fists, molesting prisoners during unofficial “body searches” and taking her cut on all the prison rackets, Ferguson was just as corrupt, calculating and sadistic as some of the worst prisoners, but was on the other side of the bars and therefore untouchable. The addition of Joan Ferguson had also, by necessity, along with the arrival of another prisoner, softened formerly hard nosed Colleen. Despite her softening, she maintained her sarcastic sense of humor.
Bea Smith was soon awake to Joan’s villainy, and the two became deadly enemies. Joan schemed to beat Bea, while Bea plotted to oust Joan, thus beginning a new standard story arc for the series – in which the women of Wentworth try to “get rid of the Freak”. But Ferguson wasn’t going anywhere, having swiftly become an integral presence in the show, and increasingly its most iconic character, much like J.R. Ewing in Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
or Alexis Colby in Dynasty
Dynasty (TV series)
Dynasty is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981 to May 11, 1989. It was created by Richard & Esther Shapiro and produced by Aaron Spelling, and revolved around the Carringtons, a wealthy oil family living in Denver, Colorado...
.
Other developments during this period were the return of Chrissie Latham and Margo Gaffney to the show to bolster the ranks of the now somewhat empty-looking cellblock as Doreen and Judy were released from Wentworth. Doreen left the series, while Judy took charge of a new halfway house for ex-prisoners, named Driscoll House, after its first resident, young Susie Driscoll (Jacqui Gordon
Jacqui Gordon
Jacqui Gordon is an Australian actress, best known for her role in the television drama Prisoner as Susie Driscoll. She toured the United Kingdom in a stage play version of the series in 1990....
). The action was then split between the prison and the halfway house, which allowed the series to explore more issue-based storylines through the Driscoll House residents. Doomed heroin addict Donna Mason (Arkie Whiteley
Arkie Whiteley
Arkie Deya Whiteley was an Australian actress who appeared in television and films.Arkie Whiteley's parents were the renowned artist Brett Whiteley and his wife Wendy Whiteley...
) featured prominently both as a remand prisoner and as a temporary resident of Driscoll House. Young biker Maxine Daniels (Lisa Crittenden
Lisa Crittenden
Lisa Crittenden is an Australian actress, noted for her roles in various television series, such as The Restless Years , The Sullivans , Prisoner , Sons and Daughters and the New Zealand produced Shortland Street .She also played a lead role in mini-series Whose Baby? and...
) also joined as a regular cast member, flitting between Driscoll and Wentworth.
The main driver of this period however remained the ongoing animosity between Bea Smith and Joan Ferguson. Their conflict peaked in time for the 1982 season cliffhanger, in a showdown which brought the prison, literally, to the ground. Smith decided to finish Ferguson once and for all, so she lured The Freak into a trap by falsely claiming that Ferguson's incriminating secret diaries had been hidden in isolation by another prisoner, white-collar thief Barbara Fields (Susan Guerin
Susan Guerin
Susan Guerin is a British actress, best known for her role as Barbara Fields in the Australian television drama Prisoner.-External links:...
) (in reality Fields had hidden them in the Governor's office). As a diversion, Chrissie Latham was to light a small fire in the prison library. A recalcitrant Margo Gaffney had angrily criticised the decoy fire idea as weak and predictable, claiming that for anyone to be fooled it had better be a pretty big fire. She refused to co-operate further with the scheme, but as the plan got underway, Margo secretly went and set a much larger fire in a storeroom. Unfortunately, a large stock of mineral turpentine
Turpentine
Turpentine is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin obtained from trees, mainly pine trees. It is composed of terpenes, mainly the monoterpenes alpha-pinene and beta-pinene...
was being temporarily stored there.
The fire spread out of control while Bea Smith and Joan Ferguson battled it out in the isolation wing. In the confusion of the prison evacuation, Barbara Fields made her way to the Governor's office to retrieve the diaries. The fire overloaded the prison's security system, engaging the riot alarm, which caused all the prison gates to automatically slam shut and lock, leaving prisoners and staff trapped in the burning prison. Fields was overcome by smoke and collapsed in the Governor's office as the flames surrounded her (and the diaries) while two other inmates, “Mouse” Trapp (Jentah Sobott
Jentah Sobott
Jentah Sobott is an Australian actress, best known for her recurring role in the cult television drama Prisoner as Heather "Mouse" Trapp.-External links:...
) and Paddy Lawson (Anna Hruby
Anna Hruby
Anna Hruby is an Australian actress who has appeared in many Australian television series and theatre productions.Hruby first achieved recognition for her role in Prisoner as Paddy Lawson...
), found themselves trapped. Paddy managed to escape through the air ducts, while a panicking Mouse ran through the corridor trying each door in turn. She then found the source of the fire in one of the doors, but the mineral turpentine exploded in her face sending her running down the corridor screaming with the top half of her body on fire; her body was later recovered. Meanwhile, Governor Erica Davidson valiantly ran back inside the prison to try to unlock the security gates.
Ferguson had beaten Smith unconscious, but when the gates slammed shut, she was trapped in the cell block with Smith - along with Ferguson's dropped keys - lying just out of reach on the other side of the locked gate. In the final scene of the episode, a vengeful Smith regained consciousness, and, realising that having beaten Ferguson she would now be ineligible for parole, vowed she would not pass the key to Ferguson and that the two would die right there in the fire. Both survived when Paddy, having crawled through the ducting system, found them and gave Ferguson the keys - on the condition she carry the unconscious Bea to safety. The Great Fire episode ranks as the fan favorite among Prisoner fans.
1983
Prisoner returned in 1983 with everyone wanting to know if Paddy, Bea & Joan had survived the fire. Paddy crawled through the air ducts and found Bea and Joan. They made their way to the roof and escaped. The 1983 season was mainly characterised by a high turnover of short-term characters and storylines, but continued the rivalry between Bea and the Freak. More core cast departures took place as Chrissie Latham, Margo Gaffney and Erica Davidson all left the series, and a major new player, the callous, menacing and brutal double murderess Nola McKenzie (Carole SkinnerCarole Skinner
Carole Skinner is an Australian actress who works mainly in the theatre and is well known to armchair viewers for her roles in many long running soap operas.Skinner played top dog Nola McKenzie in Prisoner...
), entered the fray as a new adversary for Bea and a partner in crime for Joan, becoming the first prisoner to actively collude with the Freak, running contraband rackets and plotting to seize power from the “good” top dog. Bea Smith briefly escaped from Wentworth and contacted Doreen Burns, (Colette Mann) returning for a brief cameo.
The Bea-Joan-Nola conflict reaches its height in a memorable storyline which commenced shortly after Bea was returned to the prison after her escape. Joan and Nola attempt to drive Bea to suicide by evoking the memory of her dead daughter Debbie, coercing tarot reading medium and remand prisoner Zara Moonbeam (Ilona Rodgers
Ilona Rodgers
Ilona Rodgers is a British actress and television presenter who has lived and worked in several countries.In the United Kingdom in 1964 she played the role of Carol in The Sensorites, a six episode adventure of the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who...
) to assist them. But the plan backfires, and it is Nola, not Bea, whose corpse is taken away from Wentworth. A few months later however, Joan finally triumphs over Bea after a major confrontation in which the sadistic screw succeeds in having her old enemy transferred to Barnhurst. Having played Bea Smith for 400 episodes, actress Val Lehman had tired of the role, feeling that all possible storylines for the character had been exhausted, and resigned from the series. Shortly afterwards, actress Sheila Florance also decided to leave, leading to the departure of Lizzie Birdsworth. This now left actress Elspeth Ballantyne, alias officer Meg Morris (formerly Jackson), as the only original cast member still in the series. (Despite leaving the series, both Lehman and Florance were very active in the Prisoner fan community, a role which Florance continued until her death in 1991 and that Lehman still maintains today)
The 1983 cliffhanger involved Lizzie and David. Lizzie was waiting to hear if she had been paroled, as Coleen came out to tell her. She found a dead body in the prison ground and David Bridges revealed himself as the killer and told Lizzie should would "be set free"...
1984
Prisoner resumed to most screens with the picking up of the 1983 cliffhanger which involved Lizzie and evil murderer officer David Bridges. As he revealed to her he killed two inmates, she would be next.The resolution was that Lizzie had a heart attack and when Cass came to help. When David walked her into the gardening shed he turned violent and tried to kill her but Cass decapitated him with a shovel.
With Prisoner heading towards the 1984 season and the recent high-profile cast departures, the series was retooled once again. New characters had been introduced during Bea Smith’s final few months on the show, and they now enjoyed prominent roles in the series. Ann Reynolds (Gerda Nicolson
Gerda Nicolson
Gerda Nicolson, was an Australian theatre and television actor best known for several long-running television roles....
) replaced Erica Davidson as a spirited, no-nonsense new Governor and amongst the prisoners, previous background bit player Phyllis Hunt (Reylene Pearce
Reylene Pearce
Reylene Pearce is an Australian actress, best known for her long-running role in the television drama series Prisoner as Phyllis Hunt. She appeared in the show from 1979 to 1984, during which time the role had developed from a background bit part to a central character.She appeared in an Australian...
) was given a more expanded role amidst new arrivals, such as dreamy romantic and serial bigamist
Bigamy
In cultures that practice marital monogamy, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. Bigamy is a crime in most western countries, and when it occurs in this context often neither the first nor second spouse is aware of the other...
Sandra “Pixie” Mason (Judy McBurney
Judy McBurney
Judy McBurney is an Australian actress famous in several television soap opera roles.In 1974 McBurney was cast in the role of key new character Marilyn McDonald in Number 96 but before any of her scenes had gone to air and with about 30 scenes in the can she had to withdraw from the role due to...
) and cool, villainous vice queen Sonia Stevens (Tina Bursill
Tina Bursill
Tina Bursill is an Australian actress usually seen on television playing sophisticated and coolly self-reliant women such as Louise Carter in Skyways. Det. Sgt...
). Judy Bryant was brought back into Wentworth as a “stopgap” top dog – the Driscoll House plotline being phased out of the series after Judy had committed euthanasia
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
on terminally ill former inmate Hazel Kent (Belinda Davey
Belinda Davey
Belinda Davey is an Australian actress, best known for her recurring role in the television series Prisoner as Hazel Kent.She appeared in the series from 1980 to 1983. Subsequent credits include: The Henderson Kids, The Flying Doctors,Blue Heelers, Ocean Girl and Raw FM.-External links:...
). Long term "Department" boss Ted Douglas was exposed as corrupt and left the series, to be replaced (albeit briefly) by Erica Davidson.
Some very dramatic storylines were introduced in this period, with "The Freak" briefly becoming Governor when Ann Reynolds was recovering from breast cancer and Colleen Powell was discredited - largely thanks to "The Freak's" interference. Erica Davison helped expose Ferguson during this time and Mrs Powell was reinstated. Shortly afterwards, Mrs Powell's family were murdered in a bomb explosion, in a plotline very similar to the one used earlier with Jim Fletcher.
Other new additions to the cast included Cass Parker (Babs McMillan
Babs McMillan
Babs McMillan is an Australian actress, best known for her roles in two popular TV series during the 1980s.She played the acerbic Sister Erin Cosgrove during the final year of The Young Doctors and dimwitted country bumpkin Cass Parker in Prisoner....
), whose slow wit and gentle nature was offset by her immense physical strength and murderous bad temper, middle-aged con artist Minnie Donovan (Wendy Playfair
Wendy Playfair
Wendy Playfair is an Australian actress, best known for her role as Minnie Donovan in the television series Prisoner. She was educated at the prestigious Ascham School in Sydney....
) and volatile but vulnerable street kid Bobbie Mitchell (Maxine Klibingaitis
Maxine Klibingaitis
Maxine Klibingaitis is an Australian actress. She played the character Bobbie Mitchell in the series Prisoner from 1983 to 1985, and later played Paul Robinson's first wife Terry Inglis in Neighbours in 1985. She was married to the Australian television director, Andrew Friedman and they have one...
). The major players of the 1984 run, however, were antagonistic Reb Kean (Janet Andrewartha
Janet Andrewartha
Janet Andrewartha is an Australian actress. She is famous for playing on-going roles in two popular Australian soap operas: that of Reb Kean in Prisoner and Lyn Scully in Neighbours.-Biography:...
), a dynamic but troubled young woman who had been the brains behind an armed robbery, having turned to crime after rebelling against her wealthy family and the series’ new central top dog – Myra Desmond (Anne Phelan
Anne Phelan
Anne Mary Phelan, OAM , is a much awarded Australian actress, who has appeared prominently in Theatre, Australian television productions and soap operas, including Prisoner where she played the role of 'Top Dog' Myra Desmond and Monica Taylor in Something in the air...
), a thoughtful but tough ex-prisoner of Wentworth who had previously made sporadic appearances in the show as a representative of the Prison Reform Group, now back inside for a long stretch after killing her husband (despite stating in episode 223 that she was not married!) Both Reb and Myra made enemies of the Freak – and of each other – and the series continued. During the first half of 1984, this period of transition and the storyline developments with the new cast were complemented by return appearances from departed characters such as Wally Wallace (Alan Hopgood
Alan Hopgood
Alan Hopgood is an Australian actor and writer.He is a graduate of the University of Melbourne. Hopgood's first very successful play was And the Big Men Fly in 1963. It was adapted for TV by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1973...
), Helen Smart, Erica Davidson, Doreen Burns, Margo Gaffney, Tracy Morris (albeit played by a new actress) and Marie Winter (though this also marked the final appearance of all these characters).
The 1984 and 1985 seasons are characterised by a number of cast reshuffles, preventing the series from re-establishing the continuity and focus it had enjoyed in earlier years, whilst preventing the cosiness of the Bea, Lizzie, Dorren trio that the 1981 introduction of Sandy, Kate and Marie had sought to explode. Mid-1984 saw the exits of recently introduced characters such as Minnie Donovan, Sonia Stevens and Cass Parker as well as the departure of long-time Deputy Governor Colleen Powell. In their place came juvenile prankster Marlene Warren (Genevieve Lemon
Genevieve Lemon
Genevieve Lemon is an Australian actress who has appeared in a number of soap operas – as Zelda Baker in The Young Doctors, Marlene "Rabbit" Warren in Prisoner and Brenda Riley in Neighbours...
) and elderly inmate Dot Farrar (Alethea McGrath
Alethea McGrath
Alethea McGrath is an Australian actress who played the role of Jocasta Nu in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. She is also widely known for her roles on television, playing Dot Farrar in Prisoner and two parts in Neighbours: Mary Crombie from 1989 to 1990 and Lilly Madigan in 1998...
). More enduring inmates introduced during this period were sneering troublemaker Lou Kelly (Louise Siversen
Louise Siversen
Louise Siversen is an actress.Siversen began acting as a child after her parents sent her to dance and drama classes to help her overcome her shyness. Siversen began to enjoy acting and went on to perform with St Martins Youth Theatre, appearing in many productions...
), who developed from a bit player to becoming a sociopathic wannabe top dog and the series' main villain, dopey offsider Alice “Lurch” Jenkins (Lois Collinder
Lois Collinder
Lois Collinder is an Australian actress, best known for playing gangly inmate Alice "Lurch" Jenkins in the television series Prisoner. She in fact started out in the series in 1984 as a non-speaking extra and worked her way up from being a bit player to developing "Lurch" into a central character...
) and streetwise card sharp Lexie Patterson (Pepe Trevor
Pepe Trevor
Penelope "Pepe" Trevor is an Australian actress, journalist and award-winning author who is perhaps best known for her role as young card sharp and trouble-maker Lexie Patterson in Prisoner.-Biography:...
), who had a tendency to dress a lot like Boy George
Boy George
Boy George is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by...
until The Freak retaliated against her insolence by cutting her hair.
The series became increasingly violent as it went on. The 1983 cliffhanger involved the revelation that recent escapes from the prison had in fact been a series of murders conducted by psychotic warder David Bridges (David Waters). Twisted psychologist Jonathan Edmonds (Bryan Marshall
Bryan Marshall
Bryan Marshall is an English actor, with a number of major credits in film and television to his name.Marshall was born in Clapham, London...
) arrived at Wentworth to conduct research, brainwashing Cass Parker into trying to kill her best friend Bobbie Mitchell. During her final stint in 1984, the villainous Marie Winter colluded with the Freak and organised another major riot - a scheme intended to ensure the dismissal of an already reprimanded Ann Reynolds with Ferguson to take over as governor of Wentworth - in which the H-Block was ravaged, before escaping by hanging from the landing gear of a low-flying helicopter.
Serial murderess Bev “The Beast” Baker (Maggie Dence
Maggie Dence
Maggie Dence is an Australian actress who after high profile television comedy work became better known for several soap opera roles....
) terrorised both staff and inmates with her thrill-seeking antics, which included almost throttling Marlene Warren, cutting open Bobbie Mitchell’s hands with a razor blade, stabbing a visiting social worker in the heart with a knitting needle and finally committing suicide by injecting herself with an empty hypodermic syringe to induce a coronary. Officer Meg Morris was brutally raped and impregnated in her own home by a masked intruder on the orders of psychopathic inmate Angel Adams (Kylie Foster
Kylie Foster
Kylie Foster is an Australian actress, who remains best known for her role in Prisoner as "bad seed" inmate Angela "Angel" Adams. She also appeared in Home and Away as Leanne Dunn in 1989....
). Joan “The Freak” Ferguson faced off against her murderous male counterpart Len Murphy (Maurie Fields
Maurie Fields
Maurie Fields was an Australian actor, vaudeville performer and stand-up comedian. He became a well-known face on television thanks to his dramatic roles in Bellbird, The Box, Prisoner and The Flying Doctors...
) in a “bad” screw’s turf war. The series also introduced a trio of male inmates – Geoff McRae (Leslie Dayman
Leslie Dayman
Leslie "Les" Dayman is an Australian actor best known for being the fighter of the Nightman.He starred in the crime series Homicide as Senior Detective Bill Hudson during the late 1960s. In the 1980s, he was a major cast member in the soap operas Sons and Daughters and Prisoner...
), Matt Delaney (Peter Bensley
Peter Bensley
Peter Bensley was an Australian "pin-up" actor of the 1980s.One of Bensley's earliest roles was as Dennis Braithwaite on the Seven Network drama series Class Of '74...
) and Frank Burke (Trevor Kent
Trevor Kent
Trevor Kent was an Australian theatre and television actor who achieved a level of public recognition in the 1980s....
) – transferred to Wentworth for their own safety after preventing an escape at their men’s prison. Towards the end of the 1984 run, as Myra Desmond and Reb Kean had a final confrontation over the top dog position, Governor Ann Reynolds received poison-pen letters and death threats. This eventually led to both her and Meg Morris being kidnapped and left gagged and bound in a crumbling warehouse laden with bombs and lethal trip-wire booby-traps. But the 1984 season cliffhanger was not the possible explosive end for Meg and Ann but for Myra revealing Reb to be a fake and Yemil runs to the rec room to tell them to save Pixie as Lou, Fran and Alice are bashing Pixie in her cell.
1985
The 1985 run was no less action-packed. In the first episode of the 1985 season, Reb Kean was transferred to Blackmoor after fighting with Myra but she promised Joan she would be back for her. Pixie Mason was raped by male inmate Frank Burke and she went into a coma from the shock, whereas McRae had an illicit affair with Myra Desmond and Delaney married Marlene Warren. Lou Kelly tried to kill Myra Desmond on several occasions in her bid to become top dog, and even made an attempt on Joan Ferguson's life armed with a home-made gun.Around episode 535, the prison wedding of Delaney and Warren marked the end of a number of story strands and the mass exodus of many characters. All the male prisoners left, together with Marlene Warren and Judy Bryant. The Freak was hospitalised for emergency brain surgery after having a prison library bookcase dropped on her head by Frank Burke, which had led to her suffering blackouts. Led by Myra Desmond, the women used this in an unsuccessful scheme to get rid of her, bashing Lou Kelly and framing Joan for the assault. The plan worked and Joan was dismissed, until a penitent Nun, inmate Sister Anita Selby (Diane Craig), spilled the beans to Ann Reynolds, leading to The Freak's reinstatement and the imposition of far stricter security. Reynolds refused to acknowledge Desmond as 'Top Dog' following the incident.
Perhaps to bridge the jarring cast changes, episode 536 was a "flashback" episode, containing clips from various points in the show's history as the remaining women reminisced about past storylines, presumably intending to remind viewers of the show's past characters, all of whom were now gone.
To fill the now empty cells, a mass transfer from Barnhurst after a riot there had burnt out a cellblock (and had ended in the offscreen death of Bea Smith) introduced five new inmates to the series – Nora Flynn (Sonja Tallis
Sonja Tallis
Sonja Tallis is an Australian actress, singer, and drama teacher.Sonja Tallis began her showbiz career as a folk singer, touring as part of a duo called "Sean & Sonja", before moving onto acting. After acting in serial The Young Doctors, she had a small role in Sons and Daughters, before going onto...
), a reformed triple murderess, ageing cat burglar May Collins (Billie Hammerberg
Billie Hammerberg
Billie Hammerberg was born Billie Lorraine Hammerberg. She was an Australian actress, best known for her role in the television series Prisoner as May Collins....
) and her partner in crime, former fence Willie Beecham (Kirsty Child
Kirsty Child
Kirsty Child is an Australian actress, best known for playing three roles in the cult drama Prisoner. She played two guest roles – prison officer turned drug dealer Anne Yates in 1979, and Glynis Johnson, the sister of an inmate, in 1983. In 1985 she played a more prominent part in the series as...
- who had played a corrupt prison officer who was later incarcerated and murdered in the prison in early episodes), garden-loving misfit Daphne Graham (Debra Lawrance
Debra Lawrance
Debra Lawrance is an Australian actress best known for her role as Pippa Ross on Home and Away, which she played from 1990 to 1998. She continues to guest star to this date- her last appearance was in 2009.-Biography:...
) and shy but highly intelligent thief Julie Egbert (Jackie Woodburne
Jackie Woodburne
Jackie Woodburne is a Northern Irish-born Australian actress.-Personal life:Woodburne was born in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Her father was a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. She has two older siblings: John and Stephen. At age three she emigrated with her family to...
).
Perhaps the most striking story arc of this period is the infamous “Ballinger siege”. The storyline began with the introduction of the Barnhurst Five and saw both staff and inmates held hostage by armed mercenaries who had broken into the prison to spring high profile remand prisoner Ruth Ballinger (Lindy Davies
Lindy Davies
Lindy Davies is an Australian actress, director and drama teacher. From 1995–2007 she was the Dean of the School of Drama at the Victorian College of Arts in Melbourne....
) on the orders of her drug baron husband. Holed up inside Wentworth by the police, the terrorists take the women and officers Joan Ferguson and Joyce Barry captive, threatening to shoot one hostage every hour until they are given safe passage out of the country while outside the police and Governor Ann Reynolds argue over sending in the local SWAT
SWAT
A SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in various national law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...
unit. The siege climaxes in an airfield shoot-out with Joan as a hostage, but not before the shocking murder of top dog Myra Desmond, who selflessly sacrifices herself to save the other women.
Other characters introduced during the 1985 season were Ann Reynolds' daughter Pippa (Christine Harris
Christine Harris
Christine Harris is an Australian actress, born and raised in South Australia.After portraying a young version of popular Australian singer Julie Anthony in a television special, she moved to Sydney at the end of 1979 to star as paraplegic Tina Marshall in the short-lived Network Ten soap opera...
) and her former schoolmate Jenny Hartley (Jenny Lovell
Jenny Lovell
Jenny Lovell is an Australian actress, best known for her role as Jenny Hartley in the television series Prisoner It was during her acting role in Prisoner where she became agoraphobic, due to the constant heckling by the public who constantly called her a Poor man's Lynn 'Wonky' Warner.She has...
), the latter ending up in H Block on remand after being accused of murdering her wealthy grandmother. Meg Morris became engaged to fellow officer Dennis Cruickshank, but the relationship ended when escapee Frank Burke shot and paralysed Cruickshank. Fellow officer Joyce Barry left her husband (who died soon after) and moved in with prison chef Mervin Pringle; eventually marrying him in the final season. Meanwhile, Joan Ferguson began an ultimately doomed relationship with fellow officer Terri Malone (Margot Knight
Margot Knight
Margot Knight is an Australian actress, best known for playing two roles in two highly popular television serials. In Prisoner, she played inmate Sharon Gilmour in 1980 and junior prison officer Terri Malone in 1985...
who had previously played inmate Sharon Gilmour). However, after yet another cast clear-out six months later, the “Barnhurst Five” was down to one, with May Collins being killed and Willie Beecham being pardoned, both after being released in order to take part in a police sting that went tragically wrong. Only Julie Egbert of the Barnhurst transferees remained in the series. At around the same time Terri Malone, Pippa Reynolds and Jenny Hartley also departed in quick succession.
The subsequent post-siege storylines were rather more low-key with Nora Flynn's run as a pacifist top dog following Myra's death. By the end of the 1985 episodes storylines began to become more lively. This included the return to Wentworth of former hard case Reb Kean, now a timid and meek figure had gone through 27 rounds of ECT
Electroconvulsive therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy , formerly known as electroshock, is a psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect. Its mode of action is unknown...
and torture at the hands of maximum security officers and inmates at Blackmoor. Meanwhile officer Joyce Barry was beaten half to death by malevolent remand inmate Eve Wilder (Lynda Stoner
Lynda Stoner
Lynda Stoner is an Australian actress and animal rights activist.In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Stoner was known for several roles on Australian television and was popularly regarded as a sex symbol...
) who then pinned the blame on the erratic and forgetful Reb. The death of May Collins left Ann Reynolds questioning her position and she resigned from the Governor's role. When Nora Flynn tired of the top dog power struggles in the prison and escaped, she was tracked down and murdered by a criminal-hating psychotic. Her corpse was subsequently dumped in the prison grounds. The cliffhanger for 1985 involved new evil inmate Eve Wilder and her lawyer, David Adam. As David told Eve he can no longer continue with her case he shot himself.
Final season
The final year of Prisoner is mostly based around the conflict between the Freak and a new challenger, brash biker Rita “The Beater” Connors (Glenda LinscottGlenda Linscott
Glenda Linscott is an Australian actress, best known for her performance as tough bikie inmate and top dog Rita "The Beater" Connors in the television drama Prisoner, for which she won a Penguin award....
) who takes over as the series’ new top dog, when previous incumbent, the vicious Lou Kelly, clashed with tough temporary Governor Bob Moran (Peter Adams
Peter Adams (actor)
Peter John Adams was a New Zealand-born actor, best remembered for his performances in Australian television.-Early life:Born in Karanarunui, New Zealand, Adams later emigrated to Australia...
) and overreached herself by igniting a bloodthirsty riot that threatened the lives of both staff and inmates. After the riot (which marked the series' 600th episode), Lou’s former stooge, Alice Jenkins, switches sides and becomes friends with Rita, who forms a new prison gang – the “Wentworth Warriors” - including Lexie Patterson, Julie Egbert, demure housewife Nancy McCormack (Julia Blake
Julia Blake
Julia Blake is a British-born actress based in Australia.Blake was born in London, England. She is married to Terry Norris. She is the mother of actresses Sarah and Jane Norris....
), on remand for killing her husband but actually covering up for her son, biker chick "Roach" Waters (Linda Hartley
Linda Hartley
Linda Hartley-Clark is an Australian actress who played Kerry Bishop on the Australian soap opera Neighbours from 1989 to 1990. She also did a guest stint in 2005 playing Gabrielle Walker, who in the storyline was recognised by Harold Bishop as Kerry's lookalike...
) and vivacious con-woman Lorelei Wilkinson (Paula Duncan
Paula Duncan
Paula Margaret Duncan is an Australian actress. She is prominent mainly in the genre of soap opera. Her sister is fellow soap actress Carmen Duncan....
). Having worked with former inmate Ettie Parslow, running a block of flats for wayward youngsters, Ann Reynolds returned to Wentworth and resumed her role of Governor. Bob Moran was made her deputy, resulting in the demotion of Meg Morris, but this was reversed after a lightning strike organized by The Freak. Shortly after, The Freak successfully deposed Meg Morris herself and became deputy governor - against Ann Reynolds wishes. Ferguson began to plot to bring down Reynolds and began working with the Minister for Corrective Services, Julie Egbert's soon to be mother in law and corrupt inmates in an attempt to win the Governorship. She briefly got Reynolds job, but this was immediately reversed when the Minister began to realise she was not to be trusted. Rita's gang burnt Ferguson's (uninsured) house to the ground in retaliation, leaving Ferguson leaning on a male friend, Andrew, for support. After Ferguson refused to be blackmailed into bringing Heroin into the prison, Ferguson's friend Andrew was murdered, leading to her bringing in the police herself.
As well as the Freak, Rita’s chief adversary is Kath Maxwell (Kate Hood
Kate Hood
Kate Hood is an Australian actress, best known to international audiences for her role in the cult television drama Prisoner as the misunderstood mercy killer Kath Maxwell during the final year of the series....
), a middle-class woman and friend of Bob Moran, who retaliates against Rita for her brutal initiation into prison life because of her crime – the mercy killing of her terminally ill daughter - and toughens up, becoming a serious rival for the top dog role with her new hard attitude and monopoly on contraband rackets in the prison. Kath is backed up by her comic-loving cellmate Merle Jones (Rosanne Hull-Brown
Rosanne Hull-Brown
Rosanne Hull-Brown is an Australian actress, who remains best known for her performance as Merle Jones during the final year of the television drama series Prisoner.She subsequently retired from acting and became a music teacher.-External links:...
). Other new inmates to arrive in 1986 include sneering racketeer Rose “Spider” Simpson (Taya Straton) and blackmailing call-girl Lisa Mullins (Nicki Paull
Nicki Paull
Nicola Paull is an Australian actress. Though predominantly known for her work on television, she has also appeared in films and on stage, as well as performing as a voice-over artist and narrator....
/Terrie Waddell
Terrie Waddell
Terrie Waddell is a former Australian actress, best known for her role as Lisa Mullins in the television series Prisoner. She had replaced Nicki Paull, who had left the role due to an illness. Waddell remained with the series until its final episode in 1986....
). Kath's relationship with Moran leads to him resigning from Wentworth. The officers’ ranks are bolstered by the arrival of three new trainees, including Meg Morris’ son Marty Jackson (Michael Winchester
Michael Winchester
Michael Winchester is an Australian actor, best known for playing Marty Jackson in the television series Prisoner. He had previously appeared in Sons and Daughters as Todd Fisher.-External links:...
), Delia Stout (Desiree Smith) and Rodney Adams (Philip Hyde
Philip Hyde (actor)
Philip Hyde is an Australian actor, best known for playing Rodney Adams during the final year's run of the television series Prisoner.-References:...
) who begins to emulate Ferguson in an attempt to make a mark at Wentworth.
Ray Meagher
Ray Meagher surname pronouned "Marr" , is a veteran Australian character actor. He has appeared regularly in Australian film and television since the mid 1970s, and is notable as the longest continuing performer in an Australian television role, as Alf Stewart on Home and Away, having played the...
). After causing a major riot at the prison, during which her brother is shot dead, Rita initiates a fire that leads to the mass transfer of prisoners to Wentworth where Craven joins forces with Ferguson to oust Reynolds once and for all. He orders the brutal rape of Lorelei Wilkinson and threatens to kill her child unless she covers for him. Reynolds is thus dismissed and Ferguson made Governor. Craven then tries to kill Rita, which leads to his own death at the hands of Wilkinson, who becomes catatonic and is transferred to a mental institution. A concurrent storyline featured a young aboriginal inmate, Sarah West, who was subjected to extreme racism, as was her social worker, Pamela Madigan, a friend of Ann Reynolds. When Craven arrived at Wentworth, Madigan had West transferred to Barnhurst for her own safety. With Craven dead, Ferguson dismisses Meg Morris, Joyce Pringle and Marty Jackson who then conspire to expose her corruption. Using an investigative TV show, they successfully get Reynolds reinstated, with Meg as her deputy and all return to the prison. Ferguson immediately resigned, but discovered that ex-prisoner Willie Beacham was now a successful and very powerful business woman, who managed to black ball Ferguson from all employment. After threatening the Minister with exposure, she was reinstated as an officer at Wentworth.
Despite these new developments and storylines, the programme's viewing figures were falling. Ratings had been in decline for some time, falling to even lower levels during 1986, resulting in Network Ten deciding in July 1986 to not renew the series for another year. Production on the series finished on 5 September 1986 and the final episode aired, on 11 December 1986.
The show's producers had several weeks notice the series was ending, allowing them to craft suitable storylines leading to a strong conclusion, one which involved the final defeat of the villainous Joan “The Freak” Ferguson. The final episodes of Prisoner deal with the redemption of the misunderstood Kath Maxwell as well as concluding the ongoing dynamic between Rita Connors and Joan Ferguson. Shockingly diagnosed with terminal cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, Rita conspires with a jaded Joan, totally disillusioned by the prison service, to rob a building society. But all was not what it seemed.
Spin-offs
- In 1979, a telemovie titled The Franky Doyle Story was produced. It was made using material edited from the first two dozen episodes of the series, with emphasis on the character of Franky Doyle (Carol BurnsCarol Burns.Carol Burns is an Australian actor. She has worked in film, television and theatre in Australia and the United Kingdom.-Career highlights:...
). It was the first of an intended series of telemovies. The plan was shelved when the cast took the matter to the industrial commission, who ruled that they were not being fairly compensated for what amounted to a "second use" of their work.
- After the Prisoner cliffhanger of 1981, a further TV special was screened: Prisoner In Concert. Cast members Val Lehman (Bea Smith), Sheila FloranceSheila FloranceSheila Florance was an Australian film and television actress.After working in theatre in London and appearing on Australian television, Florance played small roles in several Australian films of the 1970s, including Mad Max...
(Lizzie Birdsworth), Colette MannColette MannColette Mann is an Australian actress, most notable for playing the role of Doreen Anderson , in the Australian series Prisoner from 1979–1982, with return appearances in 1983 and in 1984....
(Doreen Burns), Betty BobbittBetty BobbittBetty Bobbitt, born 7 February 1939, in Philadelphia in the United States, is an Australian-based actor.Bobbitt's entertainment career in Australia began shortly after arrival in the country when she was hired to appear as a regular on a Melbourne television variety show, Daly At Night, in 1962...
(Judy Bryant), Jane CliftonJane CliftonJane Clifton is a Gibraltar-born actress and singer who lived as a child in Cardiff, Wales. In 1961 she emigrated to Perth, Australia. Her best known acting role is probably that of tough prison bookie Margo Gaffney in Prisoner...
(Margo Gaffney), Patsy KingPatsy KingPatsy King, is an Australian charactor actress ,a Melbourne theatre performer who trained as a Shakespearean actress with the Melbourne National Theatre; she spent her early days in the United Kingdom...
(Erica Davidson) and Gerard MaguireGerard MaguireGerard Maguire is an Australian stage, voice and television actor, best known for his role as Deputy Governor Jim Fletcher in Prisoner...
(Jim Fletcher) appeared in a live stage revue at Pentridge men’s prison in Melbourne, performing various songs and sketches. Something of a curiosity piece, it has never been repeated since its original transmission, and a DVD release is unlikely due to copyright matters.
- As Prisoner finished production in 1986, Grundy’s began circulating plans for a spin-off revolving around Wentworth’s sister prison Barnhurst but Channel Ten did not entertain the idea. A further idea, Inside Out, set in an open prison and featuring certain Prisoner characters a decade or so on, also came to nothing.
- At one stage the producers considered a comedy spin-off featuring Pixie Mason, but again, this idea came to nothing.
- A stage musical version with songs by Peter PinnePeter PinnePeter Pinne is an Australian-born writer and composer.Pinne started working as a television executive for the Reg Grundy organisation. Firstly, as Head of Production from 1980, later rising to become a Senior Vice President of the company. During this period, he worked on numerous shows including...
and Don BattyeDon BattyeDonald "Don" Battye is an Australian born writer composer and television producer.-Life:He was a writer, script editor, and producer on several Australian television series for Crawford Productions including soap opera The Box in 1976 & 1977, The Sullivans and police procedural drama series...
was produced in 1995, and this played in the London West End and toured provincial theatres. Maggie KirkpatrickMaggie KirkpatrickMaggie Kirkpatrick is an Australian actress, who is best known for her portrayal of the iconic character Joan Ferguson, a sadistic and corrupt lesbian prison officer known to the prisoners as "The Freak" in the popular Australian television soap opera, Prisoner...
played Joan "The Freak" Ferguson, Lily Savage played the inmate, and Linda Nolan played the Governor (and sang "I'm in the mood for Dancing" during the show). Val Lehman was critical of the show, particularly the casting of a drag queen, sending the show up.
- In late 2010 the official Prisoner: Cell Block H website confirmed that Channel Ten studios were working on a new serial set in a prison, however it is not a remake, reboot or continuation of Prisoner as some sources mistakenly reported at the time.
Spoofs
- In 1980, Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
did a parody sketch of the series called "Debs Behind Bars". Here, the inmates — including guest host Teri GarrTeri Garr-Early life:Garr was born in Lakewood, Ohio in 1947. Her father, Eddie Garr , was a vaudeville performer, comedian and actor whose career peaked when he briefly took over the lead role in the Broadway drama Tobacco Road...
— are all spoiled debutantes who complain about the "icky" living conditions in prison.
Prisoner inspired shows
- In 1981, Ten launched PunishmentPunishment (TV series)Punishment is an Australian television soap opera made by the Reg Grundy Organisation for the Ten Network in 1981.Set in a fictional men's prison, the series attempted to present a male version of the successful soap Prisoner...
, a drama set in the fictional Longridge prison, a men's prison. The new show had a similar structure and range of characters as Prisoner. The series, which was produced by Bruce Best and Alan Coleman, was a ratings and critical failure. Only 26 episodes were produced. It is noteworthy for the presence of Mel GibsonMel GibsonMel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
as inmate Rick Monroe in the first episode.
- In 1991, the series was re-versioned for the American market as Dangerous WomenDangerous WomenDangerous Women is a syndicated nighttime American soap opera about a group of women who served time in prison together. It was created and written by Reg Watson and produced by Reg Grundy Productions.-Synopsis:...
. The US version borrowed heavily from the Australian original for characters, but not storylines. In Dangerous WomenDangerous WomenDangerous Women is a syndicated nighttime American soap opera about a group of women who served time in prison together. It was created and written by Reg Watson and produced by Reg Grundy Productions.-Synopsis:...
the emphasis was shifted outside the prison, and focused on the prisoner relationships at a half-way house. It is remembered now mainly for the early appearance of actor Casper Van DienCasper Van Dien-Early life:Van Dien was born and grew up in Milton, Florida, the son of Diane , a retired nursery school teacher, and Casper Robert Van Dien, Sr., a retired U.S. Navy Commander and fighter pilot. There is a long military tradition in Van Dien's family. Aside from his father, his grandfather was a...
in the role of Brad Morris.
- In 1997, the series was re-versioned for the second time, this time for the GermanGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
TV market. The German language version of Prisoner was titled Hinter Gittern - Der FrauenknastHinter Gittern - Der FrauenknastHinter Gittern – Der Frauenknast was a German television series in the form of a soap opera and told the dramaturgically oversubscribed-life in a prison for women. The series was broadcast from September 22, 1997 until February 13, 2007 at the private broadcaster RTL...
(Behind Bars) from 1997 to 2007 and has run for 16 series and 403 episodes.
- Also in 1999, ITVITVITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
unveiled a British equivalent of Prisoner entitled Bad GirlsBad Girls (TV series)Bad Girls is an award-winning British television drama series that was broadcast on ITV from 1999 to 2006. It is produced by Shed Productions, the company which later produced Footballers' Wives and Waterloo Road...
, which has since garnered a considerable following on its own merits. It ran for 8 series and 107 episodes from 1999 to 2006.
Specials
- In 1997, Five aired a special Prisoner Night. As well as showing five back-to-back episodes (81-85, covering the failed jailbreak of terrorist Janet Dominquez), it also featured a special edition of the quiz show 100% (incidentally also a Reg Grundy production), which featured three contestants who battled for the top prize and all 100 questions were about the Australian prison soap.
- Episode 693 was a fan-made new episode of the series which was exhibited at a 1995 "Prisoner: Cell Block H" convention in DurhamDurhamDurham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
in the UK. The convention was organised by the editors of "The Block", the now defunct unofficial fanzine, which ran from 1993-1998. Episode 693 featured Joan Ferguson, Dennis Cruikshank, Erica Davison, Lizzie Birdsworth, Myra Desmond, Bobbie Mitchell, Reb Kean, Frank Burke, Barbara Fields, Vera Bennett and Joyce Barry. The storylines centred around Vera Bennett's incarceration inside Wentworth after being convicted of fraud at Barnhurst, and her attempts to escape in a hot air balloon with the help of Barbara Fields. The Freak uses Reb to sell acid pills to the women disguised as smarties and Top Dog Myra ends up being chucked into the washing machine by Reb and Frank. Bobbie and Lizzie's booze-making hi-jinks come to a sticky end for Barbara when the whole lot explodes in a fire bomb, just as Vera is making her escape!
Merchandising
On the Inside (song)
"On the Inside" is the theme song for the Australian soap opera Prisoner . It was written by Allan Caswell and performed by Lynne Hamilton....
", sung by Lynne Hamilton
Lynne Hamilton
Lynne Hamilton is a singer and Evangelist minister.-Early life and career:Hamilton was born in Lancashire, England, the eldest of four children. Her career as a singer began as a teenager when she joined a backing group The Desperadoes. They appeared on the same bill as acts such as The Who,...
, reached number one in Australia in 1979, and peaked at number three in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
in 1989. The song was later featured as a B-side on punkabilly group The Living End
The Living End
The Living End are an Australian rock band from Melbourne, Victoria, formed in 1994. The current lineup consists of Chris Cheney , Scott Owen and Andy Strachan...
's breakthrough EP Second Solution/Prisoner of Society
Second Solution/Prisoner of Society
"Second Solution" / "Prisoner of Society" is the third EP by Australian rock band The Living End. It was the best selling Australian single of the 1990s, and spent a record-breaking 69 weeks on the ARIA Top 100. It provided a breakthrough for the band, bringing them to the attention of the...
which earned some radio play on alternative radio stations, in particular Triple J
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
.
Books
In 1980, the Prisoner cast, led by EquityMedia, Entertainment and Arts Alliance
The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance is the Australian trade union and professional organisation which covers the media, entertainment, sports and arts industries...
representative Val Lehman
Val Lehman
Val Lehman is an Australian actress, best known for her role as top dog Bea Smith in the Australian series Prisoner...
(Bea Smith), went on strike due to the publication of a number of tie-in paperback novels in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The cast's objection was to the books was the inclusion of exploitative soft-core pornographic content incongruent with the actual series. Six books were published in total, entitled "Prisoner: Cell Block H", "The Franky Doyle Story", "The Karen Travers Story", "The Frustrations of Vera", "The Reign of Queen Bea" and "The Trials of Erica".
Two 'behind the scenes' books were published in the UK in the early 1990s. Prisoner: Cell Block H - Behind the Scenes was written by Terry Bourke and published by Angus & Robertson Publishers, who also released similar books about Neighbours
Neighbours
Neighbours is an Australian television soap opera first broadcast on the Seven Network on 18 March 1985. It was created by TV executive Reg Watson, who proposed the idea of making a show that focused on realistic stories and portrayed adults and teenagers who talk openly and solve their problems...
and Home & Away. Bourke documents the show's genesis and development, and is decorated with many stills and 'character profiles'. Prisoner Cell Block H - The Inside Story, written by Hilary Kingsley, puts more emphasis upon the plot and characters. Both books contain many factual errors and typographical errors of names.
A limited edition book The Inside Story was published in 2007 as part of the full series DVD release in Australia. Written by TV journalists Andrew Mercado and Michael Idato, this commemorative book features a background on the series, year-by-year storylines, details of characters and a number of quotes from the cast and crew. It was only available as part of The Complete Collection DVD set.
Cultural impact
The show continues to have a massive worldwide audience following. An official online Prisoner fan club website 'On the Inside' was established in 2005, with the blessing and support from the current series distributors, FremantleMediaFremantleMedia
FremantleMedia, Ltd. is the content and production division of Bertelsmann's RTL Group, Europe's second largest TV, radio, and production company...
. The website houses a large amount of information about the show and sells official Prisoner merchandise. In December 2007 'On the Inside' launched an official online yearly subscription membership, with members having exclusive access to cast interviews, Prisoner Out-takes and rare cast and production images. The website plans for the future include among other things the launch of an official Prisoner magazine. The website itself gets about 80,000 hits a week. http://www.prisoner-cellblockh.co.uk
The show has a cult following in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, where it has been shown on TV4 for many years under the title Kvinnofängelset (The Women's Prison). An unofficial fan club organises an annual get-together, and also gathered several thousand signatures (including that of actress Elspeth Ballantyne
Elspeth Ballantyne
Elspeth Ballantyne is an Australian actress, born in Adelaide. Having started her career as a laboratory Technician, she then attended the prestigious drama school, the National Institute for Dramatic Arts...
) to convince TV4 to continue airing the show in 2000. After this second run of the show ended, work began to persuade TV4 to air the show a third time with start in 2005. The attempts were futile and the show has since not been aired in Swedish television. TV4 originally screened the series in a late night 01.00 slot three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. During the repeat run, the show was accommodated in a slightly later slot around 02.15 four times a week on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. All episodes were repeated at the weekend- Friday night had the Monday and Tuesday episodes and Saturday night had the other two.
A stage version of Prisoner was produced in 1989, based on the original scripts, and enjoyed a highly successful tour in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Original actors Elspeth Ballantyne
Elspeth Ballantyne
Elspeth Ballantyne is an Australian actress, born in Adelaide. Having started her career as a laboratory Technician, she then attended the prestigious drama school, the National Institute for Dramatic Arts...
(Meg Morris) and Patsy King
Patsy King
Patsy King, is an Australian charactor actress ,a Melbourne theatre performer who trained as a Shakespearean actress with the Melbourne National Theatre; she spent her early days in the United Kingdom...
(Erica Davidson) reprised their original characters, while Glenda Linscott
Glenda Linscott
Glenda Linscott is an Australian actress, best known for her performance as tough bikie inmate and top dog Rita "The Beater" Connors in the television drama Prisoner, for which she won a Penguin award....
(Rita Connors) played a new character, Angela Mason. A second tour followed in 1990 starring Fiona Spence
Fiona Spence
Fiona Spence is a British-born stage and television actress. One of the most recognisable Australian television stars during the early 1980s, she is best known for her roles in the Australian television series Prisoner and Home and Away...
(Vera Bennett) and Jane Clifton
Jane Clifton
Jane Clifton is a Gibraltar-born actress and singer who lived as a child in Cardiff, Wales. In 1961 she emigrated to Perth, Australia. Her best known acting role is probably that of tough prison bookie Margo Gaffney in Prisoner...
(Margo Gaffney). Jacqui Gordon
Jacqui Gordon
Jacqui Gordon is an Australian actress, best known for her role in the television drama Prisoner as Susie Driscoll. She toured the United Kingdom in a stage play version of the series in 1990....
(Susie Driscoll) also appeared, as new character Kath Evans.
A musical version followed starring Maggie Kirkpatrick
Maggie Kirkpatrick
Maggie Kirkpatrick is an Australian actress, who is best known for her portrayal of the iconic character Joan Ferguson, a sadistic and corrupt lesbian prison officer known to the prisoners as "The Freak" in the popular Australian television soap opera, Prisoner...
reprising her role of Joan "The Freak" Ferguson and Lily Savage as an inmate. The new musical was essentially a send-up of the purported kitsch aspects of the original show, and again was successful during both a tour and a West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
run in 1995 and 1997. Val Lehman (Bea) was very critical towards the production, in particular why a drag queen
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
would be in a women's prison.
Due to the huge popularity of the show when shown in the UK in the late 1980s, the British Prisoner fan club organised successful personal appearance tours for several actresses, including Val Lehman (Bea Smith), Carol Burns (Franky Doyle), Betty Bobbitt (Judy Bryant), Sheila Florance (Lizzie Birdsworth), Amanda Muggleton
Amanda Muggleton
Amanda Lillian Muggleton is a British-born theatre, television and film actress. She is best known for her role on television soap opera Prisoner.-Early life:Muggleton was born in Stepney, London in 1951 and emigrated to Australia in 1974...
(Chrissie Latham) and Judy McBurney
Judy McBurney
Judy McBurney is an Australian actress famous in several television soap opera roles.In 1974 McBurney was cast in the role of key new character Marilyn McDonald in Number 96 but before any of her scenes had gone to air and with about 30 scenes in the can she had to withdraw from the role due to...
(Pixie Mason). A one-off programme, "The Great Escape", was produced in 1990. The programme featured Val Lehman, Sheila Florance, Amanda Muggleton and Carol Burns on their visit to the UK in 1990 and includes extensive footage of their on-stage interview with TV presenter Anna Soubry
Anna Soubry
Anna Mary Soubry is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Broxtowe since the 2010 general election. She is a single mother of two children....
in which the cast members talk about their time 'inside'. It was recorded at the Derby Assembly Rooms, Derby
Derby
Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...
, UK and was made available in the UK on VHS video for a short time but has since been deleted.
Several Prisoner actors have also trod British stages appearing in both drama and pantomime, such as Val Lehman (Wizard of Oz /Beatrix Potter and Misery ), Peita Toppano
Peta Toppano
Peta Toppano is an actress who found success in Australian television. She is best known for her roles in popular television series such as The Young Doctors, Prisoner, and Home & Away, as well as Return to Eden in which she played a "superbitch".-Early life:Toppano was born in Finsbury Park,...
, Fiona Spence, Maggie Dence
Maggie Dence
Maggie Dence is an Australian actress who after high profile television comedy work became better known for several soap opera roles....
(Bev Baker), Debra Lawrance
Debra Lawrance
Debra Lawrance is an Australian actress best known for her role as Pippa Ross on Home and Away, which she played from 1990 to 1998. She continues to guest star to this date- her last appearance was in 2009.-Biography:...
(Daphne Graham), Linda Hartley
Linda Hartley
Linda Hartley-Clark is an Australian actress who played Kerry Bishop on the Australian soap opera Neighbours from 1989 to 1990. She also did a guest stint in 2005 playing Gabrielle Walker, who in the storyline was recognised by Harold Bishop as Kerry's lookalike...
(Roach Waters), Ian Smith
Ian Smith (actor)
Ian Smith is an Australian soap opera character actor and television screenwriter, best known today for his long-running role as the caring, kindly coffee shop owner Harold Bishop in the soap opera Neighbours....
(Ted Douglas) and Maggie Millar
Maggie Millar
Maggie Millar is an Australian actress, best known for her TV appearances as Marie Winter in Prisoner, Elizabeth Bradley in The Sullivans and Rosie Hoyland in Neighbours.-External links:*...
(Marie Winter).
In 1997, a video clip of Prisoner featured in the popular BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
sitcom Birds of a Feather
Birds of a Feather
Birds of a Feather was a British sitcom that was broadcast on BBC1 from 1989 until 1998. Starring Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Lesley Joseph, it was created by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, who also wrote some of the episodes along with many other writers.The first episode sees sisters...
. The clip was from the second episode of the series, in which Franky Doyle and Lynn Warner fight in the garden. Prisoner was mentioned several times during the 8 year run of Birds of a Feather.
ITV Regional Scheduling, and Channel 5
Prisoner was the first Australian soap opera screened late night in the UK. As in the US, it was billed in the UK as Prisoner: Cell Block H to avoid confusion with the well-known British series, The PrisonerThe Prisoner
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
, although it always remained as simply Prisoner on-screen. It was screened on ITV from the mid/late 1980s until the mid/late 1990s, depending on the region. A great many sources incorrectly state that the series did not begin being run in the UK until 1987, but in fact the Yorkshire region
Yorkshire Television
Yorkshire Television, now officially known as ITV Yorkshire and sometimes unofficially abbreviated to YTV, is a British television broadcaster and the contractor for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV network...
had been showing it since October 1984 (with the series "going like a rocket" by June 1985), with southern region TVS
Television South
Television South was the ITV franchise holder in the south and south east of England between 1 January 1982 and 31 December 1992. The company operated under various names, initially as Television South plc and then following reorganisation in 1989 as TVS Entertainment plc, with its UK...
following in October 1985 (in both instances while the programme was still being produced in Australia). However, most other regions did not start to broadcast it until 1987 at the earliest (a year after it finished production), with it not starting in the Ulster region until late 1989. To note is, that a couple of smaller regions did not start at episode 1 (joining larger adjoining regions a few episodes into the run); and a couple of regions jumped chunks of episodes as they aligned their run with adjoining areas.
It achieved enduring success in the UK despite much negative criticism from reviewers, the fact that the series never received a network screening on ITV, and with many regions often changing their slot for the series or dropping it for other programmes. Many ITV contractors, though, usually screened it twice a week in as had been the pattern in Australia.
Because the series was shown on all ITV companies late at night (just before closedown at first, then as the first programme of night-time programming with the advent of 24-hour broadcasting in the late 1980s), it became a favourite of the local continuity announcers. The announcers would often joke about characters and plots before and after the programme and during the end titles. When Border, Grampian and Granada TV screened the final episode in the UK, continuity announcer John McKenzie conducted an on-air interview via telephone with Maggie Kirkpatrick who played Joan "The Freak" Ferguson.
Yorkshire Television were very strict with cutting scenes involving hanging. Notably, the attempted hanging of Sandy Edwards, and the successful Eve Wilder hanging was cut. This was mainly due to a local prison HMP Leeds in the Yorkshire region having an extremely high number of hangings in preceding years. Yorkshire also heavily edited the fight scene with Joan and Bea in episode 326. Several other regions also edited the odd sequence that they deemed inappropriate, on occasion (despite being shown well past the 9pm watershed
Watershed (television)
In television, the term watershed denotes the time period in a television schedule during which programs with adult content can air....
).
As was the practice for hour-long programmes shown on terrestrial television at that time, the ITV regions inserted two commercial breaks into each episode enabling three parts per show. The breaks were usually inserted at the point of the second and fourth break as would have been seen in Australia. At the end of the show, the cliffhanger would lead straight into the end credits, unlike in Australia where (on later episodes) a sixth break was inserted. The original Australian sponsorship was also removed from the end credits - the picture would blank for a brief moment, before resuming at the Reg Grundy page, leading into the copyright page; the song continued uninterrupted. However the time lost where the sponsorships were removed resulted in the closing credit tune very seldom being played in full. This was the case for episodes shown both on ITV and later Channel 5 (see below).
Due to the various scheduling patterns of different regions, different areas of the country had varying length runs of series. Some regions, with the increased pattern (two or three weekly episodes) not only finished running the series in its entirety, but began showing it a second time. some regions had to skip some episode around new year of 1992/1993 when number of Joint schedules were about to be introduced between some ITV stations. Tyne Tees
Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television is the ITV television franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. As of 2009, it forms part of a non-franchise ITV Tyne Tees & Border region, shared with the ITV Border region...
had to skip Episode 293/294 while Border
Border Television
Border Television is the ITV franchise holder for the Border region, spanning the England/Scotland border and covering Dumfries & Galloway region, a small part of the south-west area of Ayrshire, the Scottish Borders, parts of north and west Northumberland and the majority of Cumbria...
skip 71 episodes, ( 477 - 547).
Other regions, with less regular patterning, were only mid-way through their initial respective runs when the series disappeared off ITV in the late 1990s. In some cases the series looked set to return but never did; for example, in the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
region Carlton
Carlton Television
Carlton Television was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties including the cities of Solihull and Coventry of the West Midlands, south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire,...
(where the series was mid-run after beginning on predecessor Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
)), where viewers were told, in August 1998 after episode 598, that the run would resume after a Summer break, but the series never returned. The last time an episode of Prisoner was shown on ITV was in Southern region Meridian
Meridian Broadcasting
Meridian Broadcasting is the holder of the ITV franchise for the South and South East of England. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc, under the licensee of ITV Broadcasting Limited....
(formerly TVS), again still on their initial run, who finished on episode 586 in July 1999.
Channel 5
In the early hours of Monday 31 March 1997, the newly launched Channel 5 (which had begun broadcasting at 6pm the previous evening) began what would be a complete run of the series (while later episodes were still appearing on many ITV regions). (Bar a one-off showing of the famous "fire" episode, 326, as part of a themed soap weekend on Channel 4Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
in 1995), This merited the series its first ever networked UK screening (although some areas were unable to receive the new channel at that time). This also meant that it gave some areas their first complete run of the series. Although the exact pattern of episodes shown a week varied over the course of 5's run, episodes were typically shown roughly five times a week in a 4:40 am slot (the run did briefly move to a late night slot, with varying times but typically around 11:30 pm, but this soon reverted back to the 4:40 am slot, reportedly after complaints from ITV that it clashed with their own various runs of later episodes on assorted regions). Channel 5's run of the series concluded on Sunday 11 February 2001, in a double bill showing the penultimate and final episode. To date, 5 have no plans to re-run the series, despite requests from viewers and several, now mostly defunct, on-line petitions.
For most of 5's run, the programme was sponsored by Pot Noodle
Pot Noodle
Pot Noodle is a brand of ramen-style instant noodle snack foods, available in a selection of flavours and varieties. Its dehydrated mixture consists of wide noodles, textured soya pieces, assorted dried vegetables and flavouring powder. The product is prepared by adding boiling water, which softens...
, with humorous Prisoner-esque sequences (set in a prison cell and usually playing on the notion of supposedly wobbly scenery and props in the series) being played before and after the episodes, and in the lead in and out from commercial breaks
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
.
Of note for the Channel 5 broadcasts was the commentary over the closing credits, usually from chief continuity announcer Bill Buckley (but sometimes from deputy announcers). This began in the early 100s (at which time the run had briefly moved to its late-night slot), where Buckley would make the odd quip about the episode before giving other continuity announcements. This quickly developed, into him (or the stand-in announcer) making light-hearted and humorous observations about the episode just shown, and before long, reading out related letters and trivia sent in by viewers (which Buckley dubbed "snippets"). Due to the early morning slot, where most viewers relied on video recorders
Videocassette recorder
The videocassette recorder , is a type of electro-mechanical device that uses removable videocassettes that contain magnetic tape for recording analog audio and analog video from broadcast television so that the images and sound can be played back at a more convenient time...
to follow the series, relevant upcoming changes to the broadcast pattern of the series were also pointed out during these commentaries to viewers when needed so that they might adjust their video settings accordingly.
Back on Australian Television
Prisoner began screening again in Australia on 7 March 2011 via Foxtel
Foxtel
Foxtel is an Australian pay television company, operating cable, direct broadcast satellite television and IPTV services. It was formed in 1995 through a joint venture established between Telstra and News Corporation....
channel 111 Hits
111 Hits
111 Hits is an Australian cable and satellite general entertainment television channel which plays popular shows from the 70s onward. It is currently available on the Foxtel, Austar and Optus Television subscription platforms....
. It airs weeknights at 6:30pm, with a repeat at 02:00am and again the following afternoon at 1:00pm. The tapes used are the original Grundy/TEN tapes and are completely unedited.
Compilations
Prisoner has been released on DVD in AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
on Region 4
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
, with interviews and photo galleries as special features. The first volume was also released in the UK. Volumes 1 & 2 were released in the United States, with the first released as a 25th Anniversary Edition.
- The Best of Prisoner Cell Block H Vol 1 - Episodes 166, 287, 327, 400, 536, 550, 551, 552, 600, 601, 691, 692.
- The Best of Prisoner Cell Block H Vol 2 - Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 20, 165, 247, 248, 471, 586, 598, 667.
- The Best of Prisoner Cell Block H Vol 3 - Episodes 498, 499, 500, 501, 664, 665, 666, 667, 687, 688, 689, 690.
Australia
All 692 episodes of Prisoner were released by Shock RecordsShock Records
Shock Records is Australia's largest independent record label. It helps distribute records from overseas records labels such as Epitaph Records, and also for small record labels designed specifically for that band such as Cement Records...
as a 174-disc box set in Australia in September 2007 in 40 volumes. As well as being able to buy them individually with 16 episodes per volume.
In late 2009 the disc box set had been deleted, and during 2010 some of the individual volumes were also gradually being deleted from release.
In March/April 2011 to co-incide with the re-screening of Prisoner on 111 Hits in Australia, the individual DVDs began to be re-released. This time however using new artwork and doubling the number of episodes from 16 to 32 per volume (similar to the UK DVD releases). The new artwork primarily being the cell gates on a black background. Each volume having the cell gates highlighted in a different colour.
In October 2011 Shock Records re-released the complete 174-disc box collection with the original artwork and the same aluminium case as the September 2007 version. At about half the original retail price from it's 2007 launch.
UK
In the UK, Prisoner Cell Block H DVDs are currently being released in stages by FremantleMedia Home Entertainment. To date ten volumes have been released with one more officially scheduled for a 2012 release, and have been selling well. The content on the discs is identical to the Australian release, but with different cover/sleeve artwork. The UK release started out as a box set containing 2 discs in each of the 4 cases, but from Volume 4 onwards all the discs are packed into a plastic case with flip disc holders.The UK DVD releases are a combination of 2 volumes as released in Australia. For example the UK Volume 1 consists of the Australian Volumes 1 and 2.
'The Edna Pearson Story', released on UK DVD in February 2010, contains most of the previously cut scenes although episode 470 is still missing a scene.
As with the Australian versions of the DVDs, the episodes are on the whole uncut, but due to the aged source of the master tapes, sometimes minor edits are made to the episodes to cover breaks in the picture or sound
- Volume 01 (Episodes 1-32) was released on 10 November 2008.
- Volume 02 (Episodes 33-64) was released on 1 June 2009.
- Volume 03 (Episodes 65-96) was released on 12 October 2009.
- Volume 01-03 boxset (Episode 1-96) was released on 30 November 2009.
- The Edna Pearson Story Uncut (Episodes 463-470) was released on 8 February 2010.
- Volume 04 (Episodes 97-128) was released on 24 May 2010.
- Volume 05 (Episodes 129-160) was released on 11 October 2010.
- Volume 06 (Episodes 161-192) was released on 21 February 2011.
- Volume 07 (Episodes 193-224) was released on 18 April 2011.
- Volume 08 (Episodes 225-256) was released on 26 June 2011.
- Volume 09 (Episodes 257-288) was released on 28 August 2011.
- Volume 10 (Episodes 289-320) was released on 31 October 2011.
- Volume 11 (Episodes 321-352) will be released on 06 February 2012.
See also
- List of Prisoner cast members
- Prisoner characters - InmatesPrisoner characters - InmatesA list of all inmates of Wentworth Detention Centre in the television series Prisoner.Note that episode numbers cited are for first and last appearances; many characters had spells where they were absent and subsequently returned....
- Prisoner characters - Prison StaffPrisoner characters - Prison StaffA list of all prison staff at the Wentworth Detention Centre in the television series Prisoner.Listed in order of appearance:* Erica Davidson , the prison's governor...
- Prisoner characters - Background Prison OfficersPrisoner characters - Background Prison OfficersA list of background prison officers at the Wentworth Detention Centre in the television series Prisoner.* Sue Bailey , frequently seen background prison officer...
- Prisoner characters - MiscellaneousPrisoner characters - MiscellaneousA list of miscellaneous characters in the television series Prisoner.Listed in order of appearance:* Eddie Cook , an electrician contracted to do repair work at the prison...
External links
- On The Inside — Official Fan Club
- Who's who in Wentworth — Fan site with complete episode guide
- Prisoner Cell Block H World — Fan site with news and more
- Aussie Soap Archive: Prisoner — Overview and review
- Encyclopedia of Television
- Prisoner at the National Film and Sound Archive