Prisoner Cell Block H

18384858789

Comments

  • AneechikAneechik Posts: 20,208
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    This is very interesting.
    * Prisoner was originally intended as a series as opposed to serial comprising sixteen stand-alone episodes, but with a definite arc and the working title Women Behind Bars. In the final episode, Karen Travers was to successfully appeal against her sentence and be released. Network Ten already commissioned another 26 episodes before the series was even broadcast and the production schedule increased to two hours a week, which meant that some of the cast left the show and the original storylines all had to be rewritten.

    * Franky Doyle was the first breakout character of the series and the most popular when the show first went to air. But Carol Burns resigned with the new schedule as she felt the quality of her performance and the show itself would be compromised. Burns was a serious method actress who took up smoking and put on weight for the part. She psyched herself up for the scenes where Franky wrecked the rec room and got into such a state that she had to be physically calmed down and told the scene was over. One of the extras was so terrified by Burns she hid under a table sobbing and had to be coaxed out. Had Burns been prepared to stay long-term, Franky would’ve been rehabilitated – getting an education inside and becoming an advocate for prison reform. Some of this arc was then switched to Karen Travers after Burns left.

    * Reg Watson and his research team spent a year before production visiting prisons, reading reports, interviewing ex-prisoners, warders, social workers and prison reform activists. The rules and regulations of Wentworth Detention Centre were an amalgam of directives of two Australian prisons – one in Melbourne and one in Sydney. The original characters and storylines were all based on real cases. When the series went to air, a woman went public, claiming that she’d told Reg Watson her story - that was used for Lizzie Birdsworth's back story - in confidence and was traumatised by seeing it played out on the series. Watson was very upset about, as it was entirely unintentional.

    * A former prisoner called Sandra Willson, who had served eighteen years for armed robbery and ran a halfway house for ex-prisoners in Sydney, assisted the writers with advice and claimed they didn’t go far enough. The characters of Franky Doyle, Bea Smith and later Judy Bryant and Myra Desmond were all loosely based on Willson. Willson visited the set and told Maggie Kirkpatrick she was "spot on" with her performance as the Freak.

    * Sheila Florance was the only actress not required to audition for the series.

    * Val Lehman turned up having been considered suitable casting for a "Gestapo style prison officer" but was told she was "Bea Smith material". Other candidates for the part of Bea included Betty Bobbitt, Maggie Kirkpatrick and Carole Skinner.

    * Maggie Millar and Carole Skinner both read for the part of Franky Doyle.

    * Colette Mann was originally cast as Lynn Warner but asked to play the (then) smaller part of Doreen Anderson instead because she wanted to play scenes with Sheila Florance, a highly respected theatre actress. Both Doreen and Lizzie were originally intended as almost Shakespearian/Greek chorus comic relief characters, seen squabbling in the background. As production started, the writers saw how well Colette and Sheila worked together and as the series was retooled beyond the first sixteen episodes, began to expand their characters. Most of their work in the early episodes was alongside Carol Burns, but when the series went to two hours a week and Carol left the show, the writers noted their chemistry with Val Lehman. Thus the Bea-Lizzie-Doreen triple act was born.

    * When the fan mail started coming in, Colette Mann and Sheila Florance received more letters than any of the other cast.

    * Actors were paid according to their screen time with each episode divided into quarters. Val Lehman calculated that she had the most screen time of all the cast. She demanded – and got – a pay rise, making her the highest paid actress on Australian television during the early 1980’s.

    * For the first few years of the show, the cast’s facilities were all confined to a dark, airless corridor called “The Tunnel”. In later years, the cast were given a new green room to relax in. And it was a green room with genuine politics and an established hierarchy. Several of the cast were method actors who remained in character off the set. The actors would sit on one side, the extras on the other. Everyone had their own locker, their own chair, their own space. One guest actress told of her first day on the Prisoner set, getting told off for sitting in Maggie Kirkpatrick’s chair (but is quick to add that Maggie herself was lovely).

    * Various guest actors and bit players interviewed about their time on the show confirm that some of the major actors were genuinely friendly, welcoming and very kind to newcomers on the set. Others were distinctly standoffish, and only mixed with their fellow “stars”.

    * Elspeth Ballantyne recalls that all the major actresses on the show were feisty, vocal, strong-minded women and any blokes in the cast soon worked out they were better off hanging out with the crew.

    * Most of the major and guest actresses on the show already knew each other before Prisoner. The Melbourne and Sydney acting communities were a tight-knit bunch and many actors had worked together in theatre beforehand.

    * Various Sydney-based actors moved to Melbourne to work on the show or would stay in a Travelodge during the week and commuted home for the weekend. The cast were paid travel expenses on top of their salaries because the studios in Nunawading were so far from the centre of Melbourne. At one point, Val Lehman moved to a house nearer the studios but still continued to receive the expenses. Another cast member found out by ripping open Val’s expense slip and reported her to the management. Val had already told them she had moved but it was an administrative slip-up. The next time the slips arrived, Val bragged that she was still getting the same money. The other actress looked shocked, but couldn’t say anything in public without admitting what she had done. Val then set this other actress up by letting her a dodgy-sounding but perfectly innocent phone call. She was sent for by the management to discuss the phone call – proof that the other actress had “lagged” to Grundy’s.

    * One of the extras remembers the lines becoming blurred with one of the lead actors who tried to rule the roost in the green room. “X’s power was absolute, both on and off the set. She would let us know that she could anyone taken off the show. Eventually Grundy’s just got sick of her demands.”

    * Writer and story editor Coral Drouyn remembers that the current producer was so sick and tired of one of the actresses - who behaved like a real prima donna on the set – that he asked her to write the actress out in a proper storyline. Coral devised a story where the character could be written out in three scenes. She delivered the treatment to the producer, who kept it. When the actress overstepped the mark once too often, he would take it from his desk, and make her read it. She would then shut up.

    * The two hours a week schedule was draining for the cast who had a larger workload than other soaps because of the prison setting that required them to be in the majority of scenes. By Friday afternoon, when everything had to be shot, the cast were exhausted and hysterical, cracking up at the slightest thing, calling each other by their real names…

    * Val Lehman claims that the first riot scenes in the show had the crew trembling in terror. A stunt co-ordinator was brought in to help with the fight scenes, but she and Carol Burns had to ignore him as he had no idea how women fought. Fight scenes would be rehearsed but accidents still happened. Val once fractured Amanda Muggleton’s nose during a take.

    * The crew were brilliant, working even longer hours than the cast and always happy to help. Val Lehman and Maggie Kirkpatrick have both praised the crew, telling of their generosity and how they taught them everything they know about working in front of a camera.

    * Prisoner was devised to end on a cliffhanger before Christmas to finish the ratings year. The first year’s cliffhanger was to have been the shooting of Karen Travers. But then the run was extended by two weeks and a terrorism storyline was written where the prison was raided and Governor Erica Davidson was shot. Nobody was very happy with the story, especially Patsy King, who had to lie on the ground with her arm covered in chocolate and raspberry sauce, which was then attacked by the local ants.

    * Betty Bobbitt was only meant to be in Prisoner for a few months as Judy Bryant, who would be killed off with a heart attack. She came into the series at the same time as Margot Knight alias Sharon Gilmour, who was intended as a major new character. But the writers realised that Judy’s character had more potential and wrote in a story where Judy would have surgery to have a pacemaker fitted while Margot’s character was dropped. Aware that she was playing the first major lesbian character on Prisoner since Carol Burns’ Franky, Betty felt that many butch lesbians were in fact very sensitive, vulnerable women and played Judy that way. Betty also praised some of the extras, who would support the actresses trying to make the lesbian scenes work by acting gay in the background.

    * Betty Bobbitt, Jane Clifton and Colette Mann formed a singing trio called the “Mini Busettes” and toured clubs for a few years while doing Prisoner, having got the idea singing together while in a mini-bus filming the factory work release storyline. Betty and Colette had previously sung professionally, along with Anne Phelan, in a group called The Glitter Sisters.

    * Val Lehman was the cast’s Equity rep and fought the management for better pay and working conditions for the cast. She once instigated an actors’ strike in 1980. Prisoner had become hugely popular in America, and a series of tie-in paperbacks had been published, embellished with soft-porn scenes that members of the cast took exception to. The strike collapsed when the other actors did not want to pursue the matter, as they felt they would be in breach of contract and be sacked.

    * Sheila Florance was notorious for slagging off the scripts and her best temper tantrum was when she raged against the plot where Lizzie runs the book in the prison. Not understanding the script, she stopped the take and screamed “Who wrote this bloody rubbish?” A voice from the gallery put up his hand and replied: “I did.” When filming the scenes during the riot/siege story in which Lizzie walks out of Wentworth with a white flag, Sheila fluffed the line for take after take and finally in exasperation shouted “Nuna-f***ing-wading!”

    * In 1981, Grundy’s hoped lightning would strike twice with a male version called Punishment. Despite initially starring Mel Gibson, the show was a disaster from the start, was panned by the critics and axed after a few months.

    * Val Lehman, Sheila Florance, Colette Mann, Betty Bobbitt, Jane Clifton, Gerard Maguire and Patsy King all took part in a special Prisoner concert filmed at Pentridge men’s prison.

    * Coral Drouyn took over from Denise Morgan as the head writer on the show in 1981 and immediately began to make her own mark on the show with free creative rein. When Val Lehman and Colette Mann left Prisoner to do a film, Sandy Edwards, Kate Peterson and Marie Winter were all new main characters for a season. Sandy was meant to take over as top dog for the duration but Louise Le Nay became pregnant and had to be written out. The character of Kate was developed by a real-life experience as Coral had met someone with a bipolar/manic depressive personality disorder, and found that that individual was in fact highly intelligent, charismatic and successful in their professional life. Kate was insane all the way through, and Olivia Hamnett was directed to subtly convey this from the start. The twist of Kate killing Sandy was the intention all along. The writers all thought Marie’s character had great potential and Maggie Millar had a compelling screen presence, but wasn’t interested in a long-term role.

    * Maggie Kirkpatrick notes that she based the characterisation and physicality of Joan Ferguson came out of a combination of absolute terror being in front of a television camera and from watching the sadistic screw character played by Hope Emerson in a 1950’s women in prison B-movie called Caged. Many of the other actresses complimented her on the menacing “stillness” of Ferguson, and that it was key to the character’s success. Maggie says that she was offered a long-term contract before Joan’s first episode went to air.

    * Prisoner was always being criticised by the Australian prison service for misrepresentation. The Wentworth fire cliffhanger was shown shortly after a massive fire at a women’s prison had killed several inmates and the series was criticised for capitalising on it, despite the fact that the fire episodes had been shot months before. Val Lehman remembers the fire scenes as a definite highlight of her time on the show and that she, Maggie Kirkpatrick and Anna Hruby were all on the studio roof supervised by safety officers. Val also mentions on the commentary for 327 that it was Maggie herself on the Jordan frame lowering Joan down from the roof.

    * Val Lehman is the only actress to receive royalties from merchandising such as the DVDs because she noticed the clause in her contract waiving any rights to residuals which the other actors all missed when they signed up. As far as overseas screenings are concerned, the cast received payment as a percentage of their salaries at the time. No-one, however, could’ve predicted the massive international success of Prisoner years after the fact and consequently there are a number of actresses rather pissed off with the whole situation.

    * According to Lehman, Grundys’ attitude towards the actors was appalling – there were no parties, no thank you letters after they won Logies, just work as normal. Says that Patsy King was fired and the first thing she knew about leaving the show was when they were holding auditions for the part of Ann Reynolds.

    * Val herself uncovered a “plot” to write her out of the show. The character of Nola McKenzie was created in a “secret” plot to be the new top dog character unknown to cast and crew. The plan was that Nola would take over as top dog after Bea was killed in a bomb explosion in solitary. Auditions were held in secret, and Val only found out when she met Billie Hammerberg (who had played Valerie, Bea’s old cellmate in the early episodes and would later play May Collins) at the studios when she read for the part. Billie showed Val the script, which was an old Bea script with the character’s name crossed out. Val reported the matter to the network, there was a minor fuss, the storyline was changed, and shortly afterwards, Val quit the series of her own accord. The “bomb in solitary” plot was later featured as a “teaser” episode when news of her impending departure hit the Australian media.

    * Grundy’s always told Val they could replace her like that, but asked her to return to the series at least twice. When Anne Phelan asked for a holiday, Grundy’s threatened to sack her and bring back Val, but Val supported Anne and refused to return. Later, she was asked again with the plan being that Bea would be transferred back to Wentworth after a fire at Barnhurst. Val asked for a phenomenal amount of money and also demanded special conditions for her return. Grundy’s apparently agreed to the money but not the condition, so Val declined. Later heard that the producers killed Bea off in the off-screen fire out of spite. When she read in the news that Prisoner was being axed, she contacted Grundy’s with a tongue-in-cheek offer to appear as an extra in the final episode.

    * Val Lehman’s favourite storyline of all was Bea’s amnesia as it gave her the opportunity to play Bea as the softer person she was before being imprisoned - a “respectable” working-class wife and mother before she had killed her husband’s mistress. Because of the character’s background, she always played Bea as institutionalised, but still more intelligent than most of the other inmates. Her least favourite storyline was the Zara Moonbeam/ouija board/zip gun business, which in her considered opinion was “a load of crap”. She also says that Bea’s escape and stay in Sydney was written in after she had refused point blank to participate in the Lainie Dobson/Alan “Ellen” Farmer story because she felt it was so ridiculous.

    * Producer Sue Masters took over as Prisoner producer after working on the final year of The Young Doctors. After the latter show was cancelled, several Young Doctors stars were brought into Prisoner to play major roles, such as Judy McBurney, Babs McMillan, Tottie Goldsmith, Genevieve Lemon and Peter Bensley.

    * Kylie Foster originally auditioned for the part of Pixie Mason.

    * Janet Andrewartha originally auditioned to play Bobbie Mitchell, and later had to cut her waist length hair into a James Dean style to play Reb Kean.

    * For the conclusion to the David Bridges arc, in which he is decapitated by Cass Parker, the make-up department designed a papier mache head. But it was considered too graphic and the gruesome prop was not used in the episode.

    * When she was told Myra Desmond was being written back into the show as a major character, Anne Phelan was not informed that she would be replacing Val Lehman as the new top dog, and says that the cast were never consulted about upcoming storylines.

    * For Marie Winter’s helicopter escape, Maggie Millar remembers that they used a blow-up sex doll half-filled with water for the airborne shots.

    * Coral Drouyn says that most of the horror film style plots during 1983/4 came from reading a lot of Stephen King novels. David Bridges was from Psycho, Jonathan Edmonds was from The Manchurian Candidate and Angel Adams from The Bad Seed.

    * The most infamous character of this gothic period was thrill-seeking serial killer Bev “The Beast” Baker. Bev was intended as a major new character, planned to take over as top dog and fight the Freak, but she gave Coral nightmares and made the other writers and producers nervous as they realised there was only so far they could take her. So the character had to be dropped after only a few weeks. Said that Maggie Dence was a terrific actress with a wicked sense of humour, and she would jokingly remain in character off the set, which made certain actors and crew-members nervous.
  • AneechikAneechik Posts: 20,208
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    And also:
    * The shower block fight scene between Bobbie Mitchell and Angel Adams took a long time to shoot because Maxine Klibingaitis and Kylie Foster couldn’t stop laughing.

    * Anne Phelan recalls that everyone in the cast thought the male inmates in Wentworth story was absolutely hilarious. The only cast member who didn’t enjoy it was Judy McBurney, who hated the way Pixie was written out of the show and pleaded with the writers not to do it.

    * One of the extras spoke of the high cast turnover of the later years, revealing that the actors were only being given short-term contracts. Grundy’s had had trouble with some of the actors during the earlier years of the show who felt that they were in a position to make demands. So the producers were reluctant to surrender that amount of control to actors again.

    * Anne Phelan quit Prisoner over money – claiming that Betty Bobbitt was receiving more money because she had been with the series longer. When Betty left the show, Anne felt that her workload would increase and asked to be paid the same amount as Betty. Grundy’s refused and Anne resigned, later joking that it cost them more to stage the Ballinger siege episodes that it would’ve done to pay her at the increased rate for another contract. Anne played a joke on the other actors during the scenes after Myra’s death, lying on the rec room floor wearing suspenders and high heels under her prison shirt while the others were trying to act the very dramatic climax to the siege.

    * Louise Siversen and Lois Collinder both started out as extras and eventually Lou Kelly and Alice Jenkins became major characters. Louise relished playing the baddie, but noted that the physical demands of the role were eventually a major factor in her eventual decision to quit. Lois notes that Alice’s nickname of Lurch was what the directors used to call her in the gallery, and it was decided to give the name to her character.

    * Pepe Trevor (Lexie Patterson) is the daughter of the final Prisoner producer Marie Trevor.

    * Coral Drouyn left the series in late 1985 at the end of the Council storyline after some internal rumblings and Gwenda Marsh took over as story editor. The last characters she created for Prisoner were Eve Wilder and Rita Connors. Says that she never watched the show after she left, but was told that Rita ended up on screen rather different to the character she had created, that Eve’s arc was truncated and the Barnhurst characters were simply thrown away. Coral retains a soft spot for the Barnhurst Five characters, particularly Nora Flynn and Daphne Graham, despite acknowledging that they didn’t work for most fans.

    * Glenda Linscott took her research to play Rita very seriously and even offered to conduct a drama workshop at a women’s prison to prepare for the role. When she arrived, the prisoners refused to co-operate, demanding to know why she was pretending to be an actress and what she’d been sent to find out. It was a frightening experience and yet gave her a great deal of insight into how to approach the character.

    * The taping of the 600th episode (Lou Kelly’s prison riot) was a milestone for the actors – Maggie Kirkpatrick said she was concerned about Joan and Rita’s fight scene as Glenda Linscott was somewhat uncoordinated with her arms and legs going everywhere during the taping. Jackie Woodburne was made up for the scene where Julie Egbert was badly beaten with a baton but it was deemed too graphic and cut out, and everyone felt sorry for Lynda Stoner spending so much time in a safety harness while rehearsing the scene where Eve is hanged.

    * Kate Hood recalls that Kath Maxwell was not originally intended to be the killer of her daughter but the storyline was changed to make it more dramatic. Kate researched children with spina bifida to prepare for the part but was unsure how to approach the relationship Kath had with Merle Jones, who was originally created to be more of an unsympathetic thug. Kate and Rosanne Hull-Brown went to the writers and asked to be given more direction about the characters and finally ended up improvising their relationship. The writers responded to what Kate and Rosanne were doing and began writing for Kath and Merle accordingly.

    * Maggie Kirkpatrick came close to quitting Prisoner during the final year when she disagreed with a proposed storyline where Joan would take up ballroom dancing and get a boyfriend. Maggie felt that the storyline was a total sell-out and threatened to leave the show. The boyfriend was turned into simply a male friend – the Andrew Hinton storyline - and Joan would take up golf instead, but Maggie was not impressed when she was given a battered old set of clubs that belonged to one of the crew as props.

    * After playing Lisa Mullins for six episodes, Nikki Paull had to leave the set after being diagnosed with glandular fever and was replaced by Terrie Waddell, who had to be kitted out with baggier uniforms when she became pregnant.

    * Glenda Linscott collapsed from exhaustion on the set during the making of the Blackmoor episodes.

    * The cast and crew were told that Prisoner would finish during the week of taping episodes 675 & 676. Glenda Linscott’s contract was already expiring and Maggie Kirkpatrick had felt some of the storylines of the later years were a little too far-fetched and was already thinking of leaving the series. Others, such as Kate Hood and Elspeth Ballantyne, said they would’ve been happy to stay on if the series had continued.

    * When Prisoner finished production, most of the crew went on to work on Neighbours, which was moving into the same studios.

    * The final scene to be shot was on the solitary set – the only one still standing as the crew had dismantled all the standing sets during the day – with Rita serving Joan dinner in prison.
  • 80sfan80sfan Posts: 18,522
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Rich Tea. wrote: »
    The 25th anniversary of Anglia TV first broadcasting PCBH must have just passed, am I right? I'm sure I began watching it for the first time in January 1989, in my bedroom late at night on a 3 inch black and white TV/radio/tape combo. I had to be devoted to stick with it under those conditions for the first year or two!;-)

    Were you never tempted to tune up the dial to find Central and 'cheat' a bit by watching later episodes? :)

    Central took Prisoner very seriously at three episodes a week and they would never miss a week - unlike the neighbouring Yorkshire TV region - the week after Christmas those of us watching Central would often have a week of episodes!!

    I was always amazed how regions like TVS treated the show so badly and how far behind they were behind those of us watching in the Midlands ;-)
  • 80sfan80sfan Posts: 18,522
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Brilliant posts Aneechik - thanks for posting them!

    You can read between the lines in some cases and work out who's who, but I'm stumped by some actresses. I'd love to know who the prima donna was!
  • Ben_Fisher1Ben_Fisher1 Posts: 2,973
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I loved the prison officer Meg, the actress later appeared in Neighbours as Mrs Alessi? or Rebecci? anyway, she was always getting into trouble in Prisoner. She was held at gunpoint by her stepdaughter's boyfriend, and even gang raped in one creepy scene, the result of a fiendish scheme by the deranged 'Angel' Adams. Angel was a totally unbelievable character, as most of them would have seen through her act very early on i would have thought.

    Also loved Bev 'The Beast' played by the actress who went on to play Dot Burke, the teacher in Neighbours, can't remember her name. Bev was also wildly over the top, and her interractions with 'Bunny' Warren, (who also turned up in Neighbours) were hilarious.
  • zx50zx50 Posts: 91,201
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Maggie Kirkpatrick played her character brilliantly. I think she and Val Lehman will always be the two most remembered characters in that series. Both played their roles great.
  • zx50zx50 Posts: 91,201
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I loved the prison officer Meg, the actress later appeared in Neighbours as Mrs Alessi? or Rebecci? anyway, she was always getting into trouble in Prisoner. She was held at gunpoint by her stepdaughter's boyfriend, and even gang raped in one creepy scene, the result of a fiendish scheme by the deranged 'Angel' Adams. Angel was a totally unbelievable character, as most of them would have seen through her act very early on i would have thought.

    Also loved Bev 'The Beast' played by the actress who went on to play Dot Burke, the teacher in Neighbours, can't remember her name. Bev was also wildly over the top, and her interractions with 'Bunny' Warren, (who also turned up in Neighbours) were hilarious.

    That one. Her character in Neighbours was called Cathy Alessi. Angel was a right little heartless cow. She got her comeuppance though.
  • Ben_Fisher1Ben_Fisher1 Posts: 2,973
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    zx50 wrote: »
    That one. Her character in Neighbours was called Cathy Alessi. Angel was a right little heartless cow. She got her comeuppance though.

    Angel was a total headcase, and like something from a Stephen King book :D
  • AneechikAneechik Posts: 20,208
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    80sfan wrote: »

    You can read between the lines in some cases and work out who's who, but I'm stumped by some actresses. I'd love to know who the prima donna was!

    I'll bet the prima donna was Val Lehman.
  • 80sfan80sfan Posts: 18,522
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Aneechik wrote: »
    I'll bet the prima donna was Val Lehman.

    Yeah I bet she thought she was 'Queen' off the set as well as on!

    Elspeth Ballentyne is also a contender for a prima donna. I've read before she was disliked on set for her tale telling and I could imagine her saying 'I'll get you fired'. The complete opposite of Meg I would say.

    Oh for more goss! There must be as much intrigue about what happened when the cameras stopped as rolling as some of the scripts!
  • Paul1511Paul1511 Posts: 11,552
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Both Ballantyne and Lehman were complete bitches, in my opinion, based on stories people have told.
  • Hit Em Up StyleHit Em Up Style Posts: 12,141
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Paul1511 wrote: »
    Both Ballantyne and Lehman were complete bitches, in my opinion, based on stories people have told.

    Yeah. Ballantyne just seems like a spiteful woman who probably did get people fired while Lehman has a case of the big ego and she truly believed, and still does!, the show was all about her.

    If I had to choose though I'd like Lehman on my side because at least she wouldn't stab you in the back. Having an ego is one thing, being spiteful and mean is something else.
  • zooooooooooooozooooooooooooo Posts: 2,220
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I'm watching some Prisoner episodes for the first time in about eight months and realised how much I've missed them. Watching around I think the 440 mark when Margo came back and Bobbie and Sonia are freed by Alf Stewart.


    Really love the fact we have four good villains in the prison at the moment Reb, Margo, Phyllis and Gloria Payne, all of them constantly winding up either Myra or Judy, would have liked it if it went on a bit longer.
  • 80sfan80sfan Posts: 18,522
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Yeah. Ballantyne just seems like a spiteful woman who probably did get people fired while Lehman has a case of the big ego and she truly believed, and still does!, the show was all about her.

    If I had to choose though I'd like Lehman on my side because at least she wouldn't stab you in the back. Having an ego is one thing, being spiteful and mean is something else.

    I could imagine that Elspeth Ballantyne thought she was a 'star' and wouldn't bother herself with the guest artists, as is mentioned above but with no names! I actually wonder who Ballantyne was friendly with amongst the cast.

    At the risk of deflating Val Lehman's ego, I think Bea's final year in the show wasn't that good and a lot of her scenes were not that gripping. Her exit fight with Ferguson was the best thing she did in months!! The show picked up loads when Anne Phelan brought Myra to life as top dog. I still say Myra was my favourite top dog.
  • AneechikAneechik Posts: 20,208
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I preferred Myra too. She was a lot more reasonable than Bea, who could be a massive hypocrite and lagged constantly.

    There's a good interview with Ann Phelan here.
    1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIz1IgpjRVE
    2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9zTbXZZfNM
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4,910
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    I have a fanfic of Episodes 693 onwards, here it is if anyone would like to read it

    http://www.wattpad.com/story/26202121-prisoner-cell-block-h-fanfic-episodes-693-onwards

    i will be adding more over time so please follow me on wattpad or check back. feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think too if you like :):D
  • HypnosssHypnosss Posts: 1,202
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    pjw1985 wrote: »
    I have a fanfic of Episodes 693 onwards, here it is if anyone would like to read it

    http://www.wattpad.com/story/26202121-prisoner-cell-block-h-fanfic-episodes-693-onwards

    i will be adding more over time so please follow me on wattpad or check back. feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think too if you like :):D

    That's great, I'm very impressed. I ended up reading about 4 'episodes' last night.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4,910
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Hypnosss wrote: »
    That's great, I'm very impressed. I ended up reading about 4 'episodes' last night.

    Great, glad you're enjoying them and thanks for reading them :)
  • mistygalmistygal Posts: 8,288
    Forum Member
    I just thought this as she was always mentioned with a tone of fear and sort of revered - if you know what I mean. She was known far and wide from Barnhurst, Wentworth and Blackmoor.

    I have to say though Nola was my personal favourite baddie.

    Oh yes Nola, you just wanted her to get her comeuppance:) Everyone loved Bea, she was a likeable character and I like the way they have kept that in new series Wentworth also.
  • Paul1511Paul1511 Posts: 11,552
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Sad that Burns has died.

    I always found Franky Doyle to be a tad overrated as a character though.
  • simey692simey692 Posts: 139
    Forum Member
    I’m currently on the era produced by Marie Trevor. (The Barnhurst 6 era) I can’t help but think ‘what the hell was the producer thinking about with this era?’ Why take a job as producer of a TV programme if you’re going to proceed to change everything about the programme? First of all she brings in 6 characters from Barnhurst. All 6 of whom are soft and completely lacking any street cred. Ettie, an old woman who’s unbelievably crazy and indescribably annoying. Daphne, an extremely stupid, harmless, annoying girl who talks to plants and is prone to bursting in to tears like an overgrown kid you just want to smack. Julie a pink cardigan wearing, permanently frightened geek. “Auntie” May who has an obsession for knitting cardigans so bad, you’l think your TV is broken. Willie Beecham, a farcical (non) comedy character and one of the most unlikely prisoners ever and Nora the Bora, a woman who killed 3 people in her youth but now has more sensitivity and insight than most people do on the outside. As if that wasn’t bad enough, bringing in not 1, not 2 but 6 terrible characters, she brings in yet more soft characters, Jenny Hartley, yet another posh character, yet another one who won’t bring any conflict to the series and yet another unlikely prisoner. As if all that isn’t bad enough, she even brings in Merv the Perv. “I know I’m not funny or interesting”, you said it Merv. This era completely lacks any tension, conflict and drama. Even Lou Kelly is much calmer in this era. In fact even Joan is calmer and is even ‘nice’ to the prisoners due to her happiness with being with Terry.

    Characters even say things to each other such as ‘Things have been pretty dull around here lately’
    And the Freak calls Nora a joke of a Top Dog. When even characters are saying things like this within the show itself, you know you’ve got problems.

    It’s as if Marie Trevor said to her self “right, I’m going to take all the violence and conflict out of this series and make all the characters nice”. It’s like watching a programme set in an old folks home, even right down to watching characters knit and talk to plants. I just don’t understand producers who take the job of working on a successful TV programme, then change the very heart and ethos of it.

    It would be perhaps more accurate to blame main storyliner and script editor at the tine 'Coral Drouyn' for this era of Prisoner. She created these characters and damaged the show quite badly. She also created the character of Rita Connors but thankfully she was sacked as script editor and replaced by Gwenda Marsh (who thankfully got the show back on track). Rita evntually arrived on screen but the version of Rita we eventually saw on screen was different to the one Coral created.
  • Jean_DanielsJean_Daniels Posts: 5,030
    Forum Member
    my son got me the full programme all 627 episodes not original but taped off you tube and i think austrilian tele,i watched about 8 disks(some had 3 or 4 episodes) its stuck upstairs some where.maybe one day i watch them
  • Paul1511Paul1511 Posts: 11,552
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    my son got me the full programme all 627 episodes not original but taped off you tube and i think austrilian tele,i watched about 8 disks(some had 3 or 4 episodes) its stuck upstairs some where.maybe one day i watch them

    There are 692 episodes.
  • i_love_tvi_love_tv Posts: 5,299
    Forum Member
    On YouTube or not, this show is worthy of another rerun on some UK TV station.

    For the record, was its last UK TV rerun almost 20 years ago on Ch5 at about 4am or has there been a more recent rerun on UK TV?
Sign In or Register to comment.