The all-new Prisoner: Cell Block H Thread!

[Si Hunt]

Just starting a new thread for this, as the old one appears to have been locked, presumably as it had grown too big, rather than anyone finally getting fed up with hearing about the antics of big-haired women stealing buy-up, devious lesbian prison officers and prisoners staging pantomimes as a cover for digging a big hole in the garden and escaping.

Actually, it's quite a feat for a TV related thread on PS unconnected with Doctor Who to hit the max page limit - so woo to Wentworth!

Si.

[stuartdg]

A quick heads up that the uncut Edna Pearson aka Mrs Mangel from Neighbours episodes go on sale 2mrrw,mine is packing at Play as I type...

So I'm taking a PCBH break until that arrives and watching the fantastic Falcon Crest on dvd instead!

[Matthew T]

The jukebox in my local boasts that it contains "every top 40 hit ever!", which is ripe for abuse by putting on the worst songs I can think of, but knowing that the theme from Prisoner was a top 3 smash in 1989, I put that on on Friday night which lead to a drunken sing along with everyone joining in!

Alas it's claim to also have "every top 10 video since 1980" is proved to be a lie as there was no video for it. Some Bea / Joan action on the big screens wouldve been truly amazing.

[stuartdg]

Is Lou Kelly the most vicious inmate ever to grace the walls of Wentworth?

She starts off,usually teamed up with Alice,Frances,(Reb,Kath Deakin and Frank Burke) by racially abusing remand inmates.Escapes with the use of a baseball bat,kidnaps Joyce Barry,tries to kill Myra at least three times(via palete knife,guitair string and lethal injection),causes Nora to miscarry,attacks and tries to kill Joan at least twice,and thats just off the top of my head...


She's the Wentworth hairspray queen,one of the few long running inmates with little or no back story established and played by Louise Siverson with a constant sneer...One of the best characters from the entire run of the show!

[Si Hunt]

She's great, and boy are we glad of her in these end-of-run, barron times.

There's something ever compulsive about Prisoner, and we've enjoyed almost every episode and still do, but it has to be said that you wonder just why the show's makers lost sight of the simple formula that made it so great in its prime. All you need is to have someone thoroughly nasty inside Wentworth; the prison should feel like exactly that - a place of terror that you can't escape from. Where they fall down is when they make it too cosy - at times you wonder why anyone would ever want to leave - and they forget to have someone constantly trying to terrorise the women. Comedy characters like Ettie we just don't want! Oh, and to keep the flow of new prisoners going - we haven't had anyone new join the prison for ages!

Si.

[stuartdg]

The Nora Flynn/Barnhurst 5 era is generally seen as something of a low point in the show's run...

More of the storylines do focus on characters outside the prison then in and generally the characters aren't engaging enough.May Collins being the best of the five...A lot of the other verge on annoying(Willie due to overracting,Daphne is just a whiney character and Jenny Hartley is just annoying)



Also the threat of Joan is toned down considerably,so its perhaps no surprise that after a strong run of storylines throughout the Myra Desmond era,things take a step back.

The show does pick up again with the arrival of both Eve Wilder and more so,Rita Connors although it never quite hits the highs of Myra's era in my opinion...

[stuartdg]

A quick mention of the Edna Pearson storyline;it's surprisingly good and makes up for a fair bit of the viewing time given that it takes place just prior to the Marie Winter riot.

Edna herself is actually quite a well rounded character,it's just a shame so many of her scenes involve the frequently annoying Marlene Warren,and in some ways she is quite a sly character,so it is great to finally see the episodes and pssibly resolve one of the biggest mysteries of the show.

[stuartdg]

Episode 536 is one of 2 of the most pointless episodes from the show's entire run.Basically nun Anita Selby has lagged and saved Joan from losing her job,while Marlene,Judy and Geoff McCrae have been released leaving Myra with Lexie,Alice and Lou for company.

Cue lots of references and flashbacks to the past,mostly involving Franky and Bea,who nobody has met before,before Bea is killed off unceremoniusly via an offscreen riot at Barnhurst...

[Dino]

Episode 536 is one of 2 of the most pointless episodes from the show's entire run.Basically nun Anita Selby has lagged and saved Joan from losing her job,while Marlene,Judy and Geoff McCrae have been released leaving Myra with Lexie,Alice and Lou for company.

Cue lots of references and flashbacks to the past,mostly involving Franky and Bea,who nobody has met before,before Bea is killed off unceremoniusly via an offscreen riot at Barnhurst...

Oh I remember seeing that episode and the next day the other people I knew who watched Prisoner were all "Huh?.." about it.
Even Lou Kelly got in on setting up a flashback! Suprised all their memories didn't end with them remembering eating ice cream with whoever was having the memory going "Now that's what I call a sticky situation!"
It would have made more sense...

[davethesailor]

Is it possible to still read the old thread, I am gonna hunt it out now! I am around episode 467 ish. There has been some huge changes, Colleen left as did Rick, Cas and Pixie in the space of about 2 episodes. Bobbi lost her baby and came back with huge hair! I have a feeling it might have been a season end around episode 460 as it seemed to change so dramatically. Just watched the Winters riot (oh it's good to have her back cackling away with her thumbs in her trousers). I thought the riot was exciting but was amazed at how they all went straight back to the prison after it happened. The damage seemed non existent! No need to replace mattresses or clean up or anything! Anyway, still enjoying this a lot! Did not know that stuff with Mrs Mangol (Edna) had been cut so am even more pleased to discover it's been re released uncut!

[Si Hunt]

It is possible, but we should move it to the Archived Threads forum soon, or it will get lost!

Si.

[stuartdg]

That wasn't an end of Season episode

Year 1 ends with Ros Coulson,being broken out of Wentworth by terrorists,as Erica is shot

Year 2 with the tunnel escape

Year 3 with Marie Winter's first riot

Year 4 with the Wentworth fire

Year 5 with Lizzie discovering the truth about David Bridges

Year 6 with Myra handing the Top Dog role to Reb,but then exposes her by playin the tape recording of Reb sayin "bugger the women"

Year 7 with Eve Wilder's solicitor shooting himself


The final end of year cliffhanger is uncertain but the most likely candidate is Rodney about to bash Spider Simpson

[stuartdg]

The Ballinger siege is arguably the best storyline in the shows run.Nearly 3 episodes of high tension and drama,with the prisoners and staff united against a common enemy in order to survive.It also features the best departure for any top dog in the show.Fantastic,intense stuff

[davethesailor]

Hey, I have just been watching the episodes where Meg and Anne Reynolds were kidnapped. It's weird as it all seem fresh to me like I had watched them recently. I don;t quite understand why. I am not at home at the moment to check, but I'm wondering if I already had those episodes on a VHS release or something?

[stuartdg]

Coming to the end of the Barnhurst Five era now,which has been relatively lacklustre.It starts off promisingly with Lou's attempts to take over and Nora's miscarriage but after all that it just becomes mundane...There's no conflict,and Joan as a thret is watered down taking a backseat to her relationship with Terri(who interestingly portrayed Sharon Gilmour previously-thats 2 out the 5 major lesbian characters in the show played by the same actress.)

Thankfully the storylines are starting to liven up with arrival of Eve Wilder,Rita Connors and the return of Reb Keane

[Si Hunt]

The show has taken a knock for Joan's period of being in a relationship, but it didn't have to be that way - what's been lacking has been a sense of real danger inside Wentworth. They could have easily rectified that by bringing in a "nasty". Lou Kelly is good, but crucially the women tend to laugh at her, rather than be scared of her - like Margot Gaffney, she's a nuisance, rather than a serious fear. Instead we got the intermiable Daphne PMS storyline, stupid Pippa Reynolds and her horrible bearded boyfriend and the 'young offenders' story, which was promising but marred because (i) none of them could act and (ii) it strained credibility beyond belief. We were supposed to believe that the women set up a complete mock Drugs Bust on the outside, complete with fake shooters, cars and heavies, all to teach one teenager not to be a bad girl.

However, Joan's relationship with Terri has been nothing short of a revelation - nothing out the ordinary, but that's the point. We saw two women coming to terms with the trials of living together like any other normal couple - wanting to watch different things on TV, that sort of thing - then the negative reaction of Terri's parents to her coming out, and finally something very normal; Joan weakening because she was so in love with Terri, and Terri then growing to despise her precisely because she wasn't the person she fell in love with. Joan allowed the relationship itself to change who she was, and that took away all the reasons for Terri wanting her in the first place.

The point is, what we got was a normal, frought relationship between two people that happened to be women. Twenty Five years later, this STILL hasn't been done in a mainstream soap, where gays and lesbians are still introduced as "gimmick" characters and you never get a lesbian who isn't a straight women "turned" for the purposes of the storyline. Yes, Prisoner was SO ahead of its time that the real world still hasn't caught up. I wonder when it will?

Si.

[stuartdg]

Actually following her relationship with Terri,Joan is never the threat she previously was.She's a force to be reckoned with certainly,but lacks the menace she once held.

[Si Hunt]

Is Mervyn's Cookery Competition a series low? Awful acting by the crap fake competitors and it was clear who the real "celebrity" chef was. We kept waiting for the twist in the storyline! Someone slipping while carrying the food, an amusing mix up with the spices... but nothing happened! He came, he cooked, he won. What a crap storyline!

Happily, back at the prison things have swung back to the 'Joan is evil' times. But this current lot in Wentworth are a dull bunch - when was the last time anyone tried to smuggle anything in, or escape, or try to be Top Dog? We've had about one new prisoner in the last three months! Nora is the most unconvincing Top Dog in history as she never does anything! She stands before Lou, about half her size, and glowers "I'm not going to bash you because I don't think I could stop myself going too far!!" while Louise Silverson tries desperately to act worried.



It's TV cook Peter Russell-Clarke! What a dish!

Si.

[Simon R]

He's like the love child of Peter Sallis and something from the Thriller video.

[stuartdg]

Nora isn't as unconvincing a top dog as Clara Goddard was!-May Collins would have been far better in my opinion


You also have the Wentworth talent contest to look forward to lol

Thankfully most of the Barnhurst Five,are out of the show pretty soon and it's not exactly happy endings either...

Reb Kean's return is an odd one,the storyline is great but Janet Andrewartha's acting is not;it's like she's playing a completely different character-her voice is panicky and high pitched all the time,theres no semblance of the Reb Kean from days gone by

[stuartdg]

May's departure is a bit of a shock and begs the question were she and Willie a couple?

Nora also has a frankly bizarre departure,hinting to Julie,she is escaping before she disappears without explanation,only for her corpse to turn up several episodes later;almost as if actress Sonja Tallis's contract was up and Nora's fate was added as an afterthought.An ignoble end to an ineffectual Top Dog.

Elsewhere Eve Wilder reveals her true colours and gives Joyce Barry a shocking new hairstyle,Lou finally takes over after what feels like 15 attempts,and Rita Connors arrives shaking things up considerably

[stuartdg]

Well Lou Kelly gets her wish to become top dog and theres plenty of drama to be had,first off you have Eve Wilder,arch manipulater in the same vein as Kate Peterson,causing infighting.This brings out Lou's vicious streak,as she sets Rita and Joan at each others throats,throws a riot,ousts Ann Reynolds as governer and tries to kill Lexie...

There's so many plotlines going on at once its hard to know where to start,Lou's reign of terror,the new governer,Rita and Joan...

The best of it is however is that its a definite step up in terms of quality,more please!

[stuartdg]

Moving towards the final year of the show now and one of the most believable and well portayed characters in Kath Maxwell has entered the fray.She's a stark contrast to Rita,literally having to fight to survive because of Rita's bullying because of her crime.As a result she comes across as sympathetic and not painted as black or white because of her crime.It's also intersting not to see a "baddie" actively conspiring with Joan...

The show does suffer from the departure of Lou Kelly however,whose ever desperate actions had probably run their course in terms of storylines...

[stuartdg]

Rewatching the Rita Connors era I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying it,sure Rita is physically a match for Joan but doesn't have the brainpower to match either her or Kath Maxwell.What is more interesting is that Kath shows little or no interest in teaming up with Joan,she only does so under duress...she is only out to feather her nest upon her release,although given the length of her sentance you have to wonder why she is rushing to do so...

This aside,she is arguably the most well rounded character the show has seen,look at her relationship as surrogate mother almost to Merle Jones,and the change in her from persecuted victim to hardened criminal...

[stuartdg]

Not sure what's going on with the character of Lisa Mullins who changes her identity completely mid storyline inexplicably...It also beggars belief why Joan and Meg don't recognise undercover cop Wendy Glover as former inmate Hannah Simpson given that the same actress played both characters...

Episode 655 is also notable for a scene involving Joan,Joyce and lots of laughing gas-the look on Meg's face being priceless