Prisoner: Cell Block H

[stuartdg]

Episodes 437-440 and while Colleen Powell slowly turns into Sue Ellen from Dallas Joan literally declares war on everyone,blaming Reb for her father having a stroke and trying to set Phyllis against her,continually goading Sonia and Myra against Gloria played by the fantastically named Tottie Goldsmith-my favourite era is just warming up and its great The Freak is at the centre of it all

[stuartdg]

Episodes 441-444 and Bobbie and Sonia are carted off to Barnhurst...or so they think.In reality they end up in Sydney where Bobbie works the streets and Sonia works Alf from Home And Away.

Back in wentworth,and Pixie randomly turns up out of the blue,while Margo Gaffney intent on drug dealing also returns to bolster the ranks,making enemies of just about everyone in the process,Reb,The Freak and Myra included...

Speaking of which Joan is at her bitchiest here using Phyllis against Reb and Gloria against Myra,although this rivalry doesn't really go anywhere in the long term alas...

More interesting is keeping an eye on the background characters,particularly the trio of Frances,Alice and Lou,the latter two going on to become major players...

[Matthew T]

This video made me laugh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzWUOTLcRGs

Mary Adler's best bits!

[stuartdg]

She's one of the great unsung in terms of background Prisoners,others include Tammy,Lorna(who I think stayed for the duration) and the duo of Lil and Bev...

Of course other background prisoners go on to attain greater status including Phyllis and the arguably more popular trio of Lou,Alice and Frances

[stuartdg]

Episodes 445-448 and the Sydney location filming is a breath of fresh air as Sonia is used to lure her hubby to his death,instead she double crosses Alf from Home and Away,once the Freak has caught up with her and Bobbie.Instead Sonia makes her escape from Joan and her fate is left mysterious and open ended with her abandoned car being found at a cliff edge...


The stuff with Joan visiting her father is equally enjoyable,revealing her softer side once more as he is diagnosed with lukeamia and hints at her background with tantalising glimpses of life before Wentworth for Joan.It's fascinating stuff and adds even greater depth to her character

Back in Wentworth itself and things don't let up as Myra becomes top dog battling Margo,and organising strikes left right and centre.Margo herself takes centre stage and this is no bad thing her power play making great viewing alongside the double crossing antics of both Reb and Phyllis over her drug dealing...

Anyway Margo is eventually carted off to Blackmoor,the first regular character to be sent there and a place which becomes pivotal as the series progresses.

All in all a great set of episodes,paving the way for things to come which i'm looking forward to immensely

[stuartdg]

Episodes 449-452 and there's a mad doctor on the loose at Wentworth,hypnotising Cass into believing she has to kill Bobbie and Meg to follow Joan's example when it comes to work much to Joan's delight

The episodes also see Erica return yet again although for the last time alas and she plays a much smaller part in the storyline concerning the women striking...

An effective rivalry is also set up in the tussle for top dog with Reb attempting to seize power until Myra literally forces her to eat her own drugs...however this rivalry is set to grow and grow

There is also a staggeringly bad taste dream sequence featuring Joan as a nazi in a concentration camp of all things but the plus side is that this storyline featuring illegal immigrant Hannah also sees the introduction of Lou Kelly perrenial bad girl and one of my favourite characters from the entire show

[stuartdg]

Episodes 453-456 effectively see the beginning of the end for Cass,largely due to mad doctor Jonathan Edmunds hypnosis.his reasoning for suggesting she kill Bobbie is almost wholike in its villainy-he wanted to see the results in the interests of science...

Elsewhere its goodbye Po-Face,a character I'm indifferent about,apart from some great one liners for me she is just a bit generic.Excitement in these episodes come from a crazed assassin attemptin to murder Hannah in the prison,not the first or indeed the last time terrorists break into Wentworth...while Myra decides she has to escape for no real apparant reason....at least on the plus side the fantastic Joyce Barry gets some increased screen time

[davethesailor]

Erica is back! Yippee! Her make-up is more colourfull than before. Very pleased to see her back! It's a bit like School Reunion when SJS first reappeared!

[stuartdg]

Episodes 457-460 and there's loads goin on,with Joan putting in a complaint over Meg being made deputy governor,Rick Manning leaving and the arrival of cod yorkshire accented Dennis Cruikshank-and this is before we even get to the inmates....

Under cover of a fete Myra escapes in an oversized lampshade of a hat,why it doesn't attract anyones attention is anybodys guess-it's hardly subtle.Elsewhere Reb batters Phyllis over the head and theres a resounding crack when she cocks up a drug delivery...


At the same time Bobbie miscarries,spelling the end for Cass who goes mental and is promptly carted off to the asylum,giving Joan the excuse she needs to announce the return of perrenial cackling baddie Marie Winter


One other thing to note is the arrival of Za'aan from Farscape aka Virginia Hey's Leigh Templar albeit minus the blue skin,She's instantly made a target for bullying however and the scene where she uses a lipstick spiked with pins still makes me wince....

[Si Hunt]

You must be only a few months away from Marie's Amazing Helicopter Escape.

Si.

[stuartdg]

Episodes 461-464 and thank god for Joan and Marie either colluding or clamouring for power,as all the rest of the episodes serve to do is introduce characters that are basically unlikeable,Heather Rodgers is a case in point,who basically spends her time shouting inefficiently.The same is true of Marlene Warren essentially a Doreen Clone,who whinges a lot and the character of Dot is a moaning old woman...

The worst offender of all is Shane Munro,who I want to slap whenever I hear him speak...I'm all for humanising Joan but they couldve got a better actor to play the part

[stuartdg]

Episodes 465-469 and provin that Wentworth is full of power crazy women,Joan in her unstoppable guise vows to become governor by ordering Marie to start a full scale riot.Thus the coffee pot is drugged,and cue lots of smoke the women take over,Joan herself taking a bashing and Judy and Marie fighting with oven gloves and milk bottles in the kitchens


Marie also tries to enlist Reb's help in bumping off Myra,instead Bobbie is framed when Reb gets cold feet and is instead thrown down the stairs by Marie...


Really these episodes should just be retitled the Marie Winter Show,following the riot she wastes no time in attempting to blackmail Joan and fighting with both Reb and Myra in the never ending struggle for top dog position...

Its just unfortunate the episodes are edited due to the Edna Pearson storyline,as they are great stuff,still hopefully in february,they will get the dvd release they deserve

[stuartdg]

Episodes 470-473 and again Joan and Marie take centre stage.In a nutshell Joan plans to have Marie transferred to Blackmoor,which Marie finds out about;and blackmails Joan when she fails in her bid to become governor.These scenes are great although I do question how much power Marie Winter wields,it's almost as if one click of her fingers and one of her connections on the outside does her bidding.Its also interesting to see Joan almost fearful of her at times.

Anyway in one of the most outlandish plots yet Marie demands Joan help her escape,which she does via helicopter of all things and a more then blatant use of a dummy in certain long shots

Winter makes such an impact that Reb Kean,showing another side to her character,(upon the death of her father and the return again of Anne Charleston as her mother) lags on Marie for pushing her down the stairs,as Joan declares war on her yet again...

The only other storyline of note features arguably the arrival of the scariest inmate ever,that of Bev Baker,but more on that next time

[stuartdg]

Episodes 474-476 and the unthinkable happens as Reb's accusations force Joan to resign,however never one to go quietly,the union strikes to get Joan reinstated.As a result Joan's relationship with the ever annoying Shane blossoms and there's great acting from Maggie Kirkpatrick as a result...

Elsewhere queen of backcombing Bobbie Mitchell escapes and becomes a victim of Wentworth's scariest ever inmate Bev Baker,as she reopens Bobbie's cut hands with a razor blade...it's chilling stuff made all the more believable by Maggie Dence's portrayal,nothing at all seems to faze Bev;she's certainly a far cry from Dorothy Burke...


Oh and the least said about chef Ray Proctor the better really

[stuartdg]

Episodes 477-480 and Bev skewers a social worker with a knitting needle and in a grimly fitting departure,injects air into her bloodstream and dies.A memorable exit for a memorably scary character.

No sooner has she gone then Joan returns to work,immediately contemplating leaving if she gains custody of annoying Shane.Of course she doesn't as Prisoner wouldn't be the same without her...but instead vows revenge on Reb who is back inside after Anne Charleston as her mother becomes a prisoner herself...

Add to this anonymous threatening letters to Meg and Ann which build into something much bigger later,and another bitch in the making in Angel Adams and theres loads going on,all of it positive stuff

[stuartdg]

Episodes 481-484 and top bitch Angel's true nature comes to the fore,never more so then when she has Meg raped in some of the shockingly brutal scenes in the show...

Elsewhere Joan is at her scariest terrorising Reb through her mother and Lou Kelly(who has her own plans,using a handyman who is assisting former officer Stan Dobson to bring in drugs),but Heather Rodgers is out for Joan's blood attempting to set her up,but then somewhat stupidly immediately confessing to it earning her the sack

[Si Hunt]

I'll tell you what, some of the storylines in Prisoner now seem old hat when they would have shocked at the time (because everyone has copied them since) or simply dated (the weird PMT storyline going on at the moment) but there's a really good Lesbian couple storyline being played out between Terry and Joan. It isn't sensationalised, it doesn't tittilate, it just shows the problems faced by two ordinary women living together. It isn't even focussed on the fact they are lesbians - a lot of it's about just adjusting to sharing your life with someone and, well, normal couply things, except with two women. You don't even get that in soaps now, some thirty years later, when the only lesbians that are ever on screen are sexy straight women "turned" to give male hetero viewers something to wank over. So this is so ahead of its time that TV hasn't even caught up yet.

Si.

[Si Hunt]

Kirsty Child has been terminally awful as Willie since she appeared, and we've never seen such over-acting anywhere that far from a theatre stage. But it does lead to some unintentionally amusing dialogue interchanges, such as Episode #563's between Meg and Nora:

"What are you doing out of the laundry?"
"Oh, just looking for Willie."

Arn't we all, love.

Si.