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EPISODE 55

The women try to cheer up Karen

First broadcast ... 1979 (Melbourne)
ITV broadcasts: Yorkshire Mon 9 Jun 1986 23:00 ; TVS/Channel Thu 12 Feb 1987 22:30 ; Central Sat 29 Aug 1987 23:30 ; other regions
Broadcast on Channel 5 (UK) 30 May 1997 Fri 4:40 a.m.
DVD release: volume 4 disc 2 (AUS)
Duration: 00:46:59

CREDITS
Jean ~ Christine Amor
Monica ~ Lesley Baker
Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne
Jim ~ Gerard Maguire
Lizzie ~ Sheila Florance
Erica ~ Patsy King
Bea ~ Val Lehman
Doreen ~ Colette Mann
Greg ~ Barry Quin
Vera ~ Fiona Spence
Karen ~ Peita Toppano
Noeline ~ Jude Kuring
Denny ~ Tony Mahood
Marjorie ~ Yvette Rees
Leanne ~ Tracy-Jo Riley
Officer Phillip ~ Lise Rodgers
Attendant ~ Stan Taylor
Mechanic ~ Rod West

  • Written by Margaret McClusky
  • Directed by Simon Hellings

    • Greg is not in this episode. The credits broadcast by Channel 5 were for episode (57), so I have used above the credits from Central's second showing of this episode in February 1994.

    This is supposed to be an external view of the block where Meg lives

    		The women decide to hold a farewell party for Karen to cheer her up, but Monica throws cold water on their optimism, saying she once had to wait months for a decision on her parole. Jean arranges an interview for Leanne as a cashier in the supermarket down the road. Lizzie reminds Karen about the halfway house project as a way of getting her to look to the future. As Vera wakes up Monica, the camera dwells for a second on her bedside reading matter . Jean lends Leanne a neckscarf for her interview to disguise the fact that she isn't wearing a bra under her teeshirt. Vera snaps at Jim for not supporting her when Bea comments they should have just dropped Vera off the roof. Meg discusses Peter Clements' thesis with Jean, who think he was accurate about Vera ("a sociosexual neurotic fulfilling frustrated needs") but Meg defends her. Noeline suggests Greg only left because Meg was trying to seduce him. Vera lets Karen know she's got her parole by brusquely ordering her to go and pack her things. Noeline grudgingly says goodbye to Karen and advises her not to get in any more trouble. Vera sneers at Karen that she expects to see her back inside. Karen leaves Wentworth with the thirty dollars she brought in plus $172.50 wages. Jim and Vera refuse to let her say goodbye to her friends or Erica. Jean collects her on the other side of the gate to drive her to the place where she is staying. Leanne gets the supermarket job and attributes her success to the fact that the manager "kept perving on me tits". Karen goes to stay with Marjorie Whitton, a friend of her mother's who lays down the house rules to her in no uncertain terms (and an uncertain Welsh accent). Doreen returns to Wentworth: she does not seem to be cured, and doesn't respond when Meg uses her name, or recognize Lizzie or Bea. Bea realises that Doreen has been drugged. Jean makes up a phony shopping list for Meg so she will look in on Leanne at the supermarket. Lizzie refuses to work in the laundry with less than seven people, but when Doreen is brought in she isn't able to work, so Bea insists the officer takes her to work in the garden. Leanne gets the sack for using bad language to the customers and the manager, and Meg is keen to throw her out of the flat until Jean intervenes to insist she is given another chance. Denny arranges a job for Leanne in a service station. Doreen stabs herself in the foot with a garden fork and has to be taken to hospital. Leanne goes along with Denny for the "job", but he only wants her there to distract the attendant while he holds up the service station. A mechanic sees them threatening his boss and phones the police.

    Monica's romantic novel ("Moon of desire" by Betty Manvers) looks like it was a collector's item of someone on the props team. It isn't an Australian book, and the original edition was published over 40 years before the scene was shot. For library catalogue records of the book, search at (for example) www.copac.ac.uk for the title. Thanks to Derek and Vicki in the yahoo club chatroom for being amused enough by the screen shot to make me try to find where it came from.

    ***

    Storyliners: Dave Worthington; Margaret McClusky
    Script Editor: Anne Lucas

    ITV regional broadcast dates:-
    YTV Mon 09 Jun 1986 23.00; TVS ... ; Channel ... ; TSW ... ; Central Sat 29 Aug 1987 23.30; Thames Fri 29 Jul 1988 00.05; STV Mon 03 Oct 1988 23.35; Anglia ... ; Granada Mon 08 Aug 1988 23.45; Tyne Tees Thu 03 Aug 1989 23.05; Border ... ; HTV ... ; Grampian ... ; Ulster ...

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