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2 - On the Inside

Bella Albrecht * Vera Bennett * Lizzie Birdsworth * Noeline Bourke * Judith Bryant * Doreen Burns * Roslyn Coulson * Erica Davidson * Janet Dominguez * Ted Douglas * Franky Doyle * Susie Driscoll * Martha Eaves

The other part contains profiles for:

Joan Ferguson * Monica Ferguson * Jim Fletcher * Agnes Forster * Margo Gaffney * Sharon Gilmour * Meg Jackson * Chrissie Latham * Toni McNally * Marilyn Mason * Greg Miller * Mum Brooks * Pat O'Connell * Ken Pearce * Paul Reid * Andrew Reynolds * Bea Smith * Gail Summers * Karen Travers * Kerry Vincent * Lynn Warner * Anne Yates

<Picture> Joan "The Freak" Ferguson is in command

BELLA ALBRECHT, played by Liddy Clark, was the mystery prisoner whisked into solitary in the early hours.  She'd been besotted with a man, but he would not marry her because she had a five-year-old child.  So she'd murdered the child and mutilated his body to try to prevent his being identified.  They'd put her into solitary for her own protection, and although she was soon let out she was kept away from the other prisoners.  Davo ordered the confiscation of the telly and all the radios so that the other women should not learn the truth.  It came out, of course.  Davo blamed Karen Travers and suspended her attendance at 'uni'.  In fact twisted psychologist Peter Clements had given Bea the details.

Big Martha Eves cornered Bella in the showers but, far from wishing her harm, only wished to be her friend and offered to help her escape.  Martha even had a plan; but as it involved a wooden horse and a tunnel - she'd seen it in a film Bella was less than impressed.  But she saw the advantage in having such hefty protection and pretended to be friendly while being under no illusions about Martha's brainpower ('She's all right to keep the heavies at bay, but you'd get more sense from an orang-utan').

The real threat came from Monnie, who was scornful of the way that the other women were pussyfooting around the issue.  She tried to throttle Bella.  Martha rushed to the rescue.  Monnie got twenty-four hours in solitary.  But Bella made the mistake of calling Martha a cretin.  The result was that Martha strangled Bella in the washroom and carted off to a more secure prison.

VERA BENNETT, played by Fiona Spence, was the tough 'Vinegar Tits', the Miss Nasty of Wentworth.  The nickname was very apt: she lacked almost every touch of humanity.  Vera's life had been blighted by the demands of her invalid mother.  By the time the old woman died it was too late for Vera to change.  Cold, lonely, not loved by anyone - her brief moments of affection seemed always to turn sour only when making the prisoners' lives hell was she fulfilled.

Vera was Wentworth's deputy governor and missed no opportunity to undermine Davo's authority, with the intention of taking her job.  But when prison discipline seemed to be about to collapse, and the

future of Davo's governorship was in doubt, the Prison Department decided that the Wentworth regime needed a strong male hand, so Jim Fletcher was brought in as deputy governor and Vera was demoted.

From time to time she tried to find true love.  A local cop wined and dined her a couple of times, but soon lost interest.  When Vera finally thought she had found it, with George Lucas, the man turned out to be a drug-dealer, and Vera came close to serving time herself. (He left her tied up in her flat as he made his escape.) Then she thought she'd found a soulmate in Jock Mackay.  They dined by candlelight and discussed tightening prison discipline.  But Jock was a crook - Vera spotted him receiving a backhander and Vera was essentially honest, so the relationship came to nothing.  She even failed to find affection with a lost dog; she bought it a basket and toys, but soon afterwards the owner reclaimed the dog while Vera was taking it for a walk in the park. (She kept this compassionate episode secret, so the women were convinced that she'd had the dog put down.)

Like Davo, Vera was obsessed with Bea Smith.  Like Davo, too, she never came out on top.  She thought the women scarcely human, and her only pleasure came from believing that her prejudices had been justified.  Naturally she opposed all attempts to bring in educational projects or work schemes, and gloated when such initiatives came to grief. She had the honour of calling off the factory project when Noelene Bourke was implicated in the theft of bolts of cloth.  Davo's instruction that the women should be taken back to Reynolds's factory and allowed to continue only reinforced Vera's views about Davo's incompetence.

Vera's doubts about the factory programme proved well founded: union rep Hazel Crow told her about Reynolds's plan to use the women on non-government work and threatened strike action if this was not stopped.  Vera enjoyed telling Davo that Reynolds was a crook.  Unfortunately Davo - blinded by love decided to let the work project continue.  She soon regretted it, when Kay White was arrested for stealing the factory's payroll and was remanded to Wentworth.  Vera reported Davo's connection with Reynolds to the Department, and an inquiry was ordered.

The arrival of the folksy Agnes Forster as the new social worker upset Vera ('If it was up to me, I'd dispense with social workers altogether').

Kay White wasn't slow to appreciate Vera: 'You're the vilest thing I've ever met,' she said.

LIZZIE BIRDSWORTH, played by Sheila Florance, was wily and wizened, truly one of the wonders of Wentworth.  The comic relief of the series, usually as part of a double act with Doreen, seventy-two-year-old Lizzie considered herself 'a dab hand with poisons' and had served twenty years for poisoning four shearers although this hadn't disqualified her from work in the prison kitchen.  But after she had spent all that time behind bars fresh evidence revealed that, although at the time everyone - including Lizzie herself -

<Picture> Lizzie Birdsworth (Sheila Florance) makes her feelings known.  Doreen Burns (Colette Mann) has heard it all before

had believed that she poisoned the men, she had not in fact been responsible for their death.  She was released and was promised a lot of compo.

There were two endearing things about her.  One was her addiction to grog and cigarettes.  She occasionally made her own booze, but also helped herself to the sickbay's surgical alcohol and Davo's drinks cabinet and accepted the smuggled stuff.  The other was her bad heart.  This proved invaluable when a diversion was required.

While the staff crowded round Lizzie, the other women got on with whatever they had planned.  Lizzie's frailty ceased to be a joke for a while when old Edith Wharton was remanded to Wentworth on a vagrancy charge, was put in Lizzie's cell 'and died in her sleep.  Faced with evidence of her own mortality, Lizzie was subdued for a while afterwards.  She feigned a 'religious conversion' - it took the form of singing hymns at the top of her voice at night and ticking the women

off for their wicked ways - in the hope of being allowed out of prison to attend Sally Army shindigs.

Once her name had been cleared, she was released into the care of the halfway house, where her pal Doreen was already in residence.  Freedom was sweet, but the booze soon brought about her downfall and Doreen's, too; and back they trooped to Wentworth. Doreen was imprisoned straight away, but Lizzie was at first released on bail; so, in order to be with her friend, Lizzie embarked on a mad shoplifting spree to get herself arrested.

Social worker Paul Reed set about trying to locate Lizzie's family, and two women who claimed to be her daughter and grand-daughter came forward.  They were frauds, trying to get their hands on Lizzie's money to pay for surgery for the little girl.  When Lizzie learnt the truth she pretended she'd known all the time.  For a lonely old woman, two strangers who needed her were as good as real family.

NOELENE BOURKE, played by Jude Kuring, was unrelievedly corrupt, and determined to pass on her skills to her children.  She failed with her eldest child, a gormless boy called Col who bungled a burglary and was shot dead in the ensuing police siege.  Daughter Lianne (Tracey-Jo Riley) followed her mother into crime without prompting, and then young Wayne and Norelle were willing accomplices to their mother's villainy.  Noelene's mother kept her hand in, too.

The most consistently unloved inmate of Wentworth, Noelene was always hatching some little scheme or other and delighted in her own criminal achievements.  She would rather steal money than accept social security.

On the eve of her first release from Wentworth she smashed the recreation room's new television set - though she was long gone when the deed was discovered.  Enjoying her new liberty, she set about teaching daughter Lianne the finer points of burglary. She left the girl to keep watch while she took a crowbar to a factory door.  Sadly, at the first sign of trouble the girl scarpered, and Noelene had to face the music alone.  Soon back in Wentworth, Noelene was confronted by Bea, who had not been amused by the smashed telly.  Bea walloped her, then told the mystified Noelene to parade her bloody nose before haemophobic Jim Fletcher!

Lianne soon visited Noelene to ask what she should do to support the Bourkes.  Noelene advised burglary ('Gran'll tell you what to take, what'll sell'), but fortunately prison social worker Jean Vernon buttonholed Lianne, persuaded her to claim the dole and gave Lianne her address: Meg's flat, where she was staying.  Lianne saw no reason to walk to the dole office, so she stole Jean Vernon's car.

At the dole office Lianne met a boy, and later his mate, but between them they still had no money and no great talent for crime. They bungled an attempt to steal six hotdogs, and then Lianne said, 'I know where we can lay our hands on some cash,' and took them off to Meg's flat.  Meg knew who was responsible, but Jean Vernon persuaded her to do nothing

about it.  Noelene was unconcerned by the burglary but outraged by the news that a Bourke had claimed the dole. jean Vernon even took Lianne home with her and recommended her for a job as a checkout girl at the local supermarket.  Alas, she kept the job for only one day, was sacked and then went off with her boyfriend to rob a petrol station.  It went wrong, and little Lianne soon joined her mother in gaol.

At liberty again, Noelene got a job as a tea-lady in an office-building, stealing money from handbags and jacket-pockets as she went on her rounds.  During this time Lianne became involved in Judith Bryant's protests over the death of Sharon Gilmore and fell to her death from the prison roof.  The police came to the office building to break the news gently to Noelene, but their arrival coincided with the discovery that Noelene was a thief. All sympathy for her evaporated, and she was arrested.

Noelene believed that Bea Smith was responsible for Lianne's death, until Bryant explained what happened.  Because Bryant felt guilty about Lianne's death, she became Noelene's protector.  Anyone who wanted to hit Noelene would have to get past Bryant first. but since Bryant had a pacemaker no one dared fight her.  All Noelene had to do was dodge behind Bryant at the first sign of trouble.

With only Gran to look after little Wayne and Norelle, Noelene was desperate for cash, fearing the kids would be taken into care.  She plotted to steal bookie Margo's 'stash', but couldn't locate it.

Ironically, she did acquire a lot of money - and from Margo.  One of her bets paid off!

Noelene's downfall came at the factory.  She guessed that Kay White, the overseer, was helping herself to bolts of cloth, and asked for a piece of the action as the price of her silence.  White agreed, arranged for Noelene to throw a bolt of cloth through a window to the waiting Wayne Bourke. then tipped off the boss, Andrew Reynolds.  Wayne got away, but Vera ordered all the women back to Wentworth.  Despite her protests, Noelene was accused of repeated thefts from the factory and was transferred to Barnhurst. Kay White went to Wentworth, and the truth about Noelene came out.

JUDITH BRYANT, played by Betty Bobbitt, was a Melbourne taxi-driver besotted with devious drug-dealer Sharon Gilmore.  She contrived to get herself arrested in order to be with her sweetheart, who treated her like a doormat.

Bryant was American, and at school had had a lesbian affair with one of her teachers. When the truth came out the teacher lost her job and hanged herself, and Bryant's father threw his daughter out.

Bryant was found to have a heart condition and went to hospital to be fitted with a pacemaker.

Sharon Gilmore died, and Jock Mackay boasted to Bryant that he'd killed her.  So when Davo merely suspended Mackay (who denied the charge to her) Bryant organised a prison protest that ended in a rooftop demo for the benefit of television cameras.  It was during this demo that

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Lianne Bourke fell off the roof to her death.  Bryant felt responsible, and when Lianne's doting mother, Noelene, found herself back in Wentworth she took Noelene's side against the others and even aided her in some of her swifties.

When news came that Bryant's father was dying, she felt a pang of remorse they'd been estranged for many years.  But she was refused permission to go to see him in America.  So she set her mind on escape.  Hearing how Bea had once escaped from hospital after being stabbed in a brawl, Bryant managed to stand too close to the controls of the tumble-drier, short-circuit her pacemaker and collapse.  Once in hospital, she lost no time in scarpering - clobbering a policewoman and stealing her uniform, and eventually turning up at the home of Pauline, a former lover.  Here she learnt that her father had already died.  This left her with nothing more to do but try to get out of the country.  She went to the Weasel, the notorious Melbourne forger, to arrange for a false passport.  But before she could collect it and make good her escape her friend Pauline decided to dob her in.

DOREEN MAY ANDERSON BURNS, played by Colette Mann, was Wentworth's dopey dumpling.  Davo alone recognised that Doreen was not a bad girl, just weak.  Fletcher, on the other hand, was convinced Doreen was degenerate, having found her in bed with Lyn Warner.  But Doreen's lesbianism seemed to have been 'prison issue': she had a baby when in her teens and was happily (if distantly) married to Kevin, and had never been as aggressively lesbian as Franky or Sharon.

Teddy-bear-clutching Doreen was initially one of Franky Doyle's crowd, and when Franky escaped she went with her.  They were on the run for a couple of weeks, but then they were cornered, Franky was shot dead and Doreen was returned to Wentworth.  Bitter and angry, Doreen tried to be a hard case, though this mostly seemed to consist of using her bulk to elbow weaker girls aside - especially 'Wonky' Warner.  She pulled her hair back, found herself a couple of henchwomen, and for a few weeks made herself thoroughly objectionable.  It didn't

<Picture> Doreen Burns (Colette Mann) and Judith Bryant (Betty Bobbitt) brew their own grog

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last, of course: Doreen was basically too nice.

Doreen was the principal victim of twisted psychologist Peter Clements when he came to Wentworth to do research.  Given access to her file, he learnt of her lesbian associations and confronted her with them.  Completely crushed, Doreen went into a catatonic trance, was taken off to a psychiatric hospital and was out of the series for some time.

She was eventually returned to Wentworth, and in time was released on parole into the care of the halfway house, where she was former inmate Karen Travers's first customer.  She found a job at a local factory under an assumed name, and in the brief time that she worked there - before her true identity was discovered and she was sacked - she found true love with van-driver Kevin Burns (lan Gilmour).  He continued to be besotted even after he had learnt the truth about her background.  In time they became engaged.  Kevin had also been sacked, and was then a freelance van driver.

While Doreen was at the halfway house her great friend Lizzie was also released, and the pair of them teamed up again.  Kevin went along with Doreen's plan for Lizzie to come to live with them once they were married.

But true love had not allowed for Lizzie and the grog.  On a bender one afternoon, she and Doreen ran out of both grog and money, so they decided to rob a grogshop.  Lizzie had one of her famous coronaries, but the robbery went wrong and both women were arrested.  Doreen, who was on parole, was sent straight back to Wentworth, but Lizzie was simply released on bail.  Unable to cope on her own, she went on a shoplifting spree to get herself arrested. and the police couldn't understand why she was so delighted when they obliged.

Doreen had been separated from her mother twenty years earlier, and had completely lost touch; but her mother (played by Anne Haddy), who was dying., came in search of her.  There was a touching reunion, and when her mother did die shortly afterwards she left everything to Doreen. including a splendid house.  Property developers had their eye on that

street, and they managed to buy up a block of houses - but not Doreen's, which was bang in the middle of where they wished to build.  A heavy was sent to the prison to put pressure on Doreen.  The heavy found an ally in relief warder Jock Mackay, who agreed to persuade Doreen to sell in return for a generous payment.  He contrived to get Doreen sent to solitary and visited her there.  She was too frightened to talk, but Mackay was overheard on one occasion by Sharon Gilmore.  She overplayed her hand, Mackay killed her, Vera saw him receiving money in the pub, and in the ensuing commotion at Wentworth all was revealed and Doreen kept her house.

Life was never simple for simple Doreen.  Andrew Reynolds (a Melbournian Mike Baldwin) needed cheap labour at his clothing factory to complete a government contract, and Doreen became one of his workers.  At the factory Vince Talbot the supervisor was much taken by Doreen, trapped her in the storeroom and threatened to accuse her of stealing if she didn't give herself to him.  Doreen heard that the company's delivery contract was out to tender.  She agreed to pleasure Vince if he would help Kevin, who was short of money, to secure the contract.  He agreed, but Davo got to hear of her use of inside information, Kevin was deprived of the work, and all Doreen's sacrifices proved to have been in vain.  Once again poor little Doreen had made a mess of everything.

Doreen discovered she was pregnant.  All advised her to have an abortion - but in the mean time Bea was determined to exact revenge.  Now, Kay White owed Vince money; she lured him to the prison under the pretext of paying him off, but ensured that he arrived during the women's exercise period - a lethargic attempt at volleyball.  As he returned to the main gate, the women staged one of their famous diversions to hold Vera's attention while Bea, Doreen and Judith Bryant caught Vince and gave him a good kicking.  Back in Davo's office, he thought it better to pretend that he had simply fallen over.  But Kay White was aggrieved that her part in the scheme was not rewarded more generously by Bea and went to Davo to tell her the truth.

Doreen was one of the few characters in the entire series with whom one could really have any sympathy.

ROSALIND COULSON, played by Sigrid Thornton, was one of life's losers.  The daughter of the woman murdered by Toni McNally, she lay in wait for McNally outside the court and shot her.  Naturally she found herself inside Wentworth.  As acting governor, Fletch put Roz in Bea's cell.  Bea took the girl under her wing and, when Big Martha Eves tried to take revenge on Roz for murdering McNally, galloped to the rescue, flattening the Big M - gallantry which put Bea in solitary.

Roz had a touching faith in her own innocence, and fully expected the court to release her.  After all, she reasoned, McNally murdered her mother and got away with it and she was simply doing the law's job.  Roz was stunned when she returned to Wentworth after her trial to

begin a life sentence.  She was adamant that no prison was going to hold her for the rest of her life and began to plot her escape.  She bungled one attempt to get out, but helped the terrorist Dominguez with her own escape-plan and when the guerrillas stormed the prison (staff having been given drugged coffee) they took her along.  She changed her mind, however, when Davo, who had not drunk the coffee, confronted the gang and was shot in the arm.

After this, she apparently reconciled herself to a long stretch in Wentworth and began to study in the prison library.

ERICA DAVIDSON, played by Patsy King, was the woman who thought she ran Wentworth, and was constantly amazed to discover that she didn't.  The prisoners did.  Nicknamed 'Davo', she was a barrister, the daughter of an eminent judge and divorced, and always immaculately coiffed and dressed.

As a prison governor she was less than adequate, feebly suspending and then reinstating the women's privileges in an attempt to maintain control.  Consequently she enjoyed an uneasy relationship with the Prison Department, and on one occasion came very close to being sacked.  She knew that waiting behind her was Jim Fletcher, who had definite views on how the prison ought to be run, and behind him was Vera Bennett, who had long been after the top job.  How much worse Wentworth would have been under either of these two was amply demonstrated when Davo resigned over the pressure being put on her to treat Toni McNally as a special case.  Within hours Jim Fletcher had alienated both prisoners and staff much to the delight of Vera, who was convinced that she would take over when Fletch's administration finally collapsed.  But Davo was persuaded to withdraw her resignation, Vera was thwarted, and Wentworth returned to the control of the prisoners.

In her time she was shot by guerrillas as she tried to prevent the escape of the freedom-fighter Dominguez (only prompt action by Rosalind Coulson in grabbing the gun-barrel prevented the shot from entering Davo's heart), held hostage by women in the prison (on account of her failure to perceive that the mysterious death of Sharon Gilmore might possibly demand serious attention), and kidnapped and threatened with having her fingers cut off.

She enjoyed a brief fling with Andrew Reynolds, owner of the small clothing firm at which the women were working on day-release.  He was ardent but married, and Davo at first made it clear that she was quite prepared to eat and drink at his expense but he must put aside all thoughts of her returning any favours.  But she finally dropped her objections.

This immediately proved embarrassing, because Vera Bennett had learnt of Reynolds's scheme to pay the women to work on garments not included in the government contract.  She informed Davo (with ill-concealed delight) that her boyfriend was a crook.  Davo was involved in a heated phone-call to Reynolds, saying that the only reason she was not withdrawing the women's labour completely

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was that she knew how much the factory project meant to them.

They made things up, but when Kay White ran off with the payroll, and eventually turned up in Wentworth.  Davo realised that all contact with Reynolds would have to cease.  She withdrew the women from the work project, and even tried to lay the blame for it on them.  Alas, the White caper made the papers, Vera saw it and - scenting the downfall of Davo - submitted a report to the Department.  Before you could say 'loss of privileges', Ted Douglas was in Davo's office informing her that (a) she had been a fool and (b) there would have to be an inquiry.

Davo's immediate reaction was to rush round to Reynolds's factory to console him in his hour of trial.  At a tender moment Mrs Reynolds turned up.  Davo made her excuses and left, but it did not stop Mrs Reynolds from informing Andrew that she was going to seek a divorce.

Reynolds seemed to think that this changed everything, but Davo informed him that she was not prepared to sacrifice her career for love.  Later Davo confessed all to Meg, having resolved never to see Reynolds again.

JANET DOMINGUEZ, played by Deirdre Rubenstein, was a political prisoner, briefly in Wentworth awaiting extradition.  During her stay all the staff were on alert for a guerrilla raid to rescue her.  Rosalind Coulson befriended her and agreed to help her with her escape-plan - if she could come, too.  Dominguez agreed, and at the appropriate time duly drugged the prison coffee.  While the staff - with the exception of Davo - slept, the guerrillas (armed to the teeth) broke in, liberated Dominguez and Coulson, and made off.  But they encountered Davo.  One of them shot her in the arm, to Roz's horror.  By this time the police had arrived, so their plans were frustrated.

TED DOUGLAS, played by lan Smith, was the generally disliked. pen-pushing rule fanatic who worked for the Department of Corrective Services.  He left the Department and the series after he was filmed in the act of illegally accepting money.  Later in the series, when Anne Reynolds (Gerda Nicholson) had taken over as the Wentworth governor, Erica Davidson took over from Ted Douglas as the visiting representative from the Department.

FRANKY DOYLE (nee Frieda Joan Doyle), played by Carol Burns, was a sad and lonely illiterate lesbian.  Until Sharon Gilmore arrived, she was the only aggressively lesbian character in the series.  Doreen's tendencies were far more obliquely handled.  Franky became besotted with Karen Travers - largely on account of Karen's education, of which the uneducated Franky was grudgingly jealous - but her love was not returned.  Travers in fact made it quite clear how disgusting she found Franky's advances.

Loved by no one, the only ray of light in Franky's life was her younger brother, Gary (Greg Stroud).  He visited her, and together they planned the little farm they

<Picture of Franky>

would have when she was finally released.  Her brother was killed in a farm accident - a tractor overturned on top of him.  Cruelly deprived of this dream, Franky went berserk, smashed up the recreation room and threatened to throw herself off the roof.

Soon afterwards, Franky escaped with Doreen.  They were on the run for several weeks - at one point dressed as nuns! - but were eventually cornered by the police.  Franky was shot dead; and Doreen, recaptured, became temporarily bitter and vicious.  Franky was the first in a long line of rivals for Bea Smith's authority and the only one for whom we felt any sympathy in defeat.

SUZI DRISCOLL, played by Jacqui Gordon, was the inmate who probably caused one of the biggest upsets at Wentworth.  She tried to escape through the air-conditioning pipes but got stuck, jammed the system and sent the temperature inside soaring.  Large ladies were melting all over the place.  Suzi was let out, and stayed at the hostel run by Judith Bryant.  There she conducted a killing on another former inmate, Kent, who had a brain tumour.  It landed Suzi back inside, but the hostel was named Driscoll House after her.

MARTHA EVES, played by Kate Jason, was slow-thinking and slow-talking.  Martha - or "the Big M' - was despised by everyone, but came in useful as hired muscle for those who felt they needed protection.

She was a minder for Toni McNally, wife of Melbourne's Mr Big, who, while on remand on a murder charge, usurped Bea's authority by supplying the women with illicit booze and funny cigarettes.  Eventually Toni went for trial, was acquitted of murder, but was shot dead by her victim's daughter, Rosalind Coulson, outside the court.  Roz quickly found herself in Wentworth.  Martha naturally sought revenge for Toni's death, but Bea came to Roz's rescue, flattened Martha and took the girl under her wing.

Martha next befriended child-murderer Bella Albrecht, and kept her out of harm; but, ironically, when even Bella tired of her and called her a cretin Martha drowned her in a washbasin and was taken off to a more secure prison.