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6

THE  AUSTRALIAN

VERDICT

The previews were timed to coincide with the week leading up to the 27 February 1979 premieres on Channels o and TEN in Melbourne and Sydney.  Brian Walsh, O-TEN publicity boss, remembers 'the waiting.  The network had ordered extra episodes without one being tested or seen on air, which in itself was unheard of.  So we felt fairly safe and happy - but you can never tell in this business.'

Bob Gordon (Women's Weekly) picks up the story.  'Reviewers might have had some doubts over those first episodes.  It seemed severe in some aspects, but most of us were smart enough to know something special was there and the viewers would make the decision.  If there were any doubts, we did the safe thing and opted for a revisit to Wentworth down the track.  But there was no denying it was different, tougher than we'd expected, no punches pulled, and all in a women's world.  We had sort of expected it to work, even if we didn't trumpet it at first, and the new faces were a big bonus.'

Don Groves, writing in the Sydney Sun-Herald predicted, 'If the standard of the first few episodes can be sustained, "Prisoner" might be the best, most rousing drama serial made in this country.  The first show is stirring stuff, intelligently written and brilliantly acted.  It's light years ahead of the other Grundy fodder, "The Young Doctors" and "The Restless Years".'

John Hanrahan, an experienced TV journalist (and now producer) wrote in the Sydney Sun: ' "Prisoner" will be the most powerful continuing drama on Australian television with no holds-barred scenes of prison riots, fights between prison staff and inmates, drugs and illicit affairs between staff and inmates.'

The most powerful outburst against 'Prisoner' in Australia came from a totally unexpected quarter, the Victorian Prisons Department, with jail psychiatrist Dr. Allan Bartholomew condemning the show as being 'sadistic and grotesque'.  He wanted the series axed.  'I hope it receives poor ratings.  I've been counselling women prisoners for twenty years but have never come across such sadism and depravity as portrayed in this series.'

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Dr. Bartholomew, president of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology, said the series was morally dangerous.  'The Correctional Services have worked for years to achieve public recognition for a valuable task well performed.  Programmes like "Prisoner" only undermine morals.'

The Governor of the Fairlea Women's Prison Committee was also a volatile critic.  Dame Phyllis Frost accused Grundy's of not consulting authorities on life in the women's prisons.  But producer lan Bradley was quick to explain Grundy's had approached women's prison officials on several occasions and suggested the appointment of a prison officer to ensure authenticity in the series.

'Grundy's thought the appointment of a liaison officer was an excellent idea and backed it from the start,' said Bradley.  'But the prison officials wouldn't come to the party, even though they knew we were intent on making the show as realistic as possible.  We started talks with the authorities more than six months before the first episodes of "Prisoner" went to air.  They had some suggestions for the opening episodes which we previewed to them.  After that they 'ust failed to show any interest at all.  Yet we have had two former women prisoners acting as consultants on the series from the start.'

Later, the always outspoken morals crusader, Rev.  Fred Nile, of the Festival of Light, railed against the serial at a hearing for Channel Ten's licence renewal in Sydney.  'It emphasised terror and violence, depicted illicit sex acts and had objectionable
 
 

PRISONER FILE

Name: Maxine Daniels  Actress: Lisa Crittenden

Maxine had been caught up in criminal activities for a long time with a notorious gang.  She is finally nabbed during a robbery. Some of Maxine's tracts were not too appealing to actress Lisa Crittenden. I'm terrified of motorbikes and I don't like the tattoos.  I had to wear one on each arm. The make-up people put them on every day -- thank goodness, I could wash them off again at night.

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language.' Secretly, the producers and Channel Ten bosses thought it one of the best unpaid promotions the show had enjoyed.

But, generally, the critics and reviewers were impressed and willing to give 'Prisoner' a chance.  The jail officials were seen to have a vested interest and their complaints would play second fiddle to what the journalists wrote in the nation's columns.

The Daily Mirror's (Sydney) entertainment writer, Matt White, went straight to the point with his review of the opening episodes.  'Women individually are usually charming and delightful creatures.  Collectively they can be bitches.  Cage them together and you have a hell-house of appalling animalistic behaviour which would revolt the meanest animals.  This jaundiced view of the fairer sex is grimly amplified in "Prisoner".

'As the title suggests it is about jailbirds by birds, I mean of the human female variety and what you see and hear about them is not very nice.  It is powerful stuff, with top acting and a memorable theme song, "On the Inside", sung by Lynne Hamilton.'
 
 

PRISONER FILE

Name: Dr. Kate Petersen  Actress: Olivia Hamnett

Olivia Hamnett is a tall, elegant British actress with scores of TV roles to her credit as well as playing the mother of Ricky Schroeder in The Earthling (1980) and Richard Chamberlain's wife in The Last Wave (1977).  Dr.  Kate Petersen was an intellectual -- and so ostracised by most inmates.  She was also a convicted murderer, the poisoner of her lover.  At first viewers found her 'so nice' but she soon showed her true colours.  'She's a devious and cunning person who will try to ingratiate herself with the other prisoners,' said Olivia when she joined the cast. 'There's no brawn about Dr. Kate so she has to use all of her wit and wiles.'

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The only consistent criticism was limited to the background of schoolteacher killer Karen Travers's dilemma.  The prison doctor finds her back covered with cigarette burns obviously inflicted by her late husband, the unfaithful louse she scissored to death in the famous shower scene, though there was no mention of the burns in her defence during the trial which sent her to Wentworth.  But 'Prisoner' soon settled down winning viewers with its realism and grit.

Commenting on lissome Lynn Warner's predicament, National Times TV writer Michael Le Moignan observed, 'Lynn is played by Kerry Armstrong with smouldering innocence and the sort of "save me" eyes knights used to fight dragons for.  A fresh young country girl, she came to the city to work as a nanny, only to be unjustly accused by her mistress of burying the infant alive.  Now, both her appearance and acting make it quite clear Lynn could have no more buried a baby than Snow White could have machine-gunned the Seven Dwarfs.  But rather than leave a dramatic subtlety without hammering it to pieces, we were provided with a macabre close-up of the Wicked Queen in the shape of Lynn's ex-employer leering into the baby's cot threatening to put the infant "back in that big hole" if it didn't stop crying.'

TV Soap editor-publisher Ben Mitchell commented, 'Any show that starts with a shower stabbing, goes on to a suicide and a prison brawl, has lesbians on parade, an assault in a laundry, a roly-poly girl inmate who sucks her fingers and cuddles a teddy bear and a grizzled old lady who chain-smokes and is a kleptomaniac can't be too bad.  But can they keep it up?'

Several previewers made the mistake of asking Carol Burns if she had any affinity with the world of wildcat Franky Doyle.  It always prompted the same horrified reply.  'No!  No way.  She's stupid, vicious, she can't read, she's violent, and no one cares for her.'

But viewers in their strange way would care for Franky.  She quickly drew droves of admirers and supporters, especially when the scripts began explaining her background and slowly unravelled her psychotic personality.

'Prisoner's' first producer, lan Bradley, was aware the show had a good chance of maintaining its high expectations.  'We were doing a show a week to begin with, then upped it to two shows, and we made sure our writers had the time to do the 'oh.  We had to stay fresh, original and powerful.'

Reg Watson, usually a background figure at launches or awards nights, because he likes his colleagues to have the limelight, found himself much in demand as the first night's telecast neared.  'I started it off, but they did all the work.' Watson confidently predicted a successful future for his latest creation.  'I don't see the prisons emptying,' he said at the final press preview.

Previews over, with generally good press, it was now only a matter of days before the Australian public would have its say.  There'd been a secret telephone survey - nothing unusual for new shows or product-testing in most English-language TV markets

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- in advance of the officially sanctioned and industry-financed McNair Anderson ratings.  And the champagne was out on the set of 'Prisoner' at its Nunawading base.

Max Stewart, station boss of Channel O, and his programme chief, Gordon French, came on set to help celebrate, along with elated publicists George Wilson and Eileen O'Shea.  Among the most prized callers for a job well done were Ten Sydney boss, lan Kennon, Ten PR maestro Brian Walsh, Grundy chiefs, lan Holmes and Reg Watson, and their Sydney PR lady, Felicity Goscombe.

Even Reg Grundy took time out to make sure his hard-working cast and crew knew their winning form was greatly appreciated at Grundy's highest level of management.  He sent congratulatory best wishes from his Los Angeles enclave via lan Holmes.

The official ratings confirmed what everyone now knew -'Prisoner's a runaway hit.  Rival networks realised they were faced with a tough challenge as the unlimited nitty-gritty stories at Wentworth rolled off the wordprocessors.  The storylines for 'Prisoner' seemed to get more daring week-by-week as the main core of characters battled their way through the vigorous routines of everyday life in Wentworth Detention Centre.  Few prison stones were left unturned as Grundy researchers and writers thrived on the show's quick success with about one and a half million regular viewers in Sydney and Melbourne.

The writers threw in everything they could think of.  The pace of the show was fast and fierce.  The format welcomed that sort of 'hit 'em fast, hit 'em hard' attitude Watson wanted.  'What their research and familiarity didn't dig up for the ongoing brutalities and rampant violence, they made up.  Nothing wrong with that in soaps.  That's the true form of story-telling,' wrote a Sydney journalist.

One thing was patently clear to O-TEN and Grundy's.  'Prisoner' had gathered a large following.  It was a major hit from day one and they were buoyed by slogans like: '1980 - Year of Prisoner'.

Even the usually high-brow TV column of The Australian's Suellen O'Grady worried about the frantic pace.  Ms O'Grady wrote: 'Murder, muggings and brawls are joyous affairs for the female inmates of Wentworth Detention Centre.  No neurotic doubts plague these women as they thrust pairs of scissors into unsuspecting backs or
 
 

PRISONER FILE

Name: Susie Driscoll  Actress: Jacqui Gordon

Susie Driscoll managed to behave herself well enough inside Wentworth to get parole.  But when she went to work in a fast food restaurant, she found her past catching up with her.  20-year-old Jacqui Gordon played Susie.  Jacqui is the step-daughter of veteran Australian actor Vic Gordon, who played Albert Kennedy in 'Matlock Police'.

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pull guns out of chocolate boxes to shoot their husbands.  No looks of even momentary guilt flicker across their faces as the blood begins to spill, only smiles fit for people who have just won $1 million.

'Because of the lack of conversation and glut of action, there is no time to blink or blow one's nose or a vital murder or mugging could be missed.  "Prisoner" is certainly entertaining, if improbable, viewing.  The one problem is, can O-TEN keep up the pace for the remaining forty or so episodes?  Or, more to the point, can we?'

One critic came unstuck when he observed: 'Two female inmates are serving time in solitary in adjoining cells.  Now, if we're to believe anything about "Prisoner", it should be that it is a real prison.  Real prisons have thick walls to keep prisoners in, yet these two recalcitrants were having a very chummy talk despite the very thick walls between them.  You try it!'

Real-life prisoner Tim Anderson, biding time in Matraville Central Industrial Prison in Sydney, wrote in reply to the Sydney Sun-Herald that the show 'had many artificial elements, not the least of them is that the prison set looks nothing like a real prison.  However, talking through walls in solitary confinement isn't quite as impossible as you might think.  The best form of communication is through water pipes or the toilet system: this is "the phone".  Ventilation ducts, windows and doors all add to the possibilities.  One good thing should be said about "Prisoner" is that it has helped create a greater sense of public sympathy for prisoners, If the programme helps the public relate to us as human beings rather than the faceless monsters that many authorities like to portray, then it is certainly having a good effect.' (Tim Anderson was one of three Ananda Marga sect members charged with the bomb deaths of two Sydney City Council garbagemen and a policeman when an explosion took place outside the Hilton Hotel during an Asian prime minister's conference in 1979.  The three defendants served seven years in jail before the New South Wales State Government set them free and quashed the convictions.  Within fourteen months Anderson was again charged with the bombings and at the time of writing is again claiming his innocence at a trial.)

About 150 verifiable letters were received by O-TEN and Grundy's from inmates in both men's and women's jails in the opening six weeks of the show, and most of them
 
 

PRISONER FILE

Name: Donna Mason  Actress: Arkie Whiteley

Donna Mason is on skid row when she is admitted to Wentworth and dependent on drugs sneaked into jail.  Donna is played by Arkie Whiteley, the daughter of acclaimed Australian artist, Brett Whiteley.  Born in England, she travelled the world as a child with, during her time in the U.S.A., a very unusual baby-sitter -- Janis Joplin.

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were happy with the drama and had quickly warmed to the characters.  The only general theme of criticism was that real jail life was much more boring than that portrayed in 'Prisoner'.

Several letters arrived from former or current residents of orphanages and boarding schools, saying 'Prisoner' had struck a chord with them too.  The general gist of the mail, was that the show brought back memories or paralleled present lives in those institutions, 'which seemed a sad indictment of the places,' wrote Don Groves (Sydney Sun-Herald).

Up north in the sunshine State of Queensland the law enforcers and moralists did a quick hatchet job on 'Prisoner'.  Ironically, ten years later, the Fitzgerald Commission would prove many of Queensland's top-ranking state politicians and senior policeman had spent twenty years raking off millions of dollars in prostitution and nightclub protection rackets, real estate and land development deals and abuse of governmental inflated petty cash claims.  In the meantime, 'Prisoner' was banned from screens in Queensland prisons, branded as 'cheap, degrading, sensational, squalid and without any redeeming features'.  Similar words would be used to describe some of the thirty-five politicians and policemen at the Fitzgerald Inquiry.

Surprisingly, back down in the South, there were penal reform activists in Prisoner's home state of Victoria who wanted the show outlawed from their prisons.  Sanity, however, prevailed, and a lengthy and often boisterous meeting between representatives from the State Government Corrective Services division - including Pentridge and Fairlea Prisons - and Grundy's and Channel O took place in Melbourne on 7 March 1979.  Community Welfare Services Minister, Brian Dixon, confirmed the series would 'continue to be available to Victorian prisoners with access to TV sets', but he stressed the meeting regarded the first three episodes of 'Prisoner' as 'an exaggerated and distorted coverage of real life in prison'.
 
 

PRISONER FILE

Name: Camellia Wells  Actress: Annette Andre

Annette Andre's first break as an actress was as Elizabeth Taylor's handmaiden in Cleopatra.  While in the U.K. in the Seventies, she was a regular in Emergency Ward 10 and Randall and Hopkirk, and just as regularly hit the headlines when she dated millionaire matador El Cordobes and soccer star George Best.  In 'Prisoner' she plays sophisticated talk show hostess, Camellia Wells, jailed for not paying a parking fine.

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DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE

'Prisoner' created headlines in the Melbourne press in late June with the discovery by actors and crew of confidential police and court documents.  The documents, found in an abandoned suburban courthouse and police station which Grundy's regularly rented for shooting, contained several hundred names and addresses and other personal details. They covered a wide range of offences, including car and traffic infringements, non-payment of bills, prostitution and theft. Police cells at the Prahran Courthouse complex were stacked several feet high with varied books, receipts, court orders, bail books, police reports and financial papers. On the day they notified the Prahran Council of scattered files at the location premises, the crew spent nearly and hour removing general rubbish, sorting files into half-empty boxes before cleaning the courtroom to start rehearsing trial scenes involving Elspeth Ballantyne  Prahran Council and the Crown Law Department sent officials to the courthouse soon after the calls were made to complain about the messy files. No more was heard of the matter. 'It was all hushed up,' revealed a "Prisoner" crew member. 'That night there was a huge clean-up. Government vans took everything away the next day.'  The softer side of everyone at Wentworth comes to the fore in a poignant storyline that has the inmates organising a fund-raising appeal for six-year-old deaf girl Debbie Peters (played so well by Anna Crawford, daughter of Crawford's Productions managing director Ian Crawford and his charming wife Mercedes.  It got to the stage that you never knew who would pop up on the screen as 'Prisoner' headed towards its record-breaking 500th episode. Ultra-marathon runner, 53-year-old Cliff Young, appeared as himself, tutoring the inmates on fitness as they organised an attempt to break the world record of 72 hours waltzing to raise funds for little deaf girl Debbie Peters. Potato-farmer Cliff hit the headlines when he won the inaugural Sydney-Melbourne marathon (600 miles) in 1982 with his famous 'gum-boot shuffle' gait.

Updated ~ 09 March 1998