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Epilogue |
Page 104
Val barely escaped death after falling asleep at the wheel going home from a long day's stint at the studios. She narrowly missed a head-on collision with another car. 'We had been filming for nearly thirteen hours. There had been some very heavy scenes and most were very emotional, lots of sobbing, crying, that takes a lot out of you. I came out of the air-conditioned studio into the heat and had to drive home looking straight into the sun. I dozed off at the wheel,' said Val.
'I veered off the road when the oncoming car's horn and screeching of brakes woke me. It was frightening. I just sat there, dazed, feeling helpless. People rushed to my car and asked me if I was OK. I had missed the other car by inches.'
Sitting in the car after the previous night's terror, Val made a vow to herself, her daughters, friends and the show. 'From then on, if I was tired at the studio, and had to drive home, I would take a nap first. I'm not going to kill myself.'
Asked why she was still with 'Prisoner' when her close friend Colette Mann had left, Val quickly ran off a number of reasons. 'I am still exploring some facets of Bea's character. I'm satisfied she hasn't been exhausted. I haven't come to a dead-end. I think Colette felt she wasn't going anywhere new - her Doreen had done it all.' Val added that her new contract with Grundy's meant she was getting more money. 'That's a good reason for staying, too,' she winked.
Val Lehman's brush with death in the car-dozing incident made her relax more on and off the set. At weekends she relished the freedom of 'mucking about' on either of the farms owned by her mother and step-father in south-western Victoria, or on the 'just out of Melbourne' property of her long-time acting friend, Andrew Gilmour. Val did many of the regular farm chores, tending to the cattle, goats, sheep and pigs, either watched or aided by daughters Cassandra and Joanne. 'And I can milk a goat,' says Val
Page 105
<Picture> Val Lehman relaxes at home with daughters Cassandra (18)
and Joanne (17), and a spoilt canine, Hannah. Cassie
had made her debut as a teen drug-addict in
early 1979 episodes of 'Prisoner' when she was only 16.
| PRISONER FILE
Name: 'Weeping Willie' Beecham Actress: Kirsty Child |
| Kirsty Child appeared in early episodes of 'Prisoner, as a warder gone bad, jailed and eventually killed off. But she returned as Beecharn. 'Willie is transferred from another prison. She inherited her father's disposition for making money by shady deals and is a replica of Lizzie Birdsworth in the tears department -- Willie cries at the drop of a hat. What she lacks in honesty she also lacks in likeability, ' said Kirsty. |
Page 106
proudly. 'My ultimate dream is to have a farm of my own. You can't beat being out in the country - all the space, greenery, the fresh air. It's great just to get up in the mornings.'
Other than being down on the farm, Val liked pottering around antique shops, hunting for 'little knickknacks just as Sheila (Florance) does. I've got this thing about fans,' she says. She owns an impressive collection, one dating back to 1749.
And Val was being seen more and more in the company of businessman John Collins. She was coy about the extent of the relationship, but did admit 'we spend a lot of time together'.
Val was also campaigning actively against drugs. She had made
anti-drug commercials for the Australian Foundation on Alcoholism and Drug
Dependence. Her two daughters had friends from their primary school
days now supporting their heroine habits through
prostitution. 'What a waste of two lives,' Val said sadly.
Her own life was about to make a dramatic change.
| PRISONER FILE
Name: Ruth Ballinger Actress: Lindy Davies |
| A villainous piece of work and wife of a crime boss, Ruth Ballinger brings armed terrorists into the jail. Her husband wants Ruth out 'dead or alive' but Ruth knows she won't survive on the outside with her murderous husband out to silence her. So she manipulates the raid to her own ends and in the three-episode siege, the Freak and Warder Joyce Barry are taken hostages, while outside Federal Police, led by Detective Inspector Grace (Terry Gill) argue about sending in the local SWAT outfit. |
Page 107
| PRISONER FILE
Name: Lorelei Wilkinson Actress: Paula Duncan |
| Before being a Wentworth inmate, Paula Duncan played Detective Danni Francis in the popular Australian 'Cop Shop' series. 'Lorelei was a bright, flirtatious character, a likeable con-woman with a slightly daffy quality, ' said Paula. 'Poor Lorelei is nicked for posing as a policewoman -- I guess the scriptwriters are having a go at me.' |
It was drizzling on the morning of Monday 28 March when the shock headlines were emblazoned on newspaper banners outside newsagents and paper shops: BEA TO BE FREED! STAR QUITS TOP SHOW! KEY FOR BEA! 'LET ME GO,' SAYS PRISONER TOUGHIE! STAR: 'I WANT OUT!'
Many industry notables thought the stories were part of a gigantic hoax. One journalist rang a top O-TEN PR executive in Melbourne convinced it was a publicity stunt to try and bring back the high ratings of the previous years. 'I wish it was just that,' the glum PR man replied, 'But she's going. We tried our hardest to talk Val into staying. It hasn't happened overnight. We've kept everything hush-hush for weeks.'
Not since Carole Burns' exit from 'Prisoner' had there been such a public reaction to a star leaving the show. And there was a niggling fear in the minds Of O-TEN and Grundy chiefs that a couple of other major stars might follow suit. These fears would soon prove to be justified.
The Melbourne morning radio shows were full of 'Prisoner' viewers telephoning stations to get more information, many wanting the announcers to contact Val personally so she could deny the unthinkable - Wentworth without Bea Smith.
But Val was going. She'd spent several weeks agonising over her decision to quit, and Grundy's and the O-TEN Network had tried to persuade her to stay for at least another year. When that fell on deaf ears, they pleaded for another six months. But Val
Page 108
was adamant. 'Write me out. Kill Bea off. The end has to come,' Val told Grundy's. 'It's time to move on. Four-and-a-half years is long enough.'
Val's agent, Beris Underhill, of Frog Promotions, recalls the furore. 'The phones were hot. No one really believed she had quit. Some callers were crying, and radio listeners were talking about public petitions to get Val to stay. I've been in the business for twelve years and never experienced anything quite like those days.'
Val had two main reasons for leaving. She felt Bea had finally run her race (something she had denied only a few months earlier) and there was a great offer from top producer Wilton Morley (actor Robert Morley's Sydney-based theatrical entrepreneur son) to star in Claire Luckham's new play Trafford Tanzi, opening in Sydney in June.
Val dismissed pessimistic forecasts that the series would collapse once she was gone. "Prisoner" was never meant to revolve around Bea - it just happened. No one in television is indispensable. They'll find someone to replace me. Life has to go on.'
<Picture> Paddy Lawson (Anna Hruby) and Chrissie Latham (Amanda Muggleton) get ready for the Woodridge Prison concert, a big night for the claustrophobic Paddy, and part of Chrissie's escape plans
Page 109
She was firm in her belief that the major factor contributing to the show's continued success was in the strength of the acting performances. 'The cast works as a team, and we help and support each other. The producers and writers welcome our ideas. It's a unique show with unique people.'
Grundy's still hadn't given up on Val Lehman changing her mind about quitting. They seized on a small newspaper story in which Val lamented leaving Melbourne because she would have to give up teaching children drama at a centre in the city. 'Take a few months off for the play, recharge your batteries, go on a cruise, then come back. We'll leave the way open for you to return. Look Colette's coming back, it will be like old times.' Indeed, one of the Three Musketeers was due back. Colette Mann was returning, but for only four episodes to resolve her Doreen Anderson story in the halfway house and settle her parole violations and marriage to Kevin Burns.
But Val stuck to her guns. She'd signed for the Trafford Tanzi premiere season in Sydney, the posters were out and advance bookings were good. The theatre public now wanted a dash of one of television's biggest names.
The only bright light among all this gloom was that the scriptwriters could at long last set up the final showdown between Bea Smith and Joan (the Freak) Ferguson.
It was something of a Black Friday again in Melbourne on Friday 13 May,
1983, when Val Lehman taped her final scenes. 'I don't know who should
be more worried about the date - me or the show's producers,' said Val,
who seemed to be in high spirits,
| PRISONER FILE
Name: Rita Connors Actress: Glenda Linscott |
| Rita Connors tough bikie giant (6
ft 2 ins) knew some of the Freak's secrets and let her know from day one
that she was going to make things difficult for the head guard and anyone
else who got in the way. 'You're scum,' she told Ferguson, her face
only inches from the quiet officers lips. 'Nothing but scum.'
Originally from Adelaide, Glenda was a NIDA graduate of 1978. She joined 'Prisoner' at 27 and had previously found her height a towering problem in getting TV work. She had just played a small part in the mini-series 'Cowra Breakout as 'the wallflower at a dance who is too t all for all the boys'. The actress had told Daily Mirror writer, Helen Vines, that when she got the role of Connors she 'went into monumental panic -- not because Rita was a bikie with a boyfriend ominously named Slasher or because she'd slept her way to the dizzy heights of queen of the bikie gang. No, it's because Rita fights like a man and is extremely violent. I'm so repulsed by violence I didn't think I could do it. But all my best friends said it was only a role -- go do it.' |
Page 110
telling many of the sombre faces to 'get on with it, and we'll have a nice old booze-up at the end of the day this isn't a funeral.'
But it was difficult for many of the cast on a day when a much-loved
mate is about to pack her bags and disappear after more than four amazing
years. Val was a very special member of the cast, loved by all, and
the crux of so much that had happened in and outside the show. She
was its unofficial spokeswoman and she and Sheila Florance were the only
survivors from the original inmates.
Elspeth Ballantyne was the surviving keeper.
In the end the Freak subdues the seemingly indestructible Bea.
Massive audiences across Australia watched the build-up to the battle of
the biggies. There are allegations that Bea has planned a major riot
and taken control of gambling in Wentworth. Recaptured after her
short-lived escape, she is being transferred to Barnhurst Prison and maximum
security. For Joan Ferguson and Bea Smith it was a roller-coaster
ride to mayhem.
| PRISONER FILE
Name: Myra Desmond Actress: Anne Phelan |
| Myra Desmond, head of the Prisoner
Action Group, takes no time before she confronts Bea Smith's two worst
enemies -- Margot Gaffney (Jane Clifton) and Marie Winter (Magg.ie Millar).
In the end, she takes on the Freak, too, and bashes
her into near-oblivion in a vicious brawl, after which the
warder needs life-saving brain surgery.
When a crime chief tries to get his wife, Ruth Ballinger, out of Wentworth, Myra gets a stomach and chest full of fatal bullets from his terrorists. |
Page 111
<Picture> Celebrating the 400th episode of 'Prisoner', and free of their everyday uniforms are Betty Bobbitt, Maggie Kirkpatrick and Jane Clifton. Maggie won the fashion stakes award for the night. In the milestone episode she finally ejects Bea Smith out of Wentworth forever. (Solo Syndication)
There was no quarter given, and stunt choreographers assigned to work out the final confrontation between the two bosses at Wentworth stood open-mouthed as Maggie Kirkpatrick and Val Lchman unleashed their brute forces. But Val was leaving the show and Maggie was not so the Freak was the victor.
That final exchange of looks between the Freak and Bea as the prisoner is carried away on a stretcher to the maximum security of Barnhurst Prison said it all. Then the demented keeper smiled in triumph. 'I had to win sometime,' are the Freak's parting words.
Page 112
Yet, there were even more memorable moments off camera. The two gladiators collapsed into each other's arms and hugged amid tears for almost a minute before cheering and whistling accorded a magical milestone in Australian TV history. Sheila Florance pressed her way through the throng and took hold of Val's jacket, held on tight and unceremoniously bawled her eyes out.
Several yards away, struggling hard to stop a teardrop or two, was a
top Grundy's executive. He had been in the business twenty years,
and thought he was pretty tough. Now he struggled against his emotions,
and when he saw frail Sheila Florance noisily shedding the most tears,
clinging desperately to Val, he knew the writing was on the wall.
Colette Mann had gone, now Val Lehman - how long before the last of the
Three Musketeers would say adieu? Sadly, the answer was that Sheila
was to follow very soon.
| PRISONER FILE
Name: Nikki Lennox Actress: Vicki Mathias |
| A tough 15-year-old (actually played by 13-year-old Vicki Mathias). Nikki is a tart, who rules the streets of her suburban home with a gang of three willing followers (Roby Frank, Nicole Dixon and Liz Bermingham). Her episodes were used as the basis for discussion groups throughout Australia about the English/U.S. scheme, 'Scared Straight'. The idea is that young offenders go to jail and learn about life on the inside. 'Prisoner' scriptwriter, Ian Smith (later to become harrassed Harold Bishop of 'Neighbours') said, 'Studies found it is not the bars or restrictions which terrify the young offenders, it is the tough crims who are in jail for a long time.' |
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Epilogue |