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Epilogue |
Page 113
The menu included appropriately, Oysters Kirkpatrick, Lexie's Limp Lettuce, Freak's Friday Favourite and Ferguson's Delicacy with Trembling Tart. Glenda Linscott ('Rita the Beater') won the Most Glamorous Inmate of the Night Award, while Elspeth Ballantyne (the only survivor from day one) was given a special thank you award to a momentous standing ovation.
Grundy's president, Ian Holmes, presented Elspeth with an inscribed silver tray and told the assembly if all 600 hours of 'Prisoner' that Elspeth had appeared in were all unspooled and put together end-to-end the tapes would reach from Beirut to Istanbul, or Jakarta to Singapore. 'We are currently being seen in nine countries with peak viewing numbers around 39 million, and the show has won twenty-one awards,' said a proud Holmes.
But rumours were filtering in from Sydney that O-TEN had told Grundy's that 'Prisoner' would be cut before it reached its 700th milestone. There were strong denials from both O-TEN and Grundy's that the end of Wentworth was near. (In effect, there had been a meeting of worried minds between the network and producers. They had decided to adopt a 'let's see what happens with the ratings' attitude before making a definite decision on the show's future.)
Grundy's upped the action in an attempt to build the fading ratings. First, Lou Kelly busts out of Wentworth and goes on a rampant blaze of carnage up-country after she reaches the Watkins' farm (home of Lurch's family), culminating with the double murder of Lurch's mother and brother.
Then high drama on the high seas gave some fast and furious action for several members of the cast. Trainee Officers Marty Jackson and Delia Stout convince the authorities that selected inmates should be allowed to gain work experience on the boat 'Wattle', sailing around Port Philip Bay. Chosen are Rita Connors (Glenda Linscott),
Page 114
<Picture> Stranded on a beach after being lost at sea, Alice Watkins (Lois Collinder), Nancy McCormack (Julia Blake) and Rita Connors (Glenda Linscott) wait for a helicopter to lift them to safety. A dismal end to a work release programme on a boat
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Alice Watkins (Lois Collinder), Nancy McCormack (Julia Blake) and Lorelei Wilkinson (Paula Duncan). But Lorelei changes places with 'Roach' Waters (Linda Hartley) after day one. The accompanying officers for the trips are Marty Jackson, Delia Stout and Joan Ferguson.
Rita is out to get the Freak, as she believes Joan is responsible for her bikie boyfriend's death. Rita sweet-talks the boat's deck-hand Mick Warner (Nick Caraffa) into tricking Delia and Marty into leaving the craft. She then sabotages the boat's radio. Nancy thwarts Rita's attack on the Freak, who has decided to row ashore for help. Rita swims after her, still intent on revenge and the Freak's death. When they reach the distant shore it is Rita who needs rescuing, and only the timely help of the Freak saves her. Back on the boat, 'Roach' and Mick are falling in love and decide she should escape from Wentworth. Her plan is very clever, but full of danger and makes for one of the show's most extraordinary getaways. And she isn't caught ...
In spite of all the excitement, 'Prisoner' never made it to Episode 700. The official announcement that the show 'was closing down, having run its course' saddened the cast, crew and mainstream viewers alike. But it was no surprise to many of the principal players, especially Elspeth Ballantyne and Maggie Kirkpatrick.
Maggie: 'I would have been shocked had they re-signed for thirteen or twenty-six more episodes. I felt the show had run its race, and I had already started looking for something to move on to - you've got to finish sometime.'
Elspeth: 'I'm not at all unhappy it's finishing, for the past couple
of years when I've seen a friend in the theatre or a mini-series, I was
green with envy. I was the luckiest person around when they cast me in
the show. It's been a fabulous eight years. Great mates to
work with and so many fine actresses. "Prisoner" has given me some
of the most memorable moments of my career. But I don't want to be
Meg Morris collecting a pension cheque at Wentworth. There's a lot
of life left in me and many challenges I want
| PRISONER FILE
Name: Barbie Cox Actress: Jayne Healey |
| According to actress Jayne Healy,
'Barbie's bit of a screwball. They sort of tolerate me and, luckily,
Barbie gets taken under the wing of Rita Connors (Glenda Linscott) and
so no one is game to try and harm me.' Barbie is something of a mystery
and no one knows why she's inside.
Jayne's one regret about her role in 'Prisoner' is that most of her family cannot hear her in the hit show -- 'Of the six members of my family only the two eldest children can hear. They are terribly pleased for me, but it's a pity they won't know what I say. |
Page 116
| PRISONER FILE
Name: Nancy McCormack Actress: Julia Blake |
| Quiet, demure Nancy was found guilty of her husband's murder. But the real story was that she had taken the rap for her son after a fight between the two men had resulted in the death of her husband. Nancy had hidden the body in a backyard grave and told the police it had all been an accident. |
| PRISONER FILE
Name: Lisa Mullins Actress: Nikki Paul/Terrie Waddell |
| Prostitute Lisa Mullins signs in after
being found guilty of trying to blackmail an underworld heavy. She arrives
obviously frightened the crime boss might
send someone after her and she has to watch her back day and night.
After only six episodes, Nikki Paul was struck down with glandular fever and was replaced by Terrie Waddell. |
| PRISONER FILE
Name: Jessie Martyn Actress: Pat Evison |
| Pat Evison, the New Zealand actress, played proud prostitute Jessie Martyn. She discovered that at home in N.Z. 'Prisoner' was the most videoed programme in the country. |
Page 117
to take on. There are my two growing boys and there's a lot happening away from Wentworth.'
The headlines appeared at once: PRISONER AXED, GOODBYE, WENTWORTH, TOP SHOW CANCELLED, PRISONER SHUTTERED.
In Australian television annals, 'Prisoner' had held its own with nearly 700 hours of drama, over eight years. 'The Sullivans' lasted seven years for its output of 1,114 halfhour episodes (557 hours); 'Number 96' aired for five-and-a-half years and 509 hours; 'Cop Shop' lasted six years for its 623 one-hour episodes; 'The Young Doctors' ran seven years for 622 hours. But the granddaddy of them all is 'A Country Practice' - at the time of writing the Wandin Valley folk were taping their 769th hour in nearly eight years of top-rating Oz soap, and will eclipse the current record-holder, the Reg Watson-created Grundy show 'The Restless Years' (781 one-hour episodes).
Friday 29 August, 1986 was W-U Day on the set of 'Prisoner': Wind-Up
Day as the cameras taped the final scenes, and the sets came down, literally
tumbling around the
| PRISONER FILE
Name: Merle 'Looney' JOnes Actress: Rosanne Hull-Brown |
| The introduction of Merle into Wentworth caused a furore when critics and the producers differed on how far the mentally retarded character could be taken. Viewers were sympathetic and professional observers felt it was an area previously neglected. Actress Rosanne Hull-Brown said, 'I was horrified when I first read the breakdown of the character. They described Merle as unloved, aggressive and dangerously violent. She only read comic books and had a vocabulary of two-syllable words. Her imprisonment might have seemed harsh, but bit-by-bit her lot improves and she benefits along the way. I think we've handled her just right.' |
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cast and crew. Lois Collinder remembers doing a scene in the laundry, then moving to a corridor for some small pick-up shots. 'When we came back less than two hours later the entire laundry set was gone, down to the smallest prop. Walls were being cut away and carted down the hallway by the art people in their noiseless sneakers. It was like a giant wrecking team and burglary gang were on the job.'
Maggie Kirkpatrick: 'It was sad, almost like being part of a funeral. It was a hectic last day, as there were so many scenes to shoot. We all did what we had to do, told a few jokes to each other as the hours went by. Naturally, the end-of-shoot party was a big event. We had a deserted studio to ourselves, I had a hangover for two days.'
Nearly 3,000 viewers wrote to Grundy's and the O-TEN Network to offer their condolences at the demise of 'Prisoner', and all said they would watch the show to its end - the last 30-odd episodes would screen in Australia during the early months of 1987. Many wanted to start a petition to have production continued, and some offered to launch an appeal for money to keep the prison alive.
Ian Smith, associate producer at the show's end - he had been with the
series since episode forty when he was a script editor - said; ' "Prisoner"
was one of those rare shows where actors would ring and congratulate the
writers on the script, and writers would often call the actors and thank
them for the way they worked on certain episodes.'
| PRISONER FILE
Name: Lou Kelly Actress: Louise Siversen |
| Lou was a no-holds-barred prisoner who saw life in jail as almost a holiday camp. She got the other prisoners working her way and her worries were over. Her death in solitary confinement was the biggest mystery in years at Wentworth. She had survived several attempts to dethrone her as top dog and there was no shortage of suspects. |
Page 119
Smith, who co-wrote the final episode with producer Marie Trevor, continued, 'Over the many years we had every emotion in the world to play with. Prisoners dream of strange things. They dream of sleeping in a room with the door open. We had all these sorts of things to work off. "Give me my own space," was the catch-cry of the prisoner. The lack of space often causes riots. Tensions build and build. The bells ring, the doors don't just close, they clang shut!
'We had a prisoner on set in the early days to talk about prison routine. He stood in front of a closed door and would not open it. He was waiting for one of us to open it for him, because in prison you don't open a door.'
But the last door had closed at Wentworth.
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Epilogue |