EPISODE 626Broadcast on Channel 5 Sunday 25 June 2000 04:40. There is a fight among the prisoners and when Kath is beaten up, Merle goes on the warpath. Will Lexie lose her baby? Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne Joan ~ Maggie Kirkpatrick Ann ~ Gerda Nicolson Nancy ~ Julia Blake Rita ~ Glenda Linscott Julie ~ Jackie Woodburne Lexie ~ Pepe Trevor Alice ~ Lois Collinder Kath ~ Kate Hood Janet ~ Christine Earle Lorelei Wilkinson ~ Paula Duncan Amy Ryan ~ Penny Ramsay Merle ~ Rosanne Hull-Brown Alan Maxwell ~ Peter Flett Marty ~ Michael Winchester Vicki ~ Rebecca Dines Debbie ~ Ellie Nielsen Morgan McDermott ~ Maurice Marion  Bank Manager ~ Raymond Rich  UNCREDITEDAndrew Hinton ~ Fredric AbbottGate Guard Roger~ Bryan Dolan I have corrected the credit "Revecca" Dines. | Merle finds her comic torn: Kath tells her Rita did it, but then has to calm her down to prevent her taking revenge on Rita immediately. Together they set to work sticking the comic back together again. Meg reminds Joan that she has always suspected her of setting the Conquerors' hut on fire. Lorelei and Lexie have a shouting match about whether Julie's wedding should be held indoors or outdoors. Merle attacks Janet for calling her "Loony". Having seen this display of mindless aggression, Kath suggests to Janet that Merle should be put forward to fight Rita. Alan brings more money for Kath, and tells he he's going away to Perth, even though Kath begs him to stay. Janet works out that it couldn't have been Kath's husband who brought the last consignment of drugs into Wentworth. Kath is forced to tell her that she has involved Joan. Joan finds out that the money isn't in her account when she tries to apply for a mortgage on a new flat. Nancy comforts Julie, who is distraught at the thought that she might have lost Steve forever. Joan goes to Mrs Ryan to threaten her, but Mrs. Ryan is too drunk to take very much notice, until Joan threatens (idly, one assumes) to send some convicts around to re-arrange her face. Kath names a time for the fight and tells Rita her opponent will be Merle. Rita is confident she can do enough damage straight away to see Merle off, but the other women (notably Alice) are not so sure. Kath tries to psych Merle up for the forthcoming battle with Rita, but Meg comes to collect Merle to see the Governor just before the start of the exercise period. When Nancy tells Julie some of the things she has written about in her diary, Julie realises that it is Nancy's diary that is Joan's mystery "informant". Merle is held up seeing Ann: Kath is challenged to take her place and is duly beaten. Nancy writes a deliberately misleading entry in her diary to test if Joan is reading it. A man in a car watches Joan and Andrew on the golf course. As she goes inside from the exercise period, Rita hints to Meg that Kath and Janet have had a fight as a way of explaining Kath's slightly battered condition. Ann tells Kath about Merle's history (in and out a series of institutions from very early childhood) and asks her to look after her to keep her out of Ingleside. The mystery man tailing Joan and Andrew phones up his boss with information. Janet sarcastically suggests to Kath that she should take some of her own coke, as she clearly needs to calm down. After Janet leaves, Kath is clearly tempted and gets the plastic packet out from its (very obvious) hiding place, but she puts it back again. Meg pre-empts Marty just as he's about to tell her his "secret" by telling him that she has been thinking seriously about resigning from the prison service. Lexie teases Merle in the gym and is given a bear hug. Janet tells Merle it was Rita who beat up Kath, so Merle returns to the gym and takes on Rita, Alice and Lexie. Lexie is pushed to one side, falls heavily against a piece of gym equipment and is hit in the stomach.
Bob Moran is mentioned as having punched Alan Maxwell when he said he was leaving Kath. The cover of Merle's comic "Futureman" appears to have been drawn by a seven year old - or by an adult in the props department with seven minutes to spare. |
EPISODE 627Broadcast on Channel 5 Saturday 01 July 2000 04:40 Steve (Amy?!?) Ryan is plotting to ensure Julie's wedding does not take place, and Joan Ferguson strikes a bargain with a drug dealer.Joan ~ Maggie Kirkpatrick Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne Ann ~ Gerda Nicolson Joyce ~ Joy Westmore Rita ~ Glenda Linscott Julie ~ Jackie Woodburne Lexie ~ Pepe Trevor Alice ~ Lois Collinder Kath ~ Kate Hood Lorelei ~ Paula Duncan Janet ~ Christine Earle Amy Ryan ~ Penny Ramsay Roach Waters ~ Linda Hartley Merle ~ Rosanne Hull-Brown Sister Hall ~ Gael Andrews Heather Ryan ~ Julia MacDougal  Steve ~ Peter Hayes Andrew Hinton ~ Fredric Abbott Harry Parker ~ Howard Priddle  Morgan McDermott ~ Maurice Marion Patti Higgins ~ Lyn-Marie Smith  Sandra Williams ~ Andrea Butcher Toni Ann Higgins (baby) ~ Jade Warner Rita takes Julie's place in the opening mugshot credits. | The women wait anxiously for news of Lexie. Rita threatens Janet that Lexie had better be OK for her sake, or she'll end up with tyre tracks on her face. Lorelei comes to the rec room and tells them that Lexie is in maternity: neither she nor the baby is in any danger but she has to stay in overnight for observation. In fact, Lexie is being driven crazy by three babies shrieking simultaneously. Joan notices a strange car parked outside Andrew's house and establishes that it doesn't belong to any of his neighbours. Kath has to reassure Merle that what happened to Lexie was an accident and none of the women will blame her. Merle also reveals that she is terrified at the prospect of being transferred back to the "asylum". Lexie is kept away by babies crying. Rita urges the other women to enter into a truce with Kath until after Julie's wedding, and Kath agrees to go along with it. Joan confronts the man following her when he is still parked outside as she is setting off to work the following morning: he is Sandra William's drug dealer and tells her he wants a way into Wentworth or he will report her previous drug smuggling to the police. Ann tells Julie she will be transferred to Barnhurst after the wedding, which seems to please her (oddly, I think, as surely it is much further away from where Steve lives than Wentworth is?). Lexie learns about babies from the other women in maternity. Lorelei comes to maternity to slobber over the babies and go all mumsy. Julie returns Nancy's diary to its hiding place, complete with the phoney entry she has written about some unspecified plan the women have to cause trouble. Ann asks Meg not to be too hasty about her decision to leave. Mrs Ryan visits Ann to ask her to stop the wedding, but Ann points out that the couple are adults who are able to make their own minds up. Joan is asked to take Mrs Ryan back to reception and takes the opportunity to demand more money from Mrs Ryan in return for stopping the wedding. Putting the plan into action even before she is paid, Joan tells Kath to frame Rita and Alice for disrupting Julie's wedding, but has to include Janet as well when she catches her eavesdropping outside the shower block. Julie asks Lexie to be her bridesmaid. Kath is so stressed out by Janet's constant harping on about getting Merle to bash Rita that she has another look at the cocaine packet hidden in her locker, and this time she doesn't seem to put it back. Steve and his sister Heather bring home a wedding dress they have bought for Julie to wear, only to have Mrs Ryan fling her drink at it in pique. Steve's threat to leave home if his mother can't accept the wedding has her reaching for the phone to contact Joan as soon as he leaves the room. Lorelei's home made wedding dress for Julie  is a little plain - it might just about do if she was being burnt at the stake, rather than married. Harry Parker summons Joan to his office suite, and forces her to run drugs into Wentworth by threatening to expose her to the police, despite her insistence "I won't do anything that will land me behind bars". The women pinch Julie's clothes as a practical joke and leave her naked in the shower. Joyce casually drops phrases in French and Italian into the conversation so that Meg is forced to enquire why: Joyce tells her that she and Mervin are spending his cookery contest prize money and going on a foreign holiday. While they are distracted, Joan checks in Janet's sister Sandra on her visit with a consignment of drugs after pretending to search her bag. Julie is kidnapped by Kath and her cronies and taken to the boiler room in her wedding dress  . Kath sets it up so that Alice and Rita appear to have attacked her and Janet, and shouts out to attract the officers' attention.
The picture balanced precariously (not even hung) on Amy Ryan's mantlepiece The writers make Steve say to Heather: "Pity Hope's missing out on the big day". This may be because they belatedly realised they had used two different names, so decided to give him two sisters. |
The copyright date in the final credits changes to 1986 for this episode, after only 27 episodes with the 1985 date - since (599).
EPISODE 628Broadcast on Channel 5 Sunday 02 July 2000 04:40 Rita takes firm action against the Warrior who is using drugs, and the prisoners plot to pay Joan Ferguson back for setting up their friend Julie.Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne Joan ~ Maggie Kirkpatrick Ann ~ Gerda Nicolson Nancy ~ Julia Blake Rita ~ Glenda Linscott Julie ~ Jackie Woodburne Lexie ~ Pepe Trevor Alice ~ Lois Collinder Joyce ~ Joy Westmore Kath ~ Kate Hood Janet ~ Christine Earle Lorelei Wilkinson ~ Paula Duncan Amy Ryan ~ Penny Ramsay Merle ~ Rosanne Hull-Brown Vicki ~ Rebecca Dines Roach Waters ~ Linda Hartley Ida Brown ~ Paddy Burnet Steve ~ Peter Hayes Andrew Hinton ~ Fredric Abbott Pat Slattery ~ Dorothy Cutts Heather Ryan ~ Julia MacDougal James Dwyer ~ James Condon Peter Waterson ~ Mark Mitchell  Rev Parkes ~ Alan Andrews  Karen Stringer ~ Ilonya Komesaroff  Gate Guard Bob ~ David Bickerstaff Uniformed Policeman ~ Justin Gaffney Safety Officer ~ Glenn Ruehland UNCREDITEDGate Guard Roger? (though it is Greg who gets a mention in dialogue).Nancy, Officer Slattery, and Gate Guard Bob are credited but do not appear. | Ann is surprised when a reporter contacts her for permission to cover the wedding, but he's been tipped off by Jessie, whose name we can see on the reporter's notepad (with the surname clearly spelt "Windom"  ). Meg reports to Ann that Rita and Alice have attacked Kath and Janet and all four of them are sent to solitary. Lexie comes out of maternity and meets the four as they are being led away. Joyce tells Lexie she should get changed into her bridesmaid's gear. Merle releases Julie after reaching the agreed count of fifty (with quite a bit of help from Julie). Lorelei notices the state of Julie's dress and insists on mending it. Joan decides that in the current state of chaos of Wentworth, it would be a good time to phone the Minister and suggest he should make a visit. Lexie tries to repair Julie's makeup as in the rec room Mrs Ryan theatrically stubs out her eighth cigarette (on the floor, too, so common! Even if she'd been chain smoking, that's over an hour's worth?). Joan tells Ann that it was Kath who started the "fight" and that she has called in the Minister. Kath and Rita trade shouted insults from their respective solitary cells. Goaded by Joan's smugness and self-confidence, Ann insists that the wedding must go ahead without delay. The minister arrives just ahead of the Minister, who is just too late to stop the wedding  . He tells Ann she must resign for disobeying orders and makes Joan Acting Governor in her place. Julie is a little downcast after the wedding and worries what will happen when she and Steve are alone together. Vicki sells Roach some coke and accepts a bank withdrawal slip in payment (though Roach is hardly likely to have a bank account, surely?). Joan uses her new powers as Acting Governor to decide that Steve and Julie cannot use the conjugal suite after all and also decides she will countermand Julie's transfer to Barnhurst. Ann persuades the Minister to appear on television and use the wedding for positive publicity when he is faced with a camera crew outside the gates as he leaves. He decides that Joan wouldn't quite have the media appeal of Ann and reinstates Ann on the spot. During his TV interview, he congratulates Steve on his marriage to "Judy". Merle sees Roach hiding her cocaine in the battery compartment of a toy robot which she has taken a fancy to, and as soon as Roach leaves, she goes into the cell, recovers the robot  and runs off with it. Joan gloats as she clears out Ann's dangerously liberal sociology textbooks from the Governor's office, but Ann tells her the Minister has changed his mind. The Minister's interview appears on TV: as Andrew watches it, Joan storms out in disgust as his craven capitulation. Steve and Julie are allowed to spend some time together in the conjugal suite, and Julie tells Steve about Nancy's diary, explaining that Joan was using information from it try to keep in her in prison longer. Andrew proves himself a true soulmate for Joan by agreeing with her right-wing views on crime and punishment. Lorelei and Lexie catch Merle with the robot and the cocaine (which Merle thinks is "plutonium") and find out from her where she got it. The following morning, the women and Steve see Julie off to Barnhurst.
The reporter's desk also has a brochure for "Scottish Televison Progammes" prominently displayed The harp music at the wedding seems to come from the same record as for Mervin and Joyce's (this time, Boccherini's Minuet?) Steve "Marcus" Ryan? |
EPISODE 629Broadcast on Channel 5 Saturday 08 July 2000 04:40. The prisoners decide it is time to make Joan pay for reading Nancy's private diary.Joan ~ Maggie Kirkpatrick Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne Ann ~ Gerda Nicolson Rita ~ Glenda Linscott Lexie ~ Pepe Trevor Alice ~ Lois Collinder Nancy ~ Julia Blake Kath ~ Kate Hood Lorelei ~ Paula Duncan Janet ~ Christine Earle Roach Waters ~ Linda Hartley Merle ~ Rosanne Hull-Brown Vicki ~ Rebecca Dines Officer Bailey ~ Maureen Edwards Andrew Hinton ~ Fredric Abbott Marty Jackson ~ Michael Winchester Lorna Young ~ Barbara Jungwirth  Supervisor ~ Peter Heath  Waiter ~ Don White | Lorelei comforts Lexie, who is trying to put a brave face on Julie leaving. Roach escapes from a moralising lecture from Lexie about drugs. She runs into Vicki and buys drugs from her, understandably not believing Vicki's warning about Rita's changed attitude to drugs. After talking to Meg about Marty's job hunting apparently failing to get a result, Ann is surprised to read the list of new trainee officers to be posted to Wentworth. Lexie finds Merle hiding under a bed when she's supposed to be on cleaning duties. After Merle leaves, Lexie takes the coke out of the robot. Meg lets the four prisoners out of solitary and warns them all of the consequences if they continue with their feud. Lexie tries to dispose of the coke by throwing it through a locked security gate so it will be found where no one can be blamed for it. Lorelei tells Rita and Alice about the wedding they missed, and about Roach buying cocaine and Lexie disposing of it. Vicki assures Kath she has bought Roach's support as she's bought coke from her twice. Rita recovers the coke with the aid of a mop and her long arms and flushes it. Ann drops in to see Marty at the training college to find out why he is keeping it a secret from his mother. After telling Roach to keep clear of Kath, Rita warns Kath to stop selling drugs. Kath refuses and warns Rita she's likely to be transferred if she beats her up. Roach claims the robot back from Merle. Marty is dismayed to find he will be posted to Wentworth: Ann says he should tell his mother before they meet face to face in the corridors. When Roach smashes the robot and calls Merle "Loony", Merle attacks her. Kath breaks up the fight, telling Merle not attack someone who's a "friend of ours". Nancy tells the others the plan she worked out with Julie using her diary (*). Ann squashes Joan's plan to cut stealing from the kitchen by computerising the kitchen supplies (no doubt using one of the many PCs dotted around the building). She also makes it clear to Joan she disapproves of her passing on the task of doing the staff rotas to Meg, implying that Joan has malicious intent in doing so. The women set up Joan to overhear a plan for a mass escape  , then Alice follows Joan on her beeline straight to Nancy's cell to consult the diary, where she reads of a plan to explode a bomb against the fence as part of a mass escape attempt. The women fail to keep the plot against Joan secret from Lorelei, who doesn't like the idea, but agrees not to lag. Joan sets Kath to work to find out more details: Kath is surprised and says she hasn't heard a word about it and frankly doesn't believe it. Marty finally tells Meg about his job at Wentworth, and assures her he isn't trying to "avenge" his father's death. Lorna hands Lexie a handful of springs, adding mysteriously that she'll "never dance again". Kath writes to Bob Moran. Janet becomes suspicious and gets Merle to investigate the "secret weapon". Kath follows her and sees the springs. Rita realises that Kath is genuinely concerned in case Merle gets into trouble. Kath warns Janet not to try setting up Merle to bash Rita. The only information Kath can give Joan is that she has seen the women trying to hide some springs. When Meg and Marty go out to a restaurant to celebrate, he reacts oddly when a pan of crepes is set alight. The women plot how to get the booby-trapped suitcase outside.
Nice to see the improved formula "Fab 2" washing powder in use in the laundry. And surprising to hear Rita refer to "the Sisters Grim(m)", so it was not made up by Jennifer Saunders for AbFab. Why all the harping on about Mervin being ill? It's not as though anyone notices when he isn't in the cast. The training college's board |
Thanks to Chris Wathen in Digest 1250 for noticing an abrupt scene transition in the Channel 5 broadcast at the point marked (*). Presumably in the original there was a commercial break between Nancy's line "You girls may not know it, but you just lit the fuse to a very explosive time bomb." and Lexie's belated response in the second half of the scene "Well, she's a bloody fool. If you'd have stuffed up my parole, I'd bloody well throttle you, not forgive you." In the Channel 5 version the following scene had been moved up to disguise the obvious gap in a version that had no commercial break at this point, but this wasn't necessarily Channel 5's doing.
EPISODE 630Broadcast on Channel 5 Sunday 09 July 2000 04:40. Three young trainees discover the highs and lows of working at Wentworth.Joan ~ Maggie Kirkpatrick Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne Ann ~ Gerda Nicolson Nancy ~ Julia Blake Rita ~ Glenda Linscott Julie ~ Jackie Woodburne Lexie ~ Pepe Trevor Alice ~ Lois Collinder Lorelei ~ Paula Duncan Roach ~ Linda Hartley Ida Brown ~ Paddy Burnet Janet ~ Christine Earle Merle ~ Rosanne Hull-Brown Delia Stout ~ Desiree Smith  Andrew Hinton ~ Fredric Abbott James Dwyer ~ James Condon Marty Jackson ~ Michael Winchester Rodney Adams ~ Philip Hyde  Harry Parker ~ Howard Priddle Morgan McDermott ~ Maurice Marion Bomb squad 1 ~ Mark Muggeridge  Bomb squad 2 ~ David Jackson  [L]Gate Guard Trevor ~ Brad Lindsay UNCREDITEDGate Guard Bob ~ ???Julie is credited in error - she left two episodes ago! Gate Guard Trevor doesn't appear either. | Lorelei admits to Lexie that Joan seems much harsher than when she knew her before, and she's coming round to the idea that Joan might deserve what's coming to her. Lexie is upset at missing Julie, but even more so when she realises that she can't expect to see her again even after her release. The women tease Joan into threatening to cancel the exercise period, but realise she has taken the bait when she lets it go ahead after all. Meg asks Marty about his strange behaviour in the restaurant: he tells her his two best friends in the Navy were killed in a fire on board ship. Meg warns him not to let the women know, as an officer with a phobia could easily be a subject of extortion attempts by the women (obviously recalling one of Jim Fletcher's earliest plotlines?) Marty starts work with the two other trainees Rodney Adams and Delia Stout  . Ida plays the fragile old lady once more to distract Meg from seeing Lexie hide the bomb. Ann gives Joan a warning that she must not to try to influence the trainees with her own brand of cynicism. Rodney tries to impress Ann with a display of fawning and creeping. Lexie gets the suitcase out through the kitchen in a garbage bag. The trainees are introduced to the women and duly snigger at Delia's surname but take Marty's relationship to Meg in their stride. The women go outside for exercise period: Lexie transfers the suitcase to a handball net as the others start a diversion. Joan sees her and goes back inside to report to Ann that she's just been told there's a bomb in the grounds. The women are sent back indoors. The bomb squad men demonstrate the lethal qualities of the contents of the suitcase: a note on a spring reading "GOTCHA FREAK"  . Ann sends Joan home after reading the note in the suitcase exposing Joan's source to prevent her taking reprisals against Rita and Nancy. Rodney gloats he would have been able to see through such an obvious attempt at a diversion. Nancy takes full responsibility for the whole incident and loses two week's visiting rights. Alice suspects that Delia fancies Marty - or maybe just resents any possibility of a rival. Rita assumes that the ban on visiting is a token punishment, not realising that Nancy is bothered how it will look to Peter's girlfriend who is due to visit with Peter. The Minister gives Joan a rocket and threatens to demote her. Joan phones Harry Parker and asks him to get the Conquerors off her back. The women rehearse for a video about Nancy's heroic exploits to cheer her up, and decide to try to get Rodney's uniform to use as a costume. They trick him into coming to Lexie's cell and threaten to report him for making sexual advances to her. Joan tells Andrew she wants to move out of his house, but he begs her not to go. Rodney has to hide behind a cell door  when the women strip him and run off with his uniform.
An obvious bit of script recycling occurs when Marty recites the numbers of the various forms used at Wentworth, as new recruit Heather Rogers did in (463), which was also written by Ian Smith... |
Story Editor: Bevan Lee
Script Editor: Quincy McQuade (626); Quincy McQuade & Neil Luxmoore (627); Alister Webb (628), (629); Neil Luxmoore (630)
Storyliners: Bevan Lee (626), (627), Tony McDonald (626)-(630), John Coulter (626)-(630), Bob Greenberg (628)-(630)
| (621) to (625) |
