TV: Prisoner Cell Block H

[tribal girl]

Righto. One of you dags is gonna pay for lagging on the top dog!. The rest of ya are goin' to the pound this arvo!. Fair dinkum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUnWrRrsNcQ

From imdb.com

Frontier Television, 30 March 2002
Author: jpyates from london

Prisoner. Truly one of the greatest drama's ever made. At the time the first episode was made it was groundbreaking television, and viewed all these years later it still is. Perhaps only a culture as young as the Australian one could have come up with such a fresh approach to the subject of Prison on screen. Yes it's derided and laughed about in many quarters, but mistakenly so and it's millions of viewers world wide are testiment to this.

Tour de Force performances from Maggie Kirkpatrick as tragic evil warder Joan Ferguson, Gerda Nicholson as the liberal Governor Anne Reynolds and Val Lehman as Top Dog supremo Bea Smith. Riots, fires,blackmails,fraud , kidnappings, vice and murder were all served up on an alarmingly regular basis. And that's just the officers storylines. I'm not joking, if you can last the course of all 692 episodes you will have watched every possible crime story , it's possible to think of! Very memorable notables include the fantastic British born actress Amanda Muggleton as Chrissy Latham, Tina Bursill's ice Queen Sonia Stevens, Judith McGrath's brilliant performance as complex officer Colleen Powell and the late Sheila Florence's unforgettable creation of Lizzie Birdsworth ( an astonishing performance that has to be seen). Notable storylines include Bea Smith's amnesia, the three episode terrorist seige in which Myra Desmond bows out, Franky Doyle's story and the story of misunderstood Kath Maxwell. Any story involving final Top Dog Rita Conners was worth it's salt including her harrowing experience in Blackmoor prison. The writing was as diverse as the acting could be but Ian Smith's episodes were always exciting and meaty. And although the show finally closed it's gates after seven years it's last year was considered by many to be the best, thanks to some excellent scripts and compelling charactors like Kath Maxwell and fiery Biker Goddess Rita Conners , played with such relish by Kate Hood and Glenda Linscott that it was impossible not to watch! Too many storylines too mention, too many charactors to review! Prisoner will be truly missed. Long live the reruns......

This show was always one of my favourites back when I was a nipper. Me and me dad used to watch it together and shout, "ya flamin' galah!" at the TV screen when we'd see a young Alf Stewart. And what a ripper of an eppisode that last one was when Joan finally got hers. Strewth, or when Lizzie would make all her secret grog and hide it in the basement. Old Bea would always find out about it and make her flush it down the dunny tho. Now rack off!. A screws comin'!

 

[felix]

^ My favourite chacter was 'Vinegar Tits'. There was always something strangely arousing about her sternness, I always did want her to take me into a cell and punish me.

 

[tambourine-man]

"Vinegar Tits" was a popular insult for any flat-chested girl in my school days. :D