And let us not forget that Lynne Hamilton (who sung the theme) is in fact Lancashire-born!
When I was a teenager I had an organ teacher (fnar fnar) who claimed that he used to play in a band with her. Never knew for sure if he was telling the truth or not, but I suspect he was!
Ok- who can name the officers on all the end credit sequences respectively?
I beleive the 1st was Willie Beecham in her previous guise as Officer Yates (?) She only appeared in the first few episodes, before it was revealed by Vera that SHE was the one who was supplying drugs to the women (and the woman who was found hanged in episode one).
I know that Officer Barfiled had a long run on the end credits... AND she even had a few lines at one stage - don't know why they bothered though as her acting ability was... erm... crap!
Another favourite 'Joan' moment was when Rita and Alice filled the balloons with laughing gas from the dentist- and they all burst in the staff room making 'The Freak' and Mrs Barry lose it from laughing.
... I should have read a bit more but has anyone mentioned Lizzie Birdsworth yet? Bless- and god rest her soul.
I think Prisoner's success can be based upon the original teaming of Lizzie, Doreen and Bea. This continued with Myra and Jude, Nora and the council (shudder), and of course Rita and Alice. Alice being the MOST convincing character change in any soap/drama- very well done.
On the subject of Myra and her demise- anyone see the interview with Anne Phelan, where she admitted that when she was on the floor, covered with a blanket, dead, she was actually wearing fishnets and, I quote 'follow me **** me shoes' LOL!
I've just remembered the Kay White story i loved that she was so ugly with those big poppy eyes of hers .I loved it when she ended up in Wentworth and Margo and the gang tried to drive her mad with her gambling habit .
I think Prisoner's success can be based upon the original teaming of Lizzie, Doreen and Bea.
Actually, the Bea-Lizzie-Doreen gang only came towards the end of 1979. At first, Lizzie and Doreen were firmly ensconced with Frankie - Bea's arch enemy.
When dose this episode of Home and Away with Maggie Kirkpatrick Start in the uk on Channel FIVE please let me no..
Probably not for a while yet i'm not even sure if its been shown in Australia yet so I'm afraid it looks like we've got a long wait seeing as the FIVE episodes have just entered 2003.
Well after going to Maggie's website I can confirm she is in this weeks episodes in Australia. So she will probably be seen next year in the autumn so yes we have got a long wait.
I remember Pixie's song, I dont remember if the announcer spoke over the credits during that ep on C5 but I think they did on ITV and ruined the song
Oh yes he spoke - to remind us that this was a special occasion and we'd never hear this again so he wouldn't speak over the entire credits, just ruin it by speaking over part of them.
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It was one of the extra officers who did the lock up on the closing credits wasnt it, it would have been better if it was someone regular in the show like Meg or Officer Barry or even the freak.
Yes and no. The very first sequence featured Office Anne Yates, who was actually a main character (or as main as characters were at the start - at first the series revolved around Bea, Lynn and Karen, with all other characters being more supporting roles). The problem was she lasted only a few episodes before her corrupt activities were exposed and thus had to be replaced on the credits.
The second sequence introduced in episode 5 featured a bit part (I forget her name, but I think she *may* have been credited as 'Officer Roberts') but she did have lines. The problem was that she was never seen again after episode 11/12 but the sequence stayed in use until just before episode 300 (it was actually still in use when Joan first appeared) and so by then the character doing it was long forgotten.
The third sequence was done by bit part Office Joan Barfield - bit part maybe but she was a recognisable character. That character was killed off, necessitiating a fourth sequence (which remained in use until the end). That I think was the only one shot with an completely nameless officer.
I agree though that it would have been nice to have a main character doing it. What I always found interesting is that on all 4 of the sequences the officer doing the rounds was checking things off a clipboard - yet whenever you saw an officer actually doing the rounds in the programme he/she never carried a clipboard.
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Does anyone remember the flashback episode (536) this wasgood as I missed a lot of the early episodes so I could see things like Bea burning Lynn's hand on the press in episode 1
A godsend if you hadn't seen the early episodes, an ultimate cheap filler if you had (and all of the original actors featured should been credited at the end - only Elspeth Ballantyne and Maggie Kirkpatrick really deserved their credit for that episode, the other actors did nothing but link flashbacks together). It seemed ludicrous to me that Lou and Alice (Lurch) had apparantly been in Wentworth since the series began, especially since Lou's actress started off in the minor role of Tammy (the one shot dead in the Ballinger siege) before she was evolved into Lou. There were also conflictions in the storyline, such as Lou complaining that she helped build the tunnel used in the tunnel escape, wheras infact it was an old unused drain which allready existed.
Yes the announcer would often talk over the credits on C5 which was quite annoying. IIRC they didnt speak over the credits of the final episode though, not on Channel 5 anyway, the various ITV regions may have.
Yes the flashback episode was good as id only just started watching not long before that on ITV, id seen some of the early episodes on C5 but not that many due to the slot and I found the 5 days a week schedule hard to keep up with, it was better twice a week I think.
Yes only Meg, Joan, Ann, Myra, Lexie, Lou, Lurch were in the flashback episode I think? (Judy had left and Nora hasnt arrived) The old cast were never credited probabaly as they were clips and not new material.
Lurch has been an extra for a while hasnt she so maybe she was in the show in the early days, she was also in the show until the final episode and was much more of a regular character after Rita was introduced and she switches sides from Lou to Rita.
Remember the mugshot credits at the start, they only had 2 prisoners on at a time so lots of the cast were never featured in them, and for some reason when Nora arrived they replaced Lexie with her, it was only after Myra was killed that Lexie came back to the mugshots, they obviously felt Nora was quite important to put her on the mugshots straight away, even Rita Connors never got on them until the episode before Julie's wedding (627)
Did the demise of the series come at short notice, or was there plently of warning prior to the decision ? The reason I ask is that as brilliant as the ending was, it did leave a number of storylines open and only Joan's character received closure.
Rumours about it's possible cancellation were doing the rounds throughout 1985 and 86 and reached their peak when Channel 10 took on Neighbours and wanted more studio space for it - space which Prisoner was using, but it's official cancellation came only 6 weeks before it ceased production and thus the ending of the series had to be conceived, written and shot all within this time. As it was made approximately 6 months in advance of screening, that means that the viewers knew about it's ending about 7 months before the final episode.
There are rumours that they had to abandon storylines and even draft scripts allready in existance in order to bring the series to a close - if they survive it would be interesting to see them to see what direction the series would have gone in had it not been cancelled.
There was tentative talk of a new series in the mid 90's, but the part of the studios earmarked for Prisoner ended up being allocated to further expansion to Neighbours