Prisoner (TV series)

Prisoner (known in the UK and the US as Prisoner: Cell Block H and in Canada as Caged Women) is an Australian television soap opera, which was broadcast on Network Ten (formerly the 0-10 Network) from 27 February 1979 (Melbourne) and 26 February 1979 (Sydney) to 11 December 1986 (Melbourne) and 29 September 1987 (Sydney) running eight series and 692 episodes.

Prisoner was the first Australian series to feature a primarily female-dominated cast and carried the slogan "If you think prison is hell for a man, imagine what it would be like for a woman!"

The series, produced by the Grundy Organisation, was conceived by Reg Watson and filmed at the Network Ten Melbourne Studios at Nunawading and on location. The series garnered an international cult following, and it was one of Australia's most successful media exports, screening in 80 countries, performing particularly well in the United States and Canada. It also built a large audience in the United Kingdom and other European countries, especially Sweden.

The cult status of the series has seen many adaptations, including the modern 21st-century re-imaging Australian series Wentworth on Foxtel.

Background

Ian Bradley served as original producer and then executive producer, from series 2, while associate producer and screenwriter was Ian Smith, who appeared as an actor in the series as Head of the Department Ted Douglas, prior to becoming famous as the character Harold Bishop in Neighbours; another screenwriter, Anne Lucas, also acted briefly in the series playing prison bookie Faye Quinn.

The series is loosely based on British prison drama series Within These Walls, although it focuses more on the prisoners or inmates, rather than the prison staff led by officious governor Faye Boswell, played by Googie Withers, who was even approached by producers of Prisoner to play the governor.

The series is set in the fictional Wentworth Detention Centre in the fictional suburb of Wentworth in Melbourne, Victoria, and follows the lives of the prisoners and staff within cell block H and, to a lesser extent, others on the outside such as family members, doctors and lawyers. Numerous scenes also took place outside the compound exploring the lives of the inmates and staff outside of the prison; in particular, "Driscoll House", a halfway house where inmates were housed after being released, or neighbouring correction institutions like Barnhurst (a lower-security country prison) and Blackmoor (an aged, yet high-security, prison).

The series gained a positive reception.