Est: 2016
Prisoner Cell Block H cast in panto mini feature
ANNE CHARLESTON - Deidre Keane / Lorraine Watkins / Policewoman
IAN SMITH - Ted Douglas / Rev.Potter / Policeman
1989 Dick Whittington - Davenport Theatre Stockport
1990 Dick Whittington at the Brighton Dome
1991 Cinderella - Birmingham Hippodrome
1992 Dick Whittington - Hanley Theatre Royal
1993 Cinderella - Southampton Mayflower
1999 Jack and the Beanstalk - Pavilion Porthcawl
2000 Dick Whittington - Princess Theatre Torquay
2005 Aladdin - White Rock Hastings
2007 Cinderella - Opera House York
RAY MEAGHER - Ernest Craven / Kurt Renner / Geoff Butler
1989 Snow White – Barking Assembly Hall
1991 Goldilocks and the Three Bears – Wimbledon
1993 Aladdin – New Victoria Woking
1994 Jack & The Beanstalk – Birmingham Hippodrome
1995 Jack & The Beanstalk – Southampton Mayflower
1996 Cinderella – Festival Theatre Chichester
1998 Cinderella – Cliffs Pavilion Southend
1999 Peter Pan – Grand Opera House Belfast
2000 Cinderella – Darlington Civic
2002 Peter Pan – Llandudno
2004 Dick Whittington – Palace Theatre Mansfield
2005 Aladdin – Bournemouth Pavilion
2006 Dick Whittington – Grand Theatre Blackpool
2007 Dick Whittington – Swansea Grand
2008 Aladdin – Anvil Basingstoke
2009 Peter Pan – Assembly Rooms Tunbridge Wells
The below video is a snippet from Ray Meagher's 2022 programme This is Your Life in which he briefly talks about panto and receives messages form panto co-stars Su Pollard and Bobby Davro
FIONA SPENCE - Vera 'Vinegar Tits' Bennett
1990 Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs- Theatre Royal Hanley
1991 Aladdin - Theatre Royal Hanley
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To watch both of Fiona's pantomimes in full visit our video page here
VAL LEHMAN - Bea Smith
1992/93 Aladdin - Opera House, Manchester
1993/94 The Wizard of Oz - Granville Theatre
JACKIE WOODBURNE - Julie 'Chookie' Eggbert
2000 Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs - Pavilion Theatre Worthing
2001 Cinderella - Stafford Gatehouse
CORNELIA FRANCIS - Carmel Saunders
1990 Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs - Cliffs Pavilion Southend
1991 Dick Whittington - Rhyl Pavilion
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Cornelia passed away in 2018 aged 77 following a battle with bladder cancer
JUDY NUNN - Joyce Martin
1991 Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs - Ferneham Halls Fareham
DEBRA LAWRANCE - Sally Dean / Daphne Graham
1991 Pinnochio - City Varieties, Leeds
1995 Cinderella - Assembly Rooms Tunbridge Wells
BARRY QUINN - Greg Miller
1971 Aladdin - Connaught Theatre Worthing
MAGGIE DENCE - Bev 'The Beast' Baker
1992 Cinderella - Princess Theatre Torquay
1994 Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs - Gordon Craig Theatre Stevenage
LINDA HARTLEY - Rachel 'Roach' Waters
1990 Mother Goose - Charter Theatre Preston
1991 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Leicester
MAGGIE MILLAR - Marie Winter
2002 Aladdin - Opera House York
2003 Cinderella - Princess Theatre Torquay
2004 Cinderella - Queens Hall, Widness
TOM OLIVER - Ken Pearce
1995 Jack and the Beanstalk - De La Warr Pavilion - Bexhill on Sea
1997 Robinson Crusoe - Worthing Pavilion
1999 Cinderella - Beck Theatre Hayes
STEFAN DENNIS - Shane Berkley / Spike / Peter Richards
1990 Robin Hood – Liverpool Empire
1991 Aladdin – Mayflower Southampton
1992 Cinderella – Bournemouth Pavilion
1993 Jack & the Beanstalk – Wimbledon Theatre
1994 Peter Pan – Grand Theatre Blackpool
1998 Aladdin – Weston Super-Mare Playhouse
2007 Aladdin – His Majesty’s Theatre Aberdeen
2009 Cinderella – Grand Theatre Wolverhampton
ROGER OAKLEY - Chris Young
1990 Sleeping Beauty - Orchard Theatre, Dartford
MAURIE FIELDS - Len Murphy / Uncle Archie / Maurie Parks
1961 Puss in Boots - Princess Theatre, Melbourne (Australia)
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Maurie passed away 18th December 1995 aged 69 following a heart attack. He had been married to actress Val Jellay who also appeared in Prisoner as Mabel Morgan.
NORMAN YEMM - Eddie Stevens
1959 Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp - Theatre Royal, Adelaide (Australia)
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Norman passed away 3rd February 2015 aged 82. Norman's daughter Jodie Yemm also appeared in Prisoner as inmate Rosemary Kaye.
BETTY BOBBITT - Judy Bryant
1979 Cinderella - Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne (Australia)
1980 Cinderella - Victoria VIC (Australia)
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Betty passed away 30th November 2020, aged 81 following a stroke
SANDY GORE - Kay White
1979 Cinderella - Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne (Australia)
GARY DOWN - Des Williams
1979 Cinderella - Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne (Australia)
1997 Aladdin - Capers Cabaret, Hawthorn, Victoria (Australia)
PATSY KING - Erica Davidson
1957/58 Peter Pan - Princess Theatre, Melbourne (Australia)
PETER ADAMS - Bob Moran
1965/66 Robin Hood - Tivoli Theatre, Sydney (Australia)
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Peter passed away from cancer 13th December 1999, aged 61. Peter had been married to Prisoner actress Kirsty Child (Willie Beacham)
ROSLYN GENTLE - Brandy Carter / Laura Gardiner
1982 Sleeping Beauty - Philip Street Theatre, Sydney (Australia)
TERRY GILL - Det.Insp Jack Grace
Terry Gill passed away on 25th February 2015 aged 75. after suffering with lung cancer.
For many years, Gill and his wife Carol Ann ran The Tivoli theatre restaurant in Melbourne, producing pantomimes and theatre shows featuring many well-known Australian performers. Together Terry and Carol Ann would open their own string of theatre-restaurants, writing, directing and producing shows at the Bull n Bush in Warrandyte, The Naughty Nineties in Hawthorn and the Tivoli in Malvern -with the latter also serving as the home of children’s pantomimes for decades. Over the years their casts have included, Ken James (Sons and Daughters' Mike O'Brien), Colette Mann (Prisoner's Doreen Anderson/Burns) and Lisa Crittenden (Prisoner's Maxine Daniels).
Terry would write the shows — borrowing heavily for the pantomimes from traditional stories, he penned 13 pantomimes of his own.
Just for fun.... based on the pantomime story-line featured in Prisoner in episode 165 here is our poster for the prisoner's own version of Cinderella.
Head back behind bars with a reminder of the classic Prisoner theme tune......
Enjoy the lesser heard instrumental version here...
Prisoner Cell Block H end credits
Home media release...
2022 Australian release
March 2022 saw Via Vision (the saviours of classic Aussie Drama on DVD) issue another repackaged release of Prisoner, this time we were treated to a mammoth 41 disc set which covered the first two seasons of the series taking us from the moment Karen Travers and Lynne Warner first arrive at Wentworth right up to the infamous pantomime tunnel escape and collapse.
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Hardcore fans will no doubt already own one of the previous releases, this now being the fourth time the full series has been repackaged although the discs themselves are identical in every way to the very first release of the series back in 2006, then released as a monthly release subscription. This is a straight repackaging of the first two releases from the 2016 release. Prisoner remains very watchable and the perfect long binge so those fans who owned the originally release may just decide to make this purchase as a back up if they have watched their discs to the point of wearing them out...as we practically have!
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The only downside of this release comes with the actual packaging, it looks good and sits well on the shelf alongside other releases but there is nothing either on the packaging, inserts or the discs themselves to tell you which episode is featured on each disc making it very hard to go straight to a specific episode if one wished to.
2016 Australian release
Prisoner was once again given a full series release in Australia by Via Vision, this time in 'complete season' releases between November 2016 and September 2017 across 8 volumes.
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Once again the discs themselves were identical to the very first full season release by Shock Entertainment.
2006 Australian release
This first full series release consisted of 40 volumes released between 2006 - 2009 with a full collection being made available in a presentation case with an exclusive book in 2007 with a re-release in 2011
2010 The Edna Pearson Story
In a worldwide first, The Edna Pearson Story brings to DVD some of the most controversial and talked about episodes in the history of Wentworth. Now, for the first time, all original and fully un-cut episodes of the infamous 'poison' story line are featured on DVD. Starring one of Australian TV's best known actress Vivean ray (The Sullivans, Neighbours), these episodes were banned in Australia and heavily cut for UK transmission. Sit back and enjoy the arrival of Edna at Wentworth, having been found guilty of attempting to murder her husband. is she as innocent as she claims? As rat poison goes missing it is wise to have her on kitchen duty? And when Marlene collapses with stomach pains who should the inmates blame? Available for the first time in twenty five years, The Edna Pearson Story is a genuinely un-missable DVD event for all fan of Prisoner Cell Block H.
2008 UK full series release
This first full series release consisted of 20 volumes released between 2008 - 2013
2002 The Best of dvd releases
Volume 1: 3 discs set featured:
Disc 1: The Early Years
Episode166: 1981 season premiere - the aftermath of the Tunnel escape.
Episode 287: The arrival of Joan Ferguson
Episode 327: The Wentworth Fire
Episode 400: Final episode with Bea Smith
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Disc 2: The Terrorist Siege
Episode 536: In a rare moment of reflection the inmates recall some favourite moments, and infamous faces, from Wentworth's rather jaded past.
Episodes 550, 551, 552: The Ruth Ballinger Siege
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Disc 3: The End
Episodes 600 & 601: The Lou Kelly Riot
Episodes 691 & 692: The final 2 episodes
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(Left - the original release and below the two repackaged releases for the UK and the USA for the shows 25th anniversary)
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Volume 2: 3 discs set featured:
Disc 1 DVD: THE BEGINNING
Episodes 1-4.
Disc 2 DVD: GREAT ESCAPES
20 - Franky and Doreen Escape
165 - The start of the tunnel escape
471 - Marie Winter's helicopter escape
598 - Lexie Patterson escapes
Disc 3 DVD: NOT SO QUIET RIOT
Episodes 247 & 248 - The Sandy Edwards Riot
Episode 586 - Rita is inducted into Wentworth
Episode 667 - The Blackmoor Riot
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(Left - the original release and the repackaged release for the USA
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Volume 3: 3 discs set featured:
Disc 1: 'Ann and Meg's Kidnapping' - Episodes 498, 499, 500 & 501
Disc 2: Rita at Blackmoor - Episodes 664, 665, 666 & 667
Disc 3: Lead-Up to the Final - Episodes 687, 688, 689 & 690
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1993 USA VHS release
In June 1993 the first 12 episodes of Prisoner were released on VHS in America across 6 volumes BY MPI Home Media
1993 UK VHS release
Between 1993 and 1994 the first 12 episodes of Prisoner were released on VHS by NTV Entertainment plus an additional tape featuring episodes 326 & 327. The Great Escape stage show was also released as part of this set. There were a total of 8 VHS tapes released in the UK.
