ACTORSCHARACTERSSTARTEPISODES

EPISODE 329

Bea and Chrissie decide to deliver Jeannie's baby themselves.

First broadcast ... 1983 (Melbourne)
Broadcast on Channel 5 Tuesday 04 August 1998 04:40
DVD release: volume 21 disc 3 (AUS)
Duration: 0:47:45



Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne
Judy ~ Betty Bobbitt
Lizzie ~ Sheila Florance
Bea ~ Val Lehman
Off. Powell ~ Judith McGrath
Chrissie ~ Amanda Muggleton
Margo ~ Jane Clifton
Paddy ~ Anna Hruby
Maxine ~ Lisa Crittenden
Jeannie ~ Rona McLeod
Tony ~ Alan Lee
Sara ~ Celia de Burgh
Andy ~ Ric Herbert
Geoff ~ Danny Adcock
Det. Sgt. Farmer ~ Simon Chilvers
Barry Nicholls ~ Sean Myers
Mr Douglas ~ Ian Smith
Mrs Hudson ~ Valma Pratt
Policeman ~ John Ramsay
Policeman ~ Robert McClelland
Policeman ~ Chris Donnelly
Policeman ~ Wayne Hirst
Policeman ~ Geoff Heatherington

  • Written by Coral Drouyn
  • Directed by Steve Mann

    When Tony goes across the road to phone the police we can see the front door of the building that is supposed to be the halfway house through the window . The sign in the window seems to say "Postage Stamps Sold Here".

    Hard to sort out the five "Policeman" credits in this episode as they are all over the place. The main ones with dialogue are: two playing cards in hospital guarding Andy, and one of them gets knocked out; one making enquiries at the halfway house ; several arriving in cars at the halfway house, this one in a scene with Judy and this one pointing a gun at Andy.

  • Bea tells Chrissie that if they can't get help they'll have to deliver Jeannie's baby themselves. Chrissie protests that her only experience was in having Elizabeth and she wasn't exactly able to see what was going on. Margo says it makes her feel ill and she certainly won't be having any kids. Maxine arrives at Woodridge and Meg takes her to be locked up with the other women. When she sees Margo right up next to the peephole she at first refuses to open the door, but then sees what is happening and rushes off to get a doctor. When she returns, she pauses for a moment outside the door and hears the baby's first cry - perhaps thinking of the cicumstances of her own birth, as Chrissie guesses when she sees her looking pensive.The baby is a boy, and Jeannie decides to call him after the women who helped him into the world, so he will be Christopher B. Stanton. DS Farmer tells the officers the fire started in the store-room and spread so quickly because of the turps stored there against all the regulations. Colleen swallows hard and admits she was responsible for having it put there. Mrs Hudson comes to visit Paddy at the halfway house, but when Paddy phones the prison to see when they can visit, she is told about Andy being beaten up and they both set off for the hospital. Bea tells the women not to say anything at all about the fire to the police and they should be OK. Margo is interviewed by DS Farmer and denies any knowledge of the fire or of a plot against Joan: he writes it all down but looks unimpressed and disbelieving. Colleen calls Ted Douglas to Woodridge to make a clean breast of her mistake over the turps, but is appalled when his main concern seems to be to clear the Department of any blame. He adds ominously that if that isn't possible, he will reluctantly be forced to "accept her resignation". DS Farmer resists Ted Douglas' attempts to bluster, bribe or threaten him into hushing up the affair, but receives a phone call about new forensic evidence which lets Colleen off primary responsibility: the store-room fire was started by a fire bomb and not an electrical fault. Judy visits Lizzie at Woodridge and tells her and Meg that she's going to be a grannie, as Lori is pregnant. Mrs Hudson and Paddy see Andy in hospital: when his mother tries to explain why they kept it from him about his father, he says it doesn't matter as he'll be able to make it up to her when he gets out, which may be quite soon... Mr Nicholls from the Health Department calls to inspect the halfway house again after a complaint: he finds 27 breaches of health regulations and gives Judy 7 days to rectify them. Sara realises it must have been Alan's father who made the complaint. Andy waits until one of the policeman guarding him has left, then knocks out the other one with a bedpan, takes his gun and makes an escape from the hospital. Tony visits Maxine, but she angrily sends him away when he implies that she got involved with Spud again due to her wounded feelings over him. Further forensic evidence ties down fibres from the fuse of the fire bomb to fabric in a particular cell - the one occupied by Lil and Margo, and Lil can be proved to have been in the kitchen when the fire started. DS Farmer asks to interview Margo again, without the other women knowing. Under pressure of the evidence he lays out for her, Margo has to tell all and tries to shift the blame onto Bea and Chrissie. Andy arrives at the halfway house and Judy tells him he can have ten minutes to talk to Paddy but then he will have to go. Chrissie and Bea are held separately while waiting to be interviewed to make each of them think the other is being seen first. Andy wants to do a job to give his mother some money to live on, but Tony arrives back and Andy has to be hustled out by Judy. However, he has seen that Andy has a gun and goes across the street to phone the police from a bar. Paddy decides she will leave with Andy, but Judy persuades him that the best thing for everyone would be for him to give himself up. Just at that moment, two police cars arrive outside and Paddy and Andy make a run for it through the back alley , but they are recaptured and taken away in a police car. Judy accuses Tony of being responsible for landing Paddy back in prison. Chrissie at first won't believe that Bea has lagged on her, but is tricked into admitting that Bea told her to light a fire as a diversion. Tony tells Judy he needs some time to think what he wants to do and resigns from the halfway house. Bea is taken by surprise when DS Farmer makes a reference to a big fire in the store room and tells him it had nothing to do with her. He replies that the truth will come out eventually: in the meantime she is to be charged with arson and murder.

    ***


    Script Editor: Barry Main
    Storyliners: Dave Worthington, John Mortimore, Andrew Kennedy, Patrea Smallacombe


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