EPISODE 1First broadcast on Monday 26th February 1979 in Sydney and Tuesday 27th February in Melbourne (and presumably the rest of Australia?).Broadcast on Channel 5 (UK) 01 April 1997 Tues 4:40 a.m. Some new prisoners arrive at Wentworth. UNCREDITEDOfficer Yates ~ Kirsty ChildUnnamed Officer  (later Officer Morgan, photographing Lyn and Karen) | The opening credit sequence for the first two programmes shows that the intention of the early episodes is to focus mainly on three of the prisoners: Karen, Lynn and Bea are shown in everyday situations, then a prison gate is superimposed over the picture. The first scene is of a barefoot prisoner Sally being chased through the corridors by officers Meg and Vera, until Franky stops Sally by elbowing her in the ribs as she passes. The first line of dialogue in the series is from Franky: "She bumped into me"  . Karen and Lynn are transported to Wentworth in the van: Lyn is sobbing, Karen looks pensive. Lyn asks Karen what she did, but Karen doesn't answer. Meg and Vera manhandle Sally to a cell and lock her in. Lyn and Karen are inducted, but Karen asks why she should have to strip when Vera tells her to. Meg goes to the surgery to fetch Dr Greg Miller who is giving an eyesight test to another prisoner Marilyn Mason. Greg asks Meg if one of the new prisoners he is to see is Karen Travers. Karen's burns are discovered by the nurse during her induction  : the regulation shower prompts a Psycho-style flashback. Lizzie and Doreen are introduced, bickering with each other for no very good reason. When Karen is taken to see the Dr Miller, it is obvious they already know each other: she tells him the cigarette burns were caused by her husband. Bea is introduced queening it in on the steam press the laundry as Meg takes Lyn on a guided tour of the prison. Unfortunately for Lyn, Bea recognises her name and remembers she was accused of kidnapping a child and burying him alive. Karen is taken to her cell by Vera and told to memorise the rule book, but she has to repulse her cell mate Franky's advances. She runs away and asks Meg to see the Governor, Erica Davidson  . Erica suggests they should split up Franky and Doreen and possibly put Doreen in with Sally. Erica advises karen not to overreact, as she will have to put up with much worse than being "touched on the arm". Lyn and then Karen are photographed and fingerprinted. Lizzie plays cards with Franky and tells her that however bad this is, the old prison was much worse. Vera ignores Doreen telling her that Sally should be watched, and tells her she's being moved to another cell. Franky reacts badly to the news and wrecks the rec room  . Karen is moved from Franky's cell but when Meg takes her to her new cell, they find Sally has hanged herself  . Meg realises that Karen and Greg already know each other, but agrees to Greg's request to keep it a secret. Mum is shown at work in the garden  and she talks to Lyn until Doreen comes to tell her about Sally's death. Eddie the electrician starts work. When Vera visits Franky in solitary to gloat, Franky tells her the women have adopted a new nickname for her thought up by Bea: "Vinegar Tits"  . Marilyn and Eddie are left alone in the rec room and she flirts with him. Bea tricks Lyn by demonstrating how to use the press but instead burns her hand in it  . Karen has another flashback to her husband hitting her and insisting she has an abortion, but then coming home to find him in bed with another woman. She takes a knife from the kitchen  and goes upstairs as if in a trance  , frightening her husband's girlfriend into making a run for it, then stabbing her husband as he has a shower. Eddie and Marilyn go up into the roof space for a bit of fun as another prisoner keeps lookout. Mum advises Lyn to agree with Bea's version of events - or she might have more "accidents". Karen is taken to a single cell by Vera: the one where Sally killed herself. At Lyn's request, Erica phones Larry, the gardener for the Bentleys her employers, but Mrs Bentley answers and says he has left, even as she looks out of the window at him. After she rings off, she turns back to the cradle  and threatens to bury her son Richie again if he doesn't stop crying. After Vera locks up, Officer Yates lets Bea out of solitary: she threatens Lynn to keep quiet and not ruin Bea's chances of getting parole.
The actress doing the rounds for the lockup during the end credits Marilyn tells Eddie she'll be inside for another six months. This advert in The Age shows that three episodes were shown in the first week in Melbourne, the first two on Tuesday and the third on Wednesday. |
EPISODE 2First broadcast on Tuesday 27th February 1979 (Melbourne); Broadcast on Channel 5 (UK) 02 April 1997 Wed 4:40 a.m. Lynn is on hunger strike. Lynn ~ Kerry Armstrong Bill ~ Don Barker Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne Franky ~ Carol Burns Lizzie ~ Sheila Florance Erica ~ Patsy King Marilyn ~ Margaret Laurence Bea ~ Val Lehman Doreen ~ Colette Mann Eddie ~ Richard Moir Greg ~ Barry Quin Vera ~ Fiona Spence Karen ~ Peita Toppano Mum ~ Mary Ward Mr Gibson ~ Bill Bennett Lorraine ~ Anne Charleston Officer Yates ~ Kirsty Child Sister ~ Belinda Davey Electrician ~ Reg Evans Valerie ~ Billie Hammerberg Marty ~ Ronald Korosy Rosie ~ Ann-Maree McDonald  UNCREDITEDDebbie Smith (in flashback) ~ Cassie Lehman Harry Smith ~ Terry Trimble OTHER CHARACTERSPorter at the Monarch Hotel Mr Smith's girlfriend  Lizzie does not appear in this episode (thanks Mark C) |
The sequence of Bea being taken to Lynn's cell to threaten her is repeated, even extended. Karen wakes up for the first time in Wentworth, with Vera telling her that at 6:30 she should already be out of bed in time for muster at 7 o'clock. Vera reminds Franky that Bea is leaving today and tells her she's too stupid to take over from Bea when she leaves. Meg's husband Bill asks her to give her job up to be a wife and mother (and continue to serve breakfasts from the Spanish tiled kitchenette unit wearing a butcher's apron?  ). Mention of their son Marty reminds Meg to check up on him and they find he hasn't been home all night. Lyn is horrified to find that Mum is leaving that day as she feels she is the only one she can trust. Marty arrives home but refuses to explain where he has been. After Bea's threats, Lynn tells Erica that the burn was an accident. Erica has a last word with Mum, as she wants to check that it will be all right for her to stay with her daughter when she hasn't visited her for over a year. Bea admits she hasn't told her husband  she's getting out as she wants to "surprise" him and has some final warning words for Doreen, and tells her not to get involved with Franky again. The women give Mum and Bea a (very elaborate  ) farewell party for their release: Erica admits such occasions are very rare. Franky turns up and scowls by the door like the bad fairy at the christening. Officer Yates lets Marilyn into the Governor's office to phone Eddie: she asks him to give Bea a lift into town. Mum hands the garden over to Lyn to look after. Meg tells Rosie not to worry about her baby being born in prison, as she was born while her own mother was in prison. Mum tells Bill she won't forget the women inside and will be happy for any of them to visit her  . Mum is collected by her daughter, Lorraine  and Eddie turns up to collect Bea. Karen tries out the press but Franky takes it over. Lorraine takes Mum for meal at Pizza Hut, and tells her she can't go back to her family, as she is bothered about her friends finding out about Mum's crime and she hasn't forgiven her for what she did. Mum refuses her help to find a room to live in or to travel any further with Lorraine. In contrast, Eddie demands to take Bea to wherever she wants to go: she says she can afford at least one night in the Monarch Hotel. Greg tells Karen he's told her solicitor about the cigarette burns, but she seems unwilling to let him help her in any way. Franky provokes Lynn to a fight  in the garden when she sees her talking to Karen and deliberately walks all over the plants. Lynn vows not to eat again until someone believes in her innocence. Bea has deliberately chosen the hotel where she used to work as a washer-up to make a point to herself and the staff and Eddie stays to drink a bottle of champagne with her. Mum rents a room at the Gibsons, and observes that it's "smaller than the last room I had". Marty tells his parents he wants to move out and live with his girlfriend. Bea wakes up for her first morning on the outside and immediately books in at the hairdresser's. She meets up with her old cellmate Val  , who gives her a "present" for her husband. She then visits her daughter Debbie's grave then after a brief flashback sequence of her being refused permission to visit her daughter, Bea goes to her old home  and shoots  her husband Harry on the doorstep in front of his new girlfriend.
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For a contemporary (and somewhat condescending) first impression of the series at this point, see the article In View with Peter Dean (TV Times, 03-09.03.1979, Page 18)
EPISODE 3First broadcast on Wednesday 28th February 1979 (Melbourne); Broadcast on Channel 5 (UK) 03 April 1997 Thurs 4:40 a.m. Franky stages a sit-in.Lynn ~ Kerry Armstrong Bill ~ Don Barker Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne Franky ~ Carol Burns Lizzie ~ Sheila Florance Erica ~ Patsy King Marilyn ~ Margaret Laurence Bea ~ Val Lehman Doreen ~ Colette Mann Eddie ~ Richard Moir Greg ~ Barry Quin Vera ~ Fiona Spence Karen ~ Peita Toppano Mum ~ Mary Ward Officer Yates ~ Kirsty Child Marty ~ Ronald Korosy  Rosie ~ Ann-Maree McDonald Chrissie ~ Amanda Muggleton New Prisoner ~ Glenys O'Brien  Boy's mother ~ Jan O'Donnell |
The "mugshot parade" style of credits is shown for the first time. Under pressure from Franky, the women refuse to obey Vera's orders to move from the dining room after breakfast. Karen gets up to leave but Doreen explains she'd be better off sitting down. However, Franky is just testing the water and as soon as Erica arrives, she tells the women to move out when Erica asks her to get the women back to work. Chrissie Latham attempts to seduce Bill Jackson during an interview about what work she is to do in prison. Lynn is in the garden and picks up a broken flower  - cue the first proper hearing of "He used to give me roses" with the lyrics - as Mum is seen enjoying the rose garden in a park, until an overanxious mother tells her little boy to stay away from her. Marty comes to the prison to talk to Bill and Meg but goes away when Bill refuses to see him. Meg lies and says his father will be at home tonight to talk to him. Franky harasses Karen for standing up at breakfast and threatens to put her face in the press. Bill offers Karen a job in the library, but she turns it down, thinking Greg has put him up to it. Lizzie gets Marilyn some scrap wire from the workshop. Bill tells Greg of his lack of success in persuading Karen to look on the positive side. Vera drops a hint to Meg that there are rumours Bill is having an affair with a prisoner. Lizzie picks the lock of a fuse box and Marilyn wires it up to fuse when the door is closed. The women idle around in the laundry when the machines go off. Vera makes Franky watch Bea's arrival back at Wentworth, and encourages Erica to put Bea straight back with the other women instead of putting her in solitary to keep Franky under control. Marilyn makes an assignation with the electrician who comes to fix the fuse box. Rosie starts to feel unwell in the laundry. We see a shot of someone picking up a pair of scissors as the women leave the laundry. Lynn comes to fetch Meg to Rosie in her cell. Bea defies Franky's attempt at a sit-in after lunch and one by one the women stand up to follow her. When Vera tells Franky she ought to be making a move, she does: by throwing crockery at the officers until they retreat behind locked gates. Lizzie and the others left in the dining room start a riot. Ediie is trapped with Marilyn up in the roof when the riot alarm sounds. Meg too is trapped on the wrong side of the gates and taken as a hostage  . The two sides shout abuse at each other and Franky demands the gates are unlocked so she and Bea can fight it out. As Rosie is brought out to see the doctor, Bill makes an attempt to try to free Meg, but is prevented by Greg. Marty comes home and finds his parents haven't got there yet. Bill asks to try to reason with Franky. While Franky plots with the others, Karen sneaks over to Meg and unties her hands. Marty gives up waiting and smashes the "happy family" framed photograph  . Bill persuades Franky to agree to release Meg when he says he will testify Bea should have gone to solitary not been put in with the women. In the scuffle which ensues when Meg is handed over, Bill is stabbed in the chest with a pair of scissors  . Eddie comes down from the roof and sees who the attacker was.
"Tina" and another background prisoner |
EPISODE 4First broadcast on 6th March 1979 (Melbourne); Broadcast on Channel 5 (UK) 04 April 1997 Fri 4:40 a.m. Bill Jackson dies.Lynn ~ Kerry Armstrong Bill ~ Don Barker Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne Franky ~ Carol Burns Erica ~ Patsy King Marilyn ~ Margaret Laurence Bea ~ Val Lehman Doreen ~ Colette Mann Eddie ~ Richard Moir Greg ~ Barry Quin Vera ~ Fiona Spence Karen ~ Peita Toppano Mum ~ Mary Ward Donna ~ Joanne Barker Mr Gibson ~ Bill Bennett Officer Yates ~ Kirsty Child Sister ~ Belinda Davey Officer ~ Jan Friedl  Mrs Gibson ~ Val Jellay Marty ~ Ronald Korosy Rosie ~ Ann-Maree McDonald Chrissie ~ Amanda Muggleton Det. Sgt. Allen ~ Tim Robertson  Schoolmaster ~ Bill Stevenson Lizzie is not credited because she does not appear in this episode | Erica sends Officer Yates to fetch Greg, but he refuses to come as he's looking after Rosie, and sends Sister to tend to Bill. The Sister (rather inadvisedly?) pulls out the scissors. Eddie is told by Erica not to say anything about what he's seen. Marilyn is found and returned to the cell with Bea and Doreen. Mum phones to ask to speak to Bill and Erica takes the call, making the monumental understatement that he's "unavailable". As Greg calls for another ambulance to take Rosie and her newly born son to hopital, as the call arrives in reception that Bill has died on the way to hospital. Greg calls on Meg at home, only to find that Meg blames him for Bill's death, even though Greg points out that the scissors pierced Bill's lung and there was nothing he could have done. Marty arrives back and Greg tells him his father is dead. The news about Bill's death is shouted around the prison before the cells are unlocked. Vera tells Karen all the women are confined to their cells until the murder investigation begins, pointing out that stabbing is one of her specialities. Det. Sgt Allen decides to conduct his enquiries from Bill's office to make the murderer nervous: his first interview is with Lynn as she was the first one to point out Bill was dead, but she refuses to say anything. Eddie is called in but has to wait to be interviewed, but he tells Marilyn he saw who was responsible. Marilyn warns Eddie not to say what he saw, as the women will deal with it. Meg comes in to work, to everyone's horror. Franky points out that Bill was not "her type" and the murderer was probably someone who wanted him but couldn't have him. Chrissie tries to blame Karen for killing Bill. Marilyn whispers to Bea that Eddie saw who did it. Eddie tells the police he couldn't see who killed Bill, but on his way out he is cornered by Bea and a group of the other women and they "persuade" him tell all. Bea sends Karen out of the laundry and turns on Chrissie, insisting that she will have to own up. Marty talks to his (very grownup  ) girlfriend Donna. Mum sees a newspaper headline about Bill's murder on the reception desk of the lodging house and her reaction reveals to her landlord that she knew the dead man. Franky refuses to help Chrissie when she realises she killed Bill. The women catch up with Chrissie and scalp her  , inspired by a film they saw called on TV called "Five Branded Women". Chrissie confesses to Bill's murder. Erica sees Meg's distressed state and orders her to go home. At Bill's funeral  , Meg ignores Mum. Mum has a fall at the rooming house: Mrs Gibson searches her handbag for the overdue rent  . Chrissie is transferred to Fairlea. Franky is brought back to the rec room from solitary. Lynn is told that her request for an appeal has been turned down. Erica tells Meg she will get substantial compensation from the Department and doesn't need to work. Meg responds furiously that she isn't going to be pushed out of her job for the sake of Erica's peace of mind. In a change from the usual end credit sequence of an officer locking up, Meg is shown walking through the corridors oblivious to the prisoners  .
The first paragraph of the newspaper story about Bill's death is just about readable |
EPISODE 5First broadcast on 7th March 1979 (Melbourne); Broadcast on Channel 5 (UK) 05 April 1997 Sat 4:40 a.m. Franky and Bea fight.Lynn ~ Kerry Armstrong Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne Franky ~ Carol Burns Lizzie ~ Sheila Florance Erica ~ Patsy King Marilyn ~ Margaret Laurence Bea ~ Val Lehman Doreen ~ Colette Mann Eddie ~ Richard Moir Greg ~ Barry Quin Vera ~ Fiona Spence Karen ~ Peita Toppano Mum ~ Mary Ward Irene ~ Marcella Burgoyne  Andrew ~ Michael John Bury Officer Yates ~ Kirsty Child  Sister ~ Belinda Davey Judith-Anne ~ Kim Deacon Priest ~ Charles Gilroy  Ron ~ Norman Kay Wayne ~ Rod Mullinar  Det Sgt Thomas ~ Neil Thompson  Mr Gilmour ~ Colin Vancao  | Mum dreams of Wentworth - including Meg sporting an insanely cheesy grin  - but she wakes up to find that she's at Lorraine and Ron's  . She has to pretend to be her daughter's Aunt Violet as Lorraine has told her children, Judith-Ann and Andrew, that their grandmother is dead. Meg speaks harshly to Lynn, telling her that she doesn't believe she's innocent so she ought to give up the hunger strike. Franky makes Lizzie get up from her seat at the card table, claiming she's sitting in her place. Eddie is told he must stick to the agreed work areas rather than "fraternise" with the prisoners. A dance class creates a confrontation between Bea and Franky, when Franky asks Jaren to dance and Bea steps in, claiming she's already booked her. Despite Karen's fear of a fight, Bea and Franky just stand and glare at each other. Doreen keeps watch while Marilyn talks to Eddie: she tells him they have to be careful as she doesn't want to end up like Rosie (i.e. pregnant). Marilyn tries to get Greg to prescribe her the pill claiming that she'd been having headaches since she stopped taking it, but he refuses. During her own medical examination, Greg lets Karen have a liedown on his couch and she has another flashback: to her romance with Greg; her husband's insistence that she have an abortion despite her Catholic faith and to her arrest after she murdered her husband and phoned the police to confess. Lynn digs a hole under the fence. Bea reads the tea leaves and uses it to warn Doreen off Franky and to tell Marilyn to be careful with Eddie. Greg warns Eddie he could lose Marilyn her good conduct report. Lizzie pockets a bottle of surgical spirit while Greg's back is turned, replacing it with an identical empty one. Meg accuses Officer Yates of dealing drugs to Marilyn, but the "drugs" she is caught supplying are identified by Greg as contraceptives. Nevertheless, Officer Yates is suspended by Erica, and in response she resigns. Erica has a quiet word with Meg about her harsh attitudes since Bill's murder. Karen pleads with Lynn to give up her silly plan to escape by digging under the fence. Marilyn shows Bea she has kept some of the pills back rather than hand over the lot. Mum pretends she has found somewhere else to live and leaves home. Lynn is caught burying a bag to fill in the trench by Meg and Vera. Judith-Anne overhears a conversation and realises that her great-aunt is really her grandmother. Mum's parole officer comes to tell Lorraine that she has been arrested for stealing some jewellery to get back inside Wentworth with her friends. When Lynn collapses through weakness after her hunger strike, Greg's examination reveals that she is pregnant. This is as much a surprise to Lynn as to anyone else, and she realises that the father must have been the man who raped her.
A little seen background prisoner at the dance class Eddie claims that a lot of the wiring was done "during the war". Of course, he could be making it up... In the final credit sequence, another officer |
EPISODE 6First broadcast on 13th March 1979 (Melbourne); Broadcast on Channel 5 (UK) 06 April 1997 Sun 4:40 a.m. Lynn is told she cannot have an abortion.Lynn ~ Kerry Armstrong Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne Franky ~ Carol Burns Lizzie ~ Sheila Florance Erica ~ Patsy King Marilyn ~ Margaret Laurence Bea ~ Val Lehman Doreen ~ Colette Mann Eddie ~ Richard Moir Greg ~ Barry Quin Vera ~ Fiona Spence Karen ~ Peita Toppano Mum ~ Mary Ward Old man ~ John Gould Larry ~ David John  Cheryl ~ Tracey Kelly Marty ~ Ronald Korosy Nurse ~ Helen O'Neill Gary Doyle ~ Greg Stroud Det Sgt Thomas ~ Neil Thompson Officer ~ Susan Arnold Lorraine ~ Anne Charleston Magistrate ~ Syd Conabere  Sister ~ Belinda Davey Judith-Anne ~ Kim Deacon Paul Bentley ~ Frank Gallacher | Greg lets Meg know how disgusted he is by her attitude to Lynn when she claims she is only "looking for attention". Franky is still working the press in the laundry, but Bea walks in and claims it back. Mum is sent back to Wentworth on a three year sentence (just for shoplifting and breaking parole?). She is taken aback to see Judith-Anne has bunked off school to be in court. We see the first buyup of the series: Lizzie tries to hide her cigarettes from her cell mate Franky by putting them in her knickers under her pillow. Lizzie has to take a big gulp of surgical spirit when Franky issues threats if she doesn't hand them over. Eddie and Marilyn have a near escape and are only saved from being caught together in the rec room store cupboard by Vera until Bea starts a squabble with Cheryl as a distraction. Erica sees Marilyn after six months of her sentence and tells her that her parole is due and she is due to be released in two days. Lorraine tells Judith-Anne why Mum was in prison. Meg changes back into her nice persona and talks to Lynn about the rape. Lynn says she was only with the Bentleys two days when Mrs Bentley went away to visit her mother and she found herself alone in the house with Mr Bentley. After giving her dinner, he made drunken advances to her, then when she went to her room he forced his way in and raped her. Franky takes a packet of cigarettes from Lizzie and crushes it underfoot. Eddie proposes, but Marilyn turns him down, to Bea's surprise. Meg hints to Erica that she believes Lynn's story, but Erica says it is already known she was raped, probably by some of "her bikie friends" (eh?). Meg is back to Mrs Harsh Officer when she lets Mum know she is disgusted by her being back inside, but softens enough to ask Mum for help by talking to Lynn and getting a second opinion on her story. Bea tells Marilyn that if she doesn't marry Eddie and go straight she will end up back inside. When Mum talks to her, Lynn's flashback to her rape continues when she is returned to the Bentleys house after running away to be interviewed by the police. She says that Richie was found buried in a box in the garden with only an airtube keeping him alive. Franky steals Lizzie's teeth while she is asleep when she annoys her by snoring, so she has to go to breakfast without them  . Franky will only give them back  for twice the usual cut of Lizzie's buyup. Vera consults Greg about her mother. Greg suggests she consider finding her mother a place in a home, but Vera refuses to even ask her. To Marilyn's disappointment, another electrican  has taken Eddie's place. Lizzie tells Doreen she's planning to escape and shows her some wire cutters. Franky gets a surprise visit from her 16 year old brother Gary. Doreen sneaks a peek through the door of the visitor's room and surprises everyone in the laundry by announcing that Franky has got a "fellah". Franky pours scorn on Gary for his plan to build a farm in the country. Marilyn gets a visit from Eddie, and tells him she still won't marry him straight away but suggests they try living together first. Doreen changes her mind about escaping with Lizzie when Franky calls her outside the laundry to give her nipples a good tweaking. Meg visits the Bentleys house to see Larry, the gardener, but as soon as she mentions Lynn, he refuses to talk to her. Erica phones the police to suggest there is enough evidence to reopen Lynn's case. Doreen plants the rusty wire cutters near the fence: Mum tries them out and finds they won't even cut through a blade of grass. Judith-Ann comes to Wentworth to visit Mum to hear Mum's explanation of why she killed her husband: she says she only helped him to commit suicide after a six month's of agonising pain. When Doreen comes to collect her for the escape, Lizzie is far too drunk to even stand. For the credit sequence  , Doreen tucks Lizzie in and leaves her snoring to herself.
Cheryl gives her surname in the buyup queue, but it's hard to hear. Cheryl Brown? A prisoner called "Ferguson" is supposedly occupying Mum's old cell. Not Monnie though |
EPISODE 7First broadcast on 14th March 1979 (Melbourne); Broadcast on Channel 5 (UK) Mon 07 April 1997 4:40 a.m. Franky and Karen have an argument.Lynn ~ Kerry Armstrong Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne Franky ~ Carol Burns Lizzie ~ Sheila Florance Erica ~ Patsy King Marilyn ~ Margaret Laurence Bea ~ Val Lehman Doreen ~ Colette Mann Eddie ~ Richard Moir Greg ~ Barry Quin Vera ~ Fiona Spence Karen ~ Peita Toppano Mum ~ Mary Ward Doug ~ John Arnold Mrs Bennett ~ Dorothy Bradley  Agency Girl ~ Leonie Collins  Sister ~ Belinda Davey Instructress ~ Gillian O'Flynn Gary Doyle ~ Greg Stroud Pimp ~ Taro Thomas  | Lizzie befriends a cat she finds in the bushes near the door to reception. Greg reports the loss of surgical alcohol to Meg and says he will have to tell Erica. Franky accosts Karen on the stairs, and when Karen rejects her and she hears Greg and Vera approaching she takes a tumble and accuses Karen of pushing her. Male prisoners come to work outside the wire to repair the drainage. Erica orders a cell search to find the alcohol missing from the surgery. Franky's brother Gary comes to visit her again, and he gives her a copy of the plan of the farmhouse he dreams of building. Marilyn is released: Eddie is waiting outside for her to take her to his flat. Lizzie brings the cat inside: Franky tells her she will wring its neck if she doesn't take it back outside. Lizzie lets the women know there are men outside and they will be back tomorrow. Erica asks Vera and Meg's opinion of Franky's prospects for parole: Vera is against but Meg suggests that her brother might give her some incentive to keep in line. Vera arrives home to find her mother sitting in the dark, but as soon as the curtains are pulled back she goes into full nag mode, eventually sinking back listlessly to watch TV. Lizzie finds the cat dead and attacks Franky for killing it  , calling her a "fat pig" and (in a rare use of the word in this series) "queer". Greg attends Vera's mother at home: he tells her she has high blood pressure and prescribes some tablets. After Greg has gone, Vera's mother wonders why she hasn't found herself a nice husband. During the cell search next morning, alcohol is found in Lizzie's cell. When Lizzie takes the opportunity to accuse Franky of killing her cat (Erica suprisingly does not ask "Which cat?"), Greg tells Lizzie she could have killed the cat herself by giving it water tainted with weed killer. Lizzie remembers how she poisoned four shearers to frighten them for criticizing her cooking (apparently "10 years" ago). Mum suggests to Franky she might like to work in the garden to stay out of trouble as she is obviously trying to control her temper. Doreen and Lizzie discuss escape methods: Lizzie seems quite taken with Doreen's idea that she should fake amnesia (or as she says "anaemia") to get transferred to a mental institution, as it would be easier to break out of. She tries it out on Meg, who tells her the act "needs a bit more work". Karen refuses Greg's attempt to help her and Vera sees him slap her in frustration at her obstinate stonewalling. Vera picks up on Greg's remark that it's a "personal matter" and deduces that they they knew each other before. Bea plots to stir up Franky, as she has noticed her unwillingness to fight back. Lynn talks to Doug, one of the male prisoners on work detail on the other side of the fence. Marilyn's attempts to cook do not go too well, and she tells Eddie she wants to look for a job. Greg is invited for dinner by Meg and tells her how he met Karen. Vera's mother has a heart attack and dies, her pills untaken on the table. Franky finds out what the women have decided to do to stir her up: her brother's blueprint has been defaced with the messages such as "Doyle's Pig House" and "Outside Dunny"  . Marilyn is refused by a job agency when she is honest about having been in prison. After this rejection, she is obviously tempted when her pimp calls round to suggest she should go back on the game.
Thanks to Roger Campion for correcting my assumption that Vera's mother is watching children's TV. It is in fact (even more ironically) a public service advert The set for the "employment agency" |
