Prisoner Overseas
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Prisoner was the first Australian soap opera screened late night in the UK. As in the US, it was billed in the UK as Prisoner: Cell Block H to avoid confusion with the well-known British series, The Prisoner, although it always remained as simply Prisoner on-screen. It screened on ITV from the mid/late 1980s until the mid 1990s, depending on the region region. A great many sources incorrectly state that the series did not begin being run in the UK until 1987, but in fact the Yorkshire region had been showing it since 1984. However, most other regions didn't start to broadcast it until 1987 at the earliest, with it not starting in the Ulster region until 1989.
It achieved enduring success there despite much negative criticism from reviewers, and the fact that the series never received a network screening on ITV. Some ITV companies such as Yorkshire Television showed the series once a week whilst others such as Central and Granada Television stripped the series across three nights. Most ITV contractors though screened it twice a week in as had been the pattern in Australia.
Because the series was shown on all ITV companies late at night (just before closedown at first, then as the first programme of night-time programming with the advent of 24-hour broadcasting in the late 1980s), it became a favourite of the local continuity announcers. The announcers would often joke about characters and plots before and after the programme and during the end titles.
On Central, Mike Prince was fond of satirical announcements linking the previous promotion to the Prisoner episode following, leading to announcements like "But Ayer's Rock pales into insignificance compared to the might of Joan Ferguson next tonight on Central in Prisoner: Cell Block H." Over the credits of an episode where Vera discovers Pat O'Connell communicating with her son a Granada announcer came to the conclusion that "Australia IS a VERY strange place." Many continuity announcers on the then-regional ITV stations made similar announcements before and after the programme, helping to boost its cult status. This style of announcement was later borrowed by the UK's fifth channel to accompany episodes of Sunset Beach, with a similar effect. Channel 5 also repeated Prisoner in a late night slot from 1997 to 2001, granting the series its first ever networked screening on British TV. These broadcasts featured the same kind of jokey comments and reading of viewer's comments over the closing credits, usually from senior announcer Bill Buckley, whose camp delivery, but with an obvious fondness for the series, somehow suited the show perfectly.
Yorkshire Television was the pioneering ITV company to transmit the series in the UK at 23.00 on Monday 8th October 1984 in a weekly slot until episode 39 in October 1985. The series resumed in January 1986 in the same slot taking a summer break in May 1987. Just before Yorkshire halted, Central Television had started screening the show three times a week in a similar Saturday, Sunday and Monday late slot from April 1987. Central completed the series in December 1991, a span of just over 4.5 years. At the same time in December 1991, Yorkshire were still screening it weekly on Mondays and other regions had overtaken them. Yorkshire's first ever week with two episodes happened in January 1993 when a Thursday episode was added to appease viewers in the Tyne Tees region. Yorkshire and Tyne Tees reached the final episode in April 1997 some 12.5 years after Yorkshire's start. Other areas, such as London region Carlton (formerly Thames), and southern region Meridian (formerly TVS) never reached the end of their respective runs of the programme - after much darting around the late night schedules, they eventually disappeared in the late 1990s (In the case of Cartlon, the continuity announcer announced that the series would return after a break, but this turned out to be the last time it was shown).
Although they can both claim to have screened the series until the final episode, both Border Television and Tyne Tees Television had to skip a number of episodes. In December 1992 Tyne Tees had to miss episodes 293 and 294 as Tyne Tees and Yorkshire arranged to screen ALL programmes simultaneously from 1 January 1993. Yorkshire had reached the Tyne Tees two at the end of 1992. From November 1993 Border Television brokered a similar arrangement with Granada and Border viewers had to miss episodes 477-547.
Yorkshire Television were very strict with cutting scenes involving hanging. Notably the attempt to hang Sandy Edwards and the successful Eve Wilder hanging were cut. This was mainly due to a local prison HMP Leeds in the Yorkshire region having an extremely high number of hangings in preceding years. Yorkshire also heavily edited the fight scene with Joan and Bea in episode 326 without ruining the plot for viewers in their region and Tyne Tees.
When Granada TV screened the final episode in the UK, continuity announcer John McKenzie conducted an on-air interview via telephone with Maggie Kirkpatrick who played The Freak.
The ITV regions inserted two commercial breaks into each episode enabling three parts per show. The breaks were usually inserted at the point of the second and fourth break as would have been seen in Australia. At the end of the show the cliffhanger would lead straight into the end credits, unlike in Australia where a sixth break was inserted.
Central screened episode 106 on Boxing Day 1987 with 107 and 108 on the following days. The only other region to screen an episode during the Christmas week was Yorkshire Tyne Tees during 1994 with episode 490. Central also repeated the first 90 episodes from February 1993 to January 1995 at the rate of one episode a week on Sunday evenings at 23.40.
[edit] ITV regional scheduling
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ITV Region in start date order
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End of Year Episode Numbers
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1984
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1985
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1986
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1987
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1988
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1989
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1990
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1991
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1992
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| Yorkshire Television (YTV) | 10 | 39 | 71 | 95 | 134 | 176 | 214 | 254 | 294 |
| Television South (TVS) | -- | ?? | ?? | ?? | 108 | 152 | 1?? | 2?? | 29? |
| Channel Television | -- | -- | ?? | ?? | 108 | 152 | 1?? | 2?? | 29? |
| Television South West (TSW) | -- | -- | -- | 26 | 40 | ?? | 1?? | 1?? | 239 |
| Central Television | -- | -- | -- | 108 | 2?? | 416 | 5?? | 692 | -- |
| Thames Television | -- | -- | -- | 26 | 73 | 119 | ??? | ??? | ??? |
| Scottish Television (STV) | -- | -- | -- | 5 | 63 | 148 | ??? | ??? | ??? |
| Anglia Television | -- | -- | -- | -- | 99 | 1?? | 290 | 3?? | 4?? |
| Granada Television | -- | -- | -- | -- | 107 | 201 | 284 | ??? | ??? |
| Tyne Tees Television | -- | -- | -- | -- | 32 | 74 | 116 | 200 | 292 |
| Border Television | -- | -- | -- | -- | 40 | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? |
| HTV West & Wales | -- | -- | -- | -- | 30 | 126 | 224 | ??? | ??? |
| Grampian Television | -- | -- | -- | -- | ?? | 1?? | 2?? | ??? | ??/ |
| Ulster Television | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 9? | ?? | 1?? | 1?? |
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ITV Region in start date order
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End of Year Episode Numbers
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1993
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1994
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1995
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1996
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1997
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1998
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1999
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| Yorkshire Television (YTV) | 393 | 490 | 588 | 674 | 692 | -- | -- |
| Meridian Broadcasting formerly TVS | ?? | ?? | ?? | ?? | ?? | 5?? | 586 |
| Channel Television | ?? | ?? | ?? | ?? | ?? | 5?? | 586 |
| Westcountry Television formerly TSW | ?? | ?? | ?? | ?? | 692 | -- | -- |
| Central Television | -- | ?? | 9? | 9? | -- | -- | -- |
| Carlton Television formerly Thames | 3?? | 4?? | 4?? | 5?? | 5?? | 598 | -- |
| Scottish Television (STV) | ?? | ?? | ?? | 692 | -- | -- | -- |
| Anglia Television | ?? | ?? | ?? | 692 | -- | -- | -- |
| Granada Television | ?? | ?? | 692 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Tyne Tees Television | 393 | 490 | 588 | 674 | 692 | -- | -- |
| Border Television | ?? | ?? | 692 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| HTV West & Wales | ??? | ?? | ?? | 692 | -- | -- | -- |
| Grampian Television | ?? | ?? | ?? | 692 | -- | -- | -- |
| Ulster Television | ?? | ?? | ?? | ?? | 563 | -- | -- |
- Although the first episode aired in the UK on Monday, October 8, 1984, the Yorkshire region's edition of TV Times dated July 21 to 27, 1984 shows that the programme was scheduled to debut at 23:30 on Friday, July 27, 1984 on Yorkshire TV. The station had ended another Australian drama, ABC's mini series The Timeless Land, two weeks previously in the same slot. Most listings for 27 July were later changed and replaced with US series Hotel although The Times still assumed that Prisoner was to be screened. Looking at the following week, a Network programme is in the slot which suggests that maybe YTV thought that having a two week wait after episode 1 was not fair to the series. Eventually the series did debut in the Monday 23:00 slot which had previously been occupied until September by Hill Street Blues until Channel 4 obtained the rights from autumn 1984.
- Many regions screened a one off Prisoner special half hour programme in late 1989 called Prisoner - The Inside Story, presented by Paul Lavers. This was made by Anglia Television and is probably now archived with all other Anglia material at Yorkshire Television in Leeds. The main transmission of this programme was on Monday December 18 1989 at 00.05 (Sunday night) screened by Granada in the Granada, Border, Grampian, Tyne Tees and Ulster regions. With the exception of Tyne Tees who screened a different preceding programme, this was screened immediately after their regional Prisoner episode. HTV screened the programme an hour later at 01.05. TSW also screened the special, but on Thursday 14th December in place of their Prisoner episode. Anglia screened it at 23.30 on Monday 30th October after their Prisoner episode. It is extremely likely that Central screened the programme as the show was extremely well received in the Central region.
- Tyne Tees and Border showed an episode on a Wednesday night 23.10 8th April 1992 the eve of the General election. This was because from 22.00 on Thursday there were no regional slots available on the entire network until 15.20 on Friday afternoon after extensive election coverage had ended.
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ITV Region in start date order
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Programme Schedule Pattern (all end at Episode 692 unless otherwise stated)
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Start Date
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Days Screened
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End Date
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Episodes not screened
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| Yorkshire Television (YTV) slowest to complete | Monday 8 October 1984 23.00 (see below) | Mondays with a Thursday episode added from January 1993. Yorkshire took a short break from the series after screening episode 39 in October 1985. The series resumed in January 1986 with many interruptions during the year including World Cup football from Mexico, snooker and Bank Holiday material. Only 32 episodes managed to air during 1986 in the Monday slot as the other 20 Mondays were filled with Network scheduling. It remained on air until the end of April 1987. The series returned in September 1987 and filled it's regular Monday slot. From 1988 the series moved to 23.05 and was often replaced with snooker and football.
Episode 295 onwards with Tyne Tees from January 1993. Thursday episode added from 07/01/93. Mondays only from 8 January-15 February 1996 and again from 6 January-13 February 1997 as the Thursday slot was used for ITV networked films during these periods. Between 26 September-21 October 1996 the show was screened on Thursdays only as the Monday slot was used for ITV networked films. |
Monday 7 April 1997 23.10 | none |
| Television South (TVS) & Meridian Broadcasting slowest overall | Friday 11 October 1985 22.30 | Fridays episodes 1 - 9 Oct - Dec 1985, then Thursdays from January 1986. Reverts to Fridays from April 1986 (ep 20 Friday 4 April), Then back to Thursdays from September 1986 after the last Friday episode on 29 August. Then Tuesdays and Thursdays from September 1988, Thursdays only from January 1989.
Series remained on Thursdays under Meridian's control then moved to Tuesdays. Changed to Mondays a couple of years after Meridian took over. During late 1994 Tuesdays at 23.40 were used. |
Episode 586 on Monday 12 July 1999 | Episodes 587 - 692 |
| Channel Television | As TVS from Thursday 16 January 1986 22.30 starting from episode 10 (TVS had screened 1 - 9 themselves in late 1985) | As TVS & Meridian. Channel had a direct link with TSW for all regional shows until end of 1985, before switching to TVS in January 1986. Therefore missed the first 9 episodes screened by TVS. | As Meridian | Episodes 1 - 9 and 587 - 692 |
| Television South West (TSW) upto episode 239 & Westcountry Television from episode 240 | Thursday 15 January 1987 23.05 | Thursdays with 13 episodes shown until April 1987, then a break until autumn 1987 when Thursdays resume with 13 more episodes. Show then restarts with episode 27 on Mondays from 12 September 1988, then stops at episode 52 (17/04/89) showing that TSW must buy in blocks of 13. Series goes back to weekly Thursdays with ep 53 from 20 July 1989, then switches to Fridays from 20 April 1990 then Sunday and Monday nights from 1 September 1991. In January 1992 the series returns to weekly Thursdays, then ??? until episode 239 (TSW's last episode) on Sunday 20th December 1992.
TSW's successor Westcountry Television commenced from episode 240 and screened the series initially on Tuesdays 23.40 and Thursdays 23.10. During late 1994 Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays were used unless network programmes filled the 23.10 / 23.40 slot. Tuesdays were used in 1996. Mondays resumed in 1997 with a Thursday episode was added in August 1997. |
Thursday 30 October 1997 23.45 | none |
| Central Television fastest | Saturday 25 April 1987 22.45 | Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. Then Saturday episode dropped temporarily in 1988. The Saturday episode later changed to Fridays. Final Sat episode 14 April 1990. First Fri night episode 20 April 1990. Latest ever Sat episode started at 02.45, earliest 22.15. Mon-Fri ep's shown the first week of January 1989/90/91 to make up for loss of episodes the proceeding Xmas periods. Central's nightly Prisoner airings in January 1991 were interrupted in the middle of the 23.55 Wednesday 16 January episode for news of the Gulf War. Various Fridays dropped in autumn 1991 for Rugby World Cup Highlights. | Monday 16 December 1991. 22.40. Repeated first 90 episodes from Feb 1993 until Sunday 1 January 1995. | none |
| Thames Television & Carlton Television | Friday 19 June 1987 00.30 (Thursday night) | Thursdays, then Tuesdays and Thursdays from 24 July 1990 (Tuesday episode temporarily removed during Feb and March 1991).
When Carlton replaced Thames and screened it on Tuesdays only from 5 January 1993. Then Thursdays only. Then Mondays only. Then Thursdays only again. |
Episode 598 on Thursday 20 August 1998 | Episodes 599 - 692 |
| Scottish Television (STV) | Monday 19 October 1987 23.30 | Mondays, Then Sundays and Mondays, Then Mondays and Fridays. Then Mondays, then Mondays and Fridays during 1988. During September and October Mondays only until 31st October 1988. A one off Thursday episode on 13th October 1988 too. After October 1988 series resumes on 28 November.
Was screening Mondays and Thursdays during early 1995. Dropped for several months in 1995. Then Tuesdays and Thursdays. |
Tuesday 19 November 1996 | none |
| Anglia Television | Wednesday 6 January 1988 00.30 (Tuesday night) | Tuesdays and Thursdays, then changed to Sundays and Mondays from September 1988. At the start of 1989 to make up for the loss of the show while Network programmes were shown over Xmas the show was screened daily Monday to Friday for the first week of January. Then Monday episode switched to Tuesdays from September 1990. Sunday episode switched to Thursdays from January 1991 to fit into the same slots that HTV and Thames were using to enable the three to be ready at the right time for Thames' night-time service.
Continues at 23.40 on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the new ITV franchise era from January 1993. Then ??? Then weekly Tuesdays in 1996 |
Tuesday 21 May 1996 23.40 | none |
| Granada Television | Sunday 14 February 1988 23.30 | Sundays and Mondays. Then Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays from July 1988. Then Sundays and Mondays from January 1989, then Thursday episodes return from May 1992.
From Januray 1993 the series is moved to weekly Tuesdays 23.40 and then moves to Thursdays 23.35 from March. Later in spring 1993 both nights are used. Then Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from late 1994 though Thursday ep possibly dropped from January 1995??? |
Tuesday 28 February 1995 | none |
| Tyne Tees Television | Thursday 7 April 1988 22.35 | Thursdays usually at 23.05. A Sunday episode was added starting 13 January 1991 (on Episode 117) usually at 00.05. From 12 October 1992 another episode was suddenly added on Mondays in an unsuccessful attempt to catch up to Yorkshire. Sunday episode was dropped after 1 November 1992 reducing to 2 episodes a week.
From January 1993 exactly as Yorkshire, episodes 293 and 294 unscreened to catch up to Yorkshire. |
as Yorkshire | Episodes 293 and 294 |
| Border Television | Friday 10 June 1988 23.35 | Fridays. Then Sundays and Thursdays from September 1988, Thursdays change to Mondays in January 1989, then back to Thursdays from April 1989, Thursday episode temporarily dropped in October 1989. During 1990 the show was often screened at 23.35 on both nights. During 1992 the Sunday episode briefly switched to Mondays leaving a return Sundays and Thursdays as the nights used at the end of 1992.
From 5 January 1993 Tuesdays 23.40 and Thursdays 23.10 were used. Episode 476 screened on Thursday 28 October 1993 was followed by Episode 548 on Tuesday 2 November 1993, then as Granada from this point onwards until the end. 71 episodes missed to catch up to Granada |
as Granada | Episodes 477 - 547 |
| HTV West & Wales | Monday 22 August 1988 23.40 | Initially Mondays and Tuesdays. Later Sundays and Mondays from January 1989. Then Sundays and Tuesdays from October 1990. After 7 April 1991 Sunday episode moves to Thursday starting from 11 April. Then Monday episode switched to Thursdays to fit into the same slots that Anglia and Thames were using to enable the three to be ready at the right time for Thames' night-time service. Then Tuesdays and Thursdays. Very occasional HTV Wales airtimes were one hour behind HTV West to accommodate extra locally made programming for Wales as they were legally obliged to provide.
From January 1993 a Wednesday episode was introduced and lasted until March. Several Wednesdays were unavailable for the show as boxing and football needed to be screened instead. By March Wednesdays had reverted to slots used for non-continuous series. |
Thursday 25 April 1996 | none |
| Grampian Television | Sunday 11 September 1988 23.30 | Sundays and Mondays until end of 1990 at the earliest, Then Monday and Tuesday from approx 1990 then Sunday episode added in 1994 but later returned to twice a week until end. | Monday 11 March 1996 23.35 | none |
| Ulster Television | Sunday 22 October 1989 23.35 | Sundays with many weeks' slot given to regional sport, then Fridays and Sundays from November 1990. then Sundays only during summer 1991, Fridays return in September 1991 then changes to Fridays only from January 1992, Then Mondays.
During early 1993 Mondays 23.10 and Friday nights 00.10 |
Episode 562 on Monday 15 December 1997 | Episodes 563 - 692 |
[edit] Overseas Prisoner airings
| Country | Channel | Title | Translation | Language | Start Date | Slots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Australia |
Network Ten & UK.TV | Prisoner | Prisoner | English | ||
 Brazil |
TVS (TV Studios) | As Prisioneiras | The Female Prisoners | Portuguese | ||
 Canada |
PrideVision | Caged Women | Caged Women | English | ||
 New Zealand |
TV2 | Prisoner | Prisoner | English, | Monday 2 March 1981 14.30 | Mondays and Tuesdays 14.30 |
 South Africa |
??? | Prisoner | Prisoner | English, | ||
 Sweden |
TV4 | Kvinnofāngelset | The Women's Prison | English, Swedish subtitles |
7 September 1994 approx 01.00 | Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays (Saturday nights, Tuesday nights, Thursday nights) |
 UK |
ITV Regional, Five | Prisoner: Cell Block H | Prisoner: Cell Block H | English | Monday 8 October 1984 23.00 | Varied enormously around the UK - Weekly / Twice a week / Three times a week - typically 22.30 - 23.30 start times all days used except Wednesday nights |
 USA |
Various | Prisoner: Cell Block H | Prisoner: Cell Block H | English |
[edit] Cultural impact
The show has a cult following in Sweden, where it has been shown on TV4 for many years under the title Kvinnofängelset (The Women's Prison). An unofficial fan club organises an annual get-together, and also gathered several thousand signatures (including that of actress Elspeth Ballantyne) to convince TV4 to continue airing the show in 2000. After this second run of the show ended, work began to persuade TV4 to air the show a third time with start in 2005. The attempts were futile and the show has since not been aired in Swedish television. TV4 originally screened the series in a late night 1am slot three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. During the repeat run, the show was accommodated in a slightly later slot around 2.15am four times a week on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. All episodes were repeated at the weekend - Friday night had the Monday and Tuesday episodes and Saturday night had the other two.
A stage version of Prisoner was produced in 1989, based on the original scripts, and enjoyed a highly successful tour in the United Kingdom. Original actors Elspeth Ballantyne (Meg Morris) and Patsy King (Erica Davidson) reprised their original characters, while Glenda Linscott (Rita Connors) played a new character, Angela Mason. A second tour followed in 1990 starring Fiona Spence (Vera Bennett) and Jane Clifton (Margo Gaffney). Jacqui Gordon (Susie Driscoll) also appeared, as new character Kath Evans.
A musical version followed starring Maggie Kirkpatrick reprising her role of Joan "The Freak" Ferguson and Lily Savage as an inmate. The new musical was essentially a send-up of the kitsch aspects of the original show, and again was successful during both a tour and a West End run in 1995 and 1997.
Due to the huge popularity of the show when shown in the UK in the late 1980s, the British Prisoner fan club organised successful personal appearance tours for several actresses, including Val Lehman (Bea Smith), Carol Burns (Franky Doyle), Betty Bobbitt (Judy Bryant), Sheila Florance (Lizzie Birdsworth), Amanda Muggleton (Chrissie Latham) and Judy McBurney (Pixie Mason). A one-off programme, "The Great Escape", was produced in 1990. The programme featured Val Lehman, Sheila Florance, Amanda Muggleton and Carol Burns on their visit to the UK in 1990 and includes extensive footage of their on-stage interview with TV presenter Anna Soubry in which the cast members talk about their time 'inside'. It was recorded at the Derby Assembly Rooms, Derby, UK and was made available in the UK on VHS video for a short time but has since been deleted.
Several Prisoner actors have also trod British stages appearing in pantomime, such as Val Lehman, Fiona Spence, Maggie Dence (Bev Baker), Debra Lawrance (Daphne Graham), Linda Hartley (Roach Waters), Ian Smith (Ted Douglas) and Maggie Millar (Marie Winter).
