Inside Soap, Issue 55, 10-23 August 1996

You're on a charge!

Ten things you probably didn't know about the cult soap Prisoner

1. Val Lehman, who played much-missed top dog Bea Smith, now lives in Britain, and recently popped up having a painting valued on the Antiques Roadshow.
2. Kerry Armstrong - the dumb blonde Lyn Warner - is a former weathergirl. And after Prisoner she had a small role in Dynasty.
3. Repeats of Prisoner are still run twice a week on Australia's Channel 10.
4. There are four former Prisoner stars who now have parts in Neighbours - Colette Mann (Cheryl Stark / Doreen Burns), Tom Oliver (Lou Carpenter / Ken Pearce), Jackie Woodburne (Susan Kennedy / Julie 'Chook' Egbert) and Lesley Baker (Angie Rebecchi / Monica Ferguson). Also, Anne Haddy has appeared as Colette Mann's mum and Caroline Gillmer played Helen Smart. And Lois Collinder (headmistress Miss Taschendorf) played Alice 'Lurch' Watkins. [BK: Obviously getting info from Terry Bourke's book here as the character is Alice JENKINS]
5. Maggie Kirkpatrick is so popular as Joan 'The Freak' Ferguson, she has her own fan club - 10 years after the show ceased production.
6. Lesley Baker actually had two roles in Prisoner - one as hard nut Monica Ferguson and later as tough biker Tinkerbell.
7. Gerda Nicolson, who played the second governor Ann Reynolds, died in 1992 after a stroke.
8. Prisoner was the first Aussie show to be bought by the US - and it was a huge hit.
9. Pepe Trevor, who played Boy George lookalike Lexie Patterson, was the daughter of Prisoner producer Marie Trevor.
10. Prisoner fanatic Stephen Glover, 14, has transformed his bedroom into a Wentworth-style cell!