Aussie Soap Stars, No 4, Summer 97

Jailbirds

Spot the famous faces who have done time within the walls of Wentworth

"Filming Prisoner was much harder than Neighbours simply by the nature of the setting. When you're in prison you're trapped, so you have to appear in all the scenes with all the other prisoners as there's nowhere else anyone can go. I thought it would be strange when I started on Neighbours, as it's filmed in the same studio as Prisoner was. However, it was actually a very warm feeling. I saw all these camera operators I hadn't worked with in years who had stayed at Channel 20 the whole time!" (Jackie Woodburne)

"I was originally only there for 6 weeks. Then they asked me back to play a prisoner's mother who was behind bars and my character got her head bashed against an ironing board by one of the really awful women prisoners!" (Ann Charleston)

"I hated it! I've got no good memories at all! In those days, Channel 10 had just been built and there were no facilities - no proper changing rooms, no green rooms. The mood was bleak, a bit like Wentworth Detention Centre. We were asked to go to work without make-up! We sat in the corridor between scenes with the officers against one wall, the prisoners on the other. It was like everyone thought they had to have distance between them off screen, too!" (Lesley Baker)

"A woman wrote to me saying she loved me playing Dr Irene Fisher in Sons and Daughters and added 'but I was absolutely horrified to see Irene had gone to jail'. The poor woman was confused because she'd swapped channels and seen me in Prisoner: Cell Block H." (Judy Nunn)

"When I was in Prisoner it was great as I came in and out depending on my theatre commitments, which was where my heart was in those days. It's amazing as when I was in London someone came up and recognised me as Helen Smart, not Cheryl! The recognition factor from Prisoner is just huge." (Caroline Gillmer)

Whatever Happened To …

Elspeth Ballantyne - Warden Meg Morris

Meg was the only character to last through all 692 episodes of Prisoner. With a string of TV roles behind her, Elspeth was a familiar face in Oz before she took on the role of Meg, and she continued her TV work after the show ended, including a long-running role in Neighbours as Cathy Alessi. With her two sons grown up, Elspeth had no qualms about travelling to the UK to star in the first Prisoner stage play alongside Patsy King (original governor Erica Davidson) in 1989. She's also been in several films and TV adverts.

Maggie Kirkpatrick - Evil Joan 'The Freak' Ferguson

Joan terrorised the prisoners of Cell Block H for almost four years. When the show finished in 1986, Maggie headed back to the theatre before taking on the role of snooty Ivy Hackett in short-lived soap Richmond Hill. Maggie made a guest appearance in Home and Away as Marilyn's interfering Auntie Jean, but has recently slipped back into her Wentworth uniform to play 'The Freak' once again alongside Lily Savage in the Prisoner musical, which toured Britain this year.