Episode
Prisoner: Episode 186
Overview
Erica tells Sally she's fallen for the oldest trick in the book and warns her that her work must improve. Vera sympathises with Sally, but only as a means of impressing on her once again the need to imitate her own methods. David tells Erica he will try talking to Bea directly. Lizzie asks permission to have a day on the outside to recover from her recent sickness. Erica refuses, but after Lizzie has left the office she tells David that she intends to find a prison visitor for Lizzie - someone of her own age. Meg has found Georgie a job in a supermarket, and Mike visits Georgie to tell her they could share a room when she's paroled. Bea reiterates that David must withdraw his objection to Georgie's parole if he wants the women to come back to his classes, so he is forced to agree. The parole board chairman allows David to change his recommendation, but points out that Georgie's record in prison will also have to be taken into account. Ivy Butcher arrives as Lizzie's prison visitor.
Details
- Series
- Prisoner
- Season
- Season 3
- Episode
- Episode 21
- Air date
- 1981-04-15
- Runtime
- 47 min
Episode context
Episode 186 is Episode 21 in Season 3 of Prisoner. It aired on 1981-04-15. The runtime is 47 min.
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Episode 20: Episode 185
Georgie interrupts the TV news about the siege to tell the women her own news about David's decision on her parole. Bea won't accept Judy's defeatist attitude that there's nothing they can do about it. Margo is brought back to Wentworth. Vera's isn't very sympathetic to Sally's complaints about finding it hard to handle Bea. Vera confirms the story about Georgie's parole. Bea says they won't go to any more classes and leads the women in preparation for other protests. Jim is surprised by Bea's request for an extra exercise period for all the women. Meg objects to David's insistence on blocking Georgie's parole. Vera passes on a message to Meg to give to Margo, which she says she will want to pass on personally. The message turns out to be that Wayne is dead. Bea warns Margo not to do anything silly during the protest. The women stay in the grounds after their exercise period and refuse to go inside until David comes out to talk to them.
Episode 22: Episode 187
Vera thinks that Lizzie hasn't escaped at all and that the women are hiding her to play a joke on the officers. Jim says the same thing to Erica, and Erica throws a fit of pique and has the women confined to their cells until Lizzie turns up - or the women admit what they are doing. Lizzie selects some clothes and a hat from a charity shop then pretends to have left her bag on the bus: the woman running the shop not only says she can take the clothes and pay for them later, but also give Lizzie two dollars from her own purse. Lizzie makes the money go further by buying something in a chemist's and conning the assistant into giving her change from ten dollars instead of the two she really gives him. Doreen predicts Lizzie will be back by the next day at the latest. David goes to Bea's cell to find out what's going on, as he suspects it's another trick to have his classes cancelled. Vera finds him and tells him off for straying outside his allotted area.
More episodes from this season
Episode 19: Episode 184
Det. Insp. Thorne arrives to control the handling of the siege, and snipers and gunmen take up position all around the building. Margo tells Wayne she's worried that Bazza will snap and open fire at the slightest provocation. Bea is returned to Wentworth, and Vera asks her if she isn't worried that someone might have taken over while she's away. Georgie is persuaded to carry on with David's classes. The two women react differently to being taken hostage: Mrs Dyson whimpers in a corner while Mrs Mitchell is excited that her shop will get free publicity by appearing on TV, and happily sets about making cups of tea for everyone. The women at Wentworth see the TV report on the siege, but Margo is not identified by name. The police phone the shop and Wayne demands a getaway car. Erica tells Meg that Margo has specifically asked for her as a go-between, and orders her not to take part - in vain. Meg goes into the shop to talk to Margo.
Episode 23: Episode 188
Bob tries to apologise to Meg, but he still wants her to change her job. Lizzie is interviewed by the police about her escape and is warned she may face some serious charges. Meg tells Erica she wants to look for another job, but one where her existing qualifications will be sufficient. Erica agrees to make enquiries for her. Vera and Jim oppose the conjugal visits scheme, so Meg is given the job of organising the women to get the garden tool shed screened off and cleaned up for use as a visiting suite. Jim tells Vera it's pointless objecting to the scheme, and they can just rely on the women to ruin it without any help from them. Bea won't let anyone help clean out the shed, even though Hazel and Chrissie are keen. Chrissie's accuses Bea of being selfish and blocking the scheme just because she can't see Ken. David reports back to Erica and recommends that the visiting ban on Ken should be lifted.
Episode 18: Episode 183
Meg is also injured and the women are locked in the dining room: Judy asks for the gate to be opened so that Bea can get medical attention. Erica wants Bea taken to hospital for X-rays. The women are locked in their cells, and Judy says she won't take any blame for the incident. Bea now has a nasty abrasion on her left temple and Sister Johnston wants her transferred to hospital, but the Department won't give permission for Bea to be moved in view of her past record of escapes. Bea comes round and refuses to go to hospital anyway, so Erica insists that she signs a statement that she has refused medical treatment. Meg finds out that the cleaner's job is still available. Jim suggests that Bea doesn't want to leave Wentworth in case anyone takes over while she's away. Wayne tells Margo the details of the payroll job. Erica addresses the women in the rec room and tells them they have all lost buyup for two weeks and a fine will be deducted from all their wages.
Episode 24: Episode 189
Chrissie returns to the laundry sobbing and Bea makes veiled remarks to Vera to indicate that she holds her responsible. Doreen predicts Meg will be back soon as an officer, just like the last time she resigned. Meg finds Chrissie in her cell in tears, but can't do anything more for her than promise to speak to Erica about arranging another visit from Mick. Bea writes a letter to Ken to tell him he can visit again and seals it with sealing wax. Erica hopes the issue of the paternity of Chrissie's child won't be brought up again as she's due for parole in a few weeks. Meg convinces Erica that supervised visits from Mick can't do any harm. A reporter arrives to interview Erica about the visiting scheme: her optimistic description is heard over the reality - Vera inspecting a child's rag doll to check it for contraband. Ted Douglas phones Meg to make an appointment to discuss her application.
Episode 17: Episode 182
Hazel comes to Judy's cell to see if she's all right, and has to listen to a tirade against Georgie for her trouble. Bea cuts Georgie short for crowing over Judy's humiliation, but when Hazel stops by Bea's cell in an attempt to act as peacemaker, Bea is equally unrepentant and unwilling to apologise or stand down. The atmosphere in the laundry is fraught with tension and Judy asks to work in the garden to get away from the conflict. Mouse is given permission to go with her. Erica calls Doreen childish for bearing a grudge and takes away her privileges for a week. Mouse tells Judy that most of the women are on her side, but Judy doesn't want to be pushed forward to take over Bea's place as top dog. Doreen is refused permission to join Judy in the garden and has to work in the laundry: several times violence seems about to break out. Hazel warns Doreen that stirring up trouble will only backfire on her. Judy fills Doreen in about what happened while she's been away in solitary.
Episode 25: Episode 190
No-one will talk to Bea in the rec room, though Hazel and Chrissie pointedly talk about her as if she wasn't there, provoking Bea to speak up in her own defence, but this only leads to a shouting match. When Vera breaks it up, Chrissie demands to see the Governor immediately to ask for another unsupervised visit from Mick to make up for the one she lost. Erica refuses and points out she is being very short-sighted to create so much trouble with her parole coming up. After a promise of a visit the following week if she is still inside, Chrissie calms down, but while Vera is showing her back to her cell, she manages to turn her against Bea again by pointing out that Chrissie is very unlikely to get her parole, so why should she worry about jeopardising it? The argument between Chrissie and Bea duly resumes, this time developing into a real fight: Vera takes Chrissie off to solitary gloating that now she will certainly lose her parole.
Episode 16: Episode 181
Vera wants to censor a letter from Ken Pearce to Bea when she sees it contains praise for Bea for setting his daughter straight, but Meg persuades Vera to let Bea have the letter uncut. Meg also passes on to Bea the message from Margo, so Bea realises that Margo had come to get her money. After hearing about the latest scene with Georgie, Bea advises Judy to stick to her own age group in future. Judy asks Bea what she would do if her own daughter had been lesbian, and Bea answers honestly that she'd prefer any of her kids not to be gay, if only because of the unhappiness it seems to have brought Judy. Erica agrees to David's suggestion to encourage Bea to look after Georgie by putting Georgie in to share a cell. To make room, Doreen has to be moved out to share with Judy. Vera can't help herself and makes the obvious remark: that Judy might have more luck with Doreen in view of her past experience of "warped" relationships.
Episode 26: Episode 191
Bea refuses to talk to Ken on try to persuade him to give up his work for the PRG, but Debbie says she won't allow Bea to stand in the way of her parents getting back together. Lizzie interrupts Bea in the middle of an extended flashback to her scene in the storeroom cupboard with Ken: Bea is obviously still in her daydream when she asks Lizzie if Ken would ever say something he didn't mean. Lizzie agrees that he wouldn't which confirms Bea in her opinion that she ought to try to fight for whatever relationship she can have with Ken. Vera tries to bring Bea down to earth by telling her that she's been talking to Debbie, and that she vowed never to let Ken see Bea ever again: Meg overhears and tells Vera she should know better than to bait a prisoner. Debbie gets Ken to agree to have her mother come to stay - ostensibly to help her shop for the wedding. Bea gets Erica to agree to an unsupervised visit by pretending that she only wants to do what Debbie asked.
Episode 15: Episode 180
Sandra protests to Meg when her breakfast is brought to solitary that she didn't cause the fire. In the dining room, the other women are speculating about where Evelyn is, and what is likely to happen to Sandra. Margo phones Wayne but finds that the line has been cut off: Meg offers to pass a message to him that Margo wants to be collected on her release next day. Jim deals with Sandra in Erica's absence, and agrees to allow her out of solitary for half a day if she will use her journalistic skills to try to find out who really caused the fire. Lizzie passes on to the others that Evelyn is in hospital. Vera drops a heavy hint when she brings Sandra back to the laundry and Bea has no trouble picking it up, realising that Jim has put her back among them deliberately to act as a stool pigeon. Meg visits Wayne and is appalled by the squalid living conditions.
Episode 27: Episode 192
Chrissie lays into Mick as soon as she's through the front door of the new flat , accusing him of only being nice to her as a way of getting her to have sex with him. She changes her tune immediately she hears that he's arranged a visit to Elizabeth. Vera finds herself outnumbered in a discussion of how to handle Bea after her break-up with Ken - oddly she seems to be the only one to favour sending Bea to solitary. Chrissie tells Mick she doesn't want anything from him. Doreen tells Judy she's done something stupid: not only has she got herself a pen friend through a lonely hearts' club but she's painted a very flattering picture of herself and can't work out how to satisfy her pen friend's request for her photo without revealing the truth. Judy asks Meg for help and she agrees to bring in a Polaroid camera from home. Mick and Chrissie visit the children's home: the wire fence around it appals Chrissie and she says it looks just like a prison.