Prisoner (TV series)

:For the 1967 UK television series, starring Patrick McGoohan, see The Prisoner.

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Prisoner (known in the UK and USA as Prisoner: Cell Block H or The Prisoner of Cell Block H, and in Canada by the English title Caged Women) was an Australian television soap opera set in Wentworth Detention Centre, a women's prison. Because of its success in the UK, the series has become one of the most enduring in Australian television history.

Related Topics:
Australia - Television - Soap opera - Prison - UK

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The show has some similarities to the earlier London Weekend Television series Within These Walls, and may well have been influenced by it.

Related Topics:
London Weekend Television - Within These Walls

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The series was created by Reg Watson and produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation and ran on Network Ten from 1979 to 1986. The show's storylines primarily concentrated on the lives of the prisoners and, to a lesser extent, the officers and other prison staff.

Related Topics:
Reg Watson - Reg Grundy Organisation - Network Ten - 1979 - 1986

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Within the walls of the prison, the major themes of the series were the inter-personal relationships between the prisoners, the power struggles, friendships and rivalries. When the series launched in 1978, the press advertising used the line "if you think prison is hell for a man, imagine what it's like for a woman".

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While it is remembered now mainly for its campy qualities — the low budget, at-times silly storylines and tiny production values — it was hailed in its time for ground-breaking storytelling.

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