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Believe it or not, Prisoner has seen four stage-plays produced and toured around the country! Although a fifth would be much welcomed by fans we think it is highly unlikely at this stage, or at least until the series is shown again on UK television.
The original stage-plays toured the UK when Prisoner was at it's height of popularity. The majority of ITV regions were showing the series twice a week before midnight and the fans just wanted more and more!
The world premiere of Prisoner: Cell Block H - The Stage Play took place on 21st September 1989 at the Wimbledon Theatre in the UK and it was surprisingly supported by a lot of the national newspapers such as The Times who announced it as "The theatrical event of the Autumn season"!
The production toured around the UK calling at Preston, Sunderland, Liverpool, Manchester and more before closing at Birmingham's Alexandra Theatre on 11th December.
 Generally, the content of the productions was to feature some of the memorable storylines which were featured in the TV series. So we had Bea Smith steam-pressing another inmate's hand, Franky Doyle wrecking the library and a troop of Prisoners trying to escape through an underground tunnel.
Having said that though, to begin with continuity was less than perfect. An example of this was having the character of Joan Ferguson in the prison at the same time as Franky Doyle. The majority of the fans didn't seem to mind though as they were just happy to see some of their favourite characters and actors in front of them in person!
One of the main things was to have some of the original cast re-creating their old characters who they had left behind many years ago. Elspeth Ballantyne, Fiona Spence, Jane Clifton, Jacqui Gordon, Patsy King and Glenda Linscott all made an appearance at one point although they didn't always play the characters they were originally known for.
After the success of the first tour it was decided to get the show on the road again in the following Spring of 1990. The storyline and scenes were more or less the same however the cast was changed around slightly. Original actors from the first tour - Elspeth, Patsy and Glenda - were replaced with Fiona, Jane and Jacqui taking on the task of re-creating the characters of Vera Bennett, Margo Gaffney and Kath Evans (a Karen Travers type character). It was also at this point that the ridiculous idea of having Joan Ferguson in the prison in such early storylines was changed. Vera Bennett took over and fitted in much better.
Again the play toured around the UK from the Apollo Theatre in Oxford on 5th March 1990 and closed almost 3 months later on 28th May 1990 in Hull's New Theatre.
The second tour was a success, but probably not as popular as the original due to the huge amount of publicity which the play received in 1989. It was in essence the same play, but with a different cast. Prisoner continued it's reign of popularity on the television until the series ended on the ITV network in the late 1990's.
This wasn't the end though...
Around five years had passed by since we saw Prisoner on stage. Just as everyone thought we wouldn't see it again, it was back - as camp and crazy as ever!
Peter Pinne and Don Battye had already been writing scripts and demo songs which could be featured in an "outrageous but affectionate parody of the show". In no time at all, Prisoner: Cell Block H - The Musical made it's debut in the West End in the Winter of 1995 and was a huge success.
 This time it was totally different to the stage plays which we had been graced with years earlier. A new cast and storyline were featured and a lot of comedy and music added. The two main stars were non other than Lily Savage (the UK's most famous drag queen) and Maggie Kirkpatrick who stepped into the uniform as Officer Joan Ferguson 10 years after she thought she'd left the series behind!
Another change which came with the musical was the amendment of character names, possibly so as not to confuse the audience. Characters were based on people in the original series e.g. Steff Callahan took a similar role as Franky Doyle, Mrs Austin took a similar role as Mrs Morris etc.
For this new version of Prisoner, they really were able to laugh at the series but at the same time stay true to a lot of the original characters and scripts. A big point was made of the wobbly walls and in one scene a hand appeared from the side of the stage to keep hold of the brick wall and stop it from falling over!
The storyline revolved around Lily being imprisoned for killing her sister - of course she was innocent, but during her time on the inside she saw the real Wentworth just as we did on television: The prison Governor ended up inside as an inmate and Joan took her place. As with the stage plays we saw Franky go crazy, the tunnel and the Wentworth fashion show!
It all ended happily ever after of course, Lily was freed and Joan got what was coming to her plus The Governor (played by Linda Nolan) fell in love with The Man from the Department!
Although Maggie was the only original Prisoner cast member, the show did extremely well with famous faces such as Linda Nolan already mentioned, Bella Emberg, Michelle Byatt and Jeffrey Perry who put on a great performance.
The Musical toured around the UK twice - the second tour co-incided with the series being shown again on UK television on Channel 5. It was received very well again by the press and loved by all of the audiences lucky enough to see it.
1989 CAST
JOAN FERGUSON - JENNIFER STANTON
MEG JACKSON - ELSPETH BALLANTYNE
KATH EVANS - BRENDA CLARKE
ANGELA MASON - GLENDA LINSCOTT
FRANKY DOYLE - JOANNA MONRO
BEA SMITH - BRENDA LONGMAN
DOREEN ANDERSON - MOYA O'SHEA
LIZZIE BIRDSWORTH - STELLA TANNER
ERICA DAVIDSON - PATSY KING
GARY DOYLE - STEPHEN MATTHEWS
1990 CAST
VERA BENNETT - FIONA SPENCE
MEG JACKSON - SHIRLIE RODEN
KATH EVANS - JACQUI GORDON
MARGO GAFFNEY - JANE CLIFTON
FRANKY DOYLE - STACEY CHARLESWORTH
BEA SMITH - BRENDA LONGMAN
DOREEN ANDERSON - YVONNE MATTHEW
LIZZIE BIRDSWORTH - GRACE MITCHELL
ERICA DAVIDSON - APRIL WALKER
GARY DOYLE - AIDAN HERD
MUSICAL CAST - WEST END (OCT 95 TO JAN 96)
MINNIE - LIZ SMITH
STEFF - TERRY NEASON
PATSY - SARA STEPHENS
BABS - CHRISTINE GLEN
TWINKIE - EMMA KERSHAW
JOAN FERGUSON - MAGGIE KIRKPATRICK
GOVERNOR - PENNY MORRELL
MRS AUSTIN - ALISON JIEAR
THE MAN FROM THE DEPARTMENT - JEFFREY PERRY
SILENT PRISONER 1 - ALIX LONGMAN
SILENT PRISONER 2 - KATHRYN OTTO
WITH LILY SAVAGE (AS HERSELF)
MUSICAL CAST - 1ST TOUR (1996)
THE WARDER - VIVIENNE McMASTER
MINNIE - BELLA EMBERG
STEFF - TERRY NEASON
PATSY - BILLI SHAW
BABS - YVONNE NEWMAN
TWINKIE - KATHRYN OTTO
JOAN FERGUSON - MAGGIE KIRKPATRICK
GOVERNOR - LINDA NOLAN
MRS AUSTIN - AMANDA BURDETT
THE MAN FROM THE DEPARTMENT - JEFFREY PERRY
WITH LILY SAVAGE (AS HERSELF)
MUSICAL CAST - 2ND TOUR
JOAN FERGUSON - MAGGIE KIRKPATRICK
STEFF CALLAHAN - DAVILIA DAVID
BABS MORTON - ANNA MARIA EVERETT
PATSY PRINGLE - SALLY CHATTAWAY
MINNIE FIDDLEBRASS - BELLA EMBERG
JUANITA PEREZ - STEPHANIE BARRY
BRENDA SMITH - MICHELLE BYATT
THE GOVERNOR - LINDA NOLAN
MRS AUSTIN - LISA GEORGE
THE MAN FROM THE DEPARTMENT - JEFFREY PERRY
SADIE LAVERNE - JOANNA MADDISON
WITH LILY SAVAGE (AS HERSELF)
You may be interested to know that a CD recording of the songs featured in the Musical was released some time ago and there are still some copies floating around! The best place to look for it is on Ebay.co.uk. Try a search for "Prisoner Cell Block H" and you might also find a few other goodies there too!
Many thanks to Rob Cope and Barry Campbell for providing us with help and information to create this section of OTI.
For more information on actress Maggie Kirkpatrick (Joan Ferguson), visit her Official Website.
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