In August 2022, I sat down to watch the first episode of classic Australian soap, Prisoner (aka Prisoner Cell Block H). I started watching the show as replacement for the then recently departed Aussie soap, Neighbours, which (at the time) had ended its run after 37 years on air.
Prior to watching that first episode of Prisoner, I was not that familiar with the series. Despite the show running for eight seasons and a whopping 692 episodes between 1979 and 1986, I had never taken the time to seek it out and knew next-to-nothing about it.
However, knowing that I was a little sad about the demise of Neighbours, a show I was going to miss very much, one of my very good friends (who is a Prisoner fan), suggested I give Prisoner a go. As he pointed out, Prisoner was devised by Neighbours creator Reg Watson, and it featured various actors and actresses who would go on to appear in Neighbours, as well as other iconic Australian shows such as Home & Away, Heartbreak High, Round the Twist, and Kath & Kim, amongst others.
So, upon his advice, I figured it would be worth watching at least one episode of Prisoner, just to see what I thought. As noted above, that was back in August 2022, and now in July 2023 I’m just finishing up on the 692 episode run.
It has taken me just under a year to complete the series, but once I have watched the final few episodes this week I will have viewed every instalment of Prisoner from start to finish. Over the course of the year, I fell in love with the series, Tweeted about it extensively on Twitter (and I mean EXTENSIVELY), and had lots of fun with the characters, storylines, and wobbly sets along the way.
But something else happened during the course of this year, which I didn’t expect. I found a way to work through some grief, which was much bigger than my sadness over the cancellation of Neighbours, and I learned that sometimes it is OK to let go of the things we love.
Before I talk about my experience with Prisoner, I need to rewind the clock a little, all the way back to 2019 to fill you in on some important details.
In January 2019 I had just started a new job, with better pay and better conditions. For a brief moment it seemed as if things were looking up.
Unfortunately, within weeks of starting my new job, my mother was diagnosed with cancer and given months to live. At that point in time she was given various options about how best to treat the disease, from life-altering operations, through to ongoing treatments including radiology and chemotherapy.
Being the ultimate trooper that she was, my mother agreed to anything and everything that was suggested, in order to fight back against her diagnosis. If a doctor suggested something might help, or might give her a fighting chance, she simply said ‘yes’ and gave it a shot.
Over the next three-and-a-half years, she did what she could to survive, and despite the odds being stacked against her she lived far beyond the ‘months’ she was given. She had the operations, she took the never-ending supply of drugs, and she continued to find ways to smile even when she was in insurmountable pain.
While all this was playing out, I lost my job to a company-wide redundancy, the world was turned upside down because of a global pandemic, and there were vast amounts of time where I didn’t get to see my mother through a fear of complicating her already complicated health problems. In short: Things were pretty bad for quite some time.
Towards the end of 2021 and into the beginning of 2022, my mother’s health took a significant decline. Although my family knew what was coming, and had always known we’d reach an endpoint sooner or later, it was now very clear the end was in sight.
In June 2022, my mother passed away at the age of 63. Even though I knew her death was going to happen, it still felt very sudden.
For the next few weeks I then became caught up in various procedural bits-and-bobs that need to be done when someone passes away, and I organised the funeral arrangements (something I’d never done before). The funeral took place in July, exactly one month after she passed, and for the four-week period in between, things were incredibly difficult.
What perhaps didn’t help, was that six months prior to my mother passing away, I turned 40. This was something I had been dreading for a while, as it meant I had reached middle-age and this felt like a seismic shift in both my mental state and my outlook on life.
With my mother passing away only a few months later, and with her only being 23-years older than me, it really gave me much to think about. Time was passing much too quickly, and life no-longer seemed as fun as it once was.
And then as an added reminder of the passing of time, bloomin’ Neighbours was coming to an end! The show had been playing in the background of my life ever since I was a child, and with this bit of daily consistency about to evaporate, it seemed like too many changes were happening all at once.
Why couldn’t things stay the same? Why were all these negative outcomes coming at me in quick succession?
The cancer, the redundancy, the pandemic, the unwanted birthday milestone, the death, the funeral, and now bloody Neighbours! How the heck was I supposed to cope with all this?!
The answer? I needed a little help from Prisoner.
When my friend suggested I try Prisoner, I was very unsure. I knew the series was iconic, and it had a big following, which suggested it would be worth my time, but it was also 692-episodes long, with each episode running 45 minutes.
If I watched the first episode, liked it, and then wanted to continue, it would take me close to two years to complete if I watched one episode a day. This would be an incredibly big commitment, at a point in my life when I already had a lot of things taking up my headspace.
But I figured, one episode wouldn’t hurt, and hey, if I did like it and if I could fit in two episodes a day instead of one, then maybe it would be manageable. Sure, it would still be a massive commitment, but maybe it would be a good distraction for now.
So, I headed over to YouTube, pressed ‘play’ on Prisoner episode one, and gave it a whirl. Instantly I could see it was camp, and a bit rough around the edges, but I loved it.
One episode of Prisoner turned into two, and then three, and before the end of the night I had watched four episodes back-to-back. The next day I watched more, and by the end of the week I was completely hooked.
Suddenly, my worries about committing myself to a 692-episode show didn’t seem to be an issue. I’ve switched off many shows after just two or three episodes, but this clearly wasn’t going to be the case.
The characters were great, the storylines were gripping, and it was a heck of a lot of fun seeing various Neighbours actors pop up on my screen again. I may have just waved goodbye to Ramsay Street, but suddenly all these old faces were back in my life again, albeit in new guises.
What I didn’t realise at the time, although it is very clear now, is that this ‘new’ show (which was over 40-years old) was giving me something to focus on, that did not revolve around sadness and grief. Instead, each 45-minute episode gave me some escapism, as I watched the inmates of Wentworth Detention Centre go through the trials and tribulations of being banged up.
During those early days I was introduced to the likes of Vera ‘Vinegar Tits’ Bennett, Lynn ‘Wonky’ Warner, and Bea Smith – the ‘Queen Bea’ of Wentworth. Other characters such as Lizzie Birdsworth, Doreen Anderson, Franky Doyle, Erica Davidson, and Meg Jackson were also thrown into the mix, and they all played their part in keeping me watching.
OK, so I wasn’t all that invested in ‘Wonky’ Warner, but certainly the rest of them. This rag-tag bunch of characters were fascinating to watch, and with some outlandish storylines to back them up, I was mesmerised by what I was seeing.
This show boasted a strong collection of female characters, all of whom broke away from the norm, and this was very refreshing to watch. The scripts were also well written, with plenty of heightened drama alongside the characterisation.
Over the next few weeks I kept up my Prisoner viewing, and settled into a nice rhythm of approximately two episodes per day. I also started posting my thoughts, feelings, and general musings on Twitter, which soon got noticed by Prisoner fans (hello to all those Prisoner fans out there).
This in turn made my journey with the show even more enjoyable, because other Twitter users would pass comment on episodes, or provide me with a few background details about Prisoner, which elevated my experience. All of a sudden, I wasn’t just watching Prisoner alone, I was watching it surrounded by experts who knew the series inside and out.
While I had no idea what laid in store for me as I made my way through each episode and each season, everyone else did. They were able to reassure me that a few dips in quality here and there would soon pass, and I would love what was on the horizon.
As I pressed ahead, I got to witness the era of the legendary Bea Smith; I got to say hello and wave goodbye to some truly memorable characters; and I got my first brush with fan-favourite prison guard, Joan Ferguson, aka The Freak. I also got to spend plenty of time with the amazing Lizzie Birdsworth, who is without doubt the heart of the series for a good chunk of its run.
I watched riots, shootings, stabbings, and multiple escape attempts, and I even got to see some truly laugh-out-loud scenes (including a helicopter escape for gruff inmate, Marie Winter). I also met characters such as Judy Bryant, Jock Stewart, and Anne Reynolds, and saw various bit-part actors reappear time-and-time-again in different roles.
Months then flew by, and soon the Bea Smith era was over, and newcomers like Minnie Donovan and Cass Parker filled the screen. Things felt different in the post-Bea years, yet also very much the same, and I kept on going regardless.
Then these characters came and went, and before I knew it, it was the turn of Lou Kelly, Rita Connors, and Kath Maxwell. One set of faces replaced the other, many storylines got recycled, but these new players maintained the legacy of the show.
OK, so not every era ran smoothly, and the less said about the Barnhurst Five debacle the better (Prisoner fans know exactly what I’m referring to) but even when Prisoner had lulls in quality it soon bounced back . There was something about the show which kept pulling me in, and at no point did I ever consider abandoning it.
Heck, when it was good, it was great. And when it was bad, it was at least meme-able!
And speaking of memes, Prisoner is a goldmine of meme-madness. There is so much fun to be had in this show, and so many memes to be created.
The thing with Prisoner is, once I had worked my way through the first 30 or 40 episodes, I knew I would stick with it through thick and thin. There was a reason this show had been so successful during the ’70s and ’80s, and I was getting to see why.
And the more of Prisoner I watched, the more I came to a significant realisation: I was finding happiness in something new. And even though that happiness would eventually end when I hit episode 692, I knew it would be OK.
Everything has a finite timespan, and while it is often very difficult to let things go, joy can be found again in unexpected places. I never imagined I’d find joy in a dusty old show, which had long since left TV screens, but life is filled with surprises.
I can’t turn back the clock, and I can’t erase some of the pain I’ve encountered, but I can find new experiences and new ways to view the world. Life is forever changing, that change isn’t always easy, but it isn’t the end of the road either.
Almost a year has passed since I watched episode one of Prisoner, and as I now press ‘publish’ on this blog post, I have just ten episodes remaining, which I will complete within days. The last 30-odd episodes of Prisoner (Craven, Joan, Lorelei Wilkinson, etc) have been a sheer delight and a bit of a rollercoaster, and the show is clearly going out with a bang.
Of course, after devoting a year to this show, I’ll be sad to see it finish, but at the same time I’m absolutely fine with it coming to an end. The enjoyment I got from watching Prisoner far outweighs the sadness of it concluding and that’s my key takeaway from this whole experience.
Enjoy the moments and the good times when you have them. Be happy you took part in the journey, rather than be sad that it’s all over.
This last year I’ve been dealing with grief over the passing of one of the most important people in my life, and while that grief hasn’t gone away, it has changed shape. It still hurts, but in a different way than it once did, and I’m now learning to live with it.
Prisoner got me through some difficult times, it took me through the anniversary of my mother’s passing, and it dragged me through my 40th year. Heck, it also filled in the gap-year before Neighbours miraculously returns to TV screens in September, and it gave me hours of entertainment too.
For all this and more I will be forever grateful. Prisoner is something truly special, and if you’ve never watched an episode, I encourage you to clear some time in your schedule and lock yourself away with a criminally good series.
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One Response to Grief, sadness, and watching Prisoner Cell Block H
I enjoyed this story very much this wonderful young lady that wrote it grief sadness and watching prisoner cell block h I know exactly what she means I was 13 or 14 and I will get with my parents to bingo on Saturday nights when we got home and turned on the television we discovered the show well we were hooked couldn’t wait for the following Saturday I do believe they stopped it for some reason so we never got to see it completely but I am so happy I’m 53 now and I discovered it on YouTube and I feel like my parents looking down and watching it with me she said she watched four in a row well I watch quite a bit more in a day but I am disabled so it really helps to not think of that thank you all at cell block h I believe if you were in America you would all have one Emmys b e a Smith would have won an academy award !!!!!
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