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Prisoner Cell Block H: Women Behind Bars
Vintage TV tie-in paperback
224 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 9, 2021
I grew up watching Prisoner Cell Block H, in the days when the sets were still shaky and I was probably too young/naive/innocent to understand fully what was going on. I have all the boxsets on DVD, but I was shocked to find that there were novelizations based on the TV show. And I'm talking about the original TV show from the 80s, not the reboot of recent years.
I picked up this one first of all, as it seemed to be more based around the "beginning" of the show, or what I can remember of the earliest episodes. As far as I can remember, this is based around the first handful of episodes, and introduces us to some of the stalwarts of Wentworth Detention Centre - Bea Smith, Doreen, Lizzie (who only appears briefly), Mum, and good ol' Franky.
A lot of this feels very familiar, even though it's been years now since I saw the early episodes and it reads like a long episode. It does go into the background of a few of the characters, particularly Erica Davidson at the beginning, who was always a bit of a cold fish to me. It's clearly been written by someone who loves Prisoner, as the characters jump off the page, and match my recollections of them. It's also slightly longer than your average novelization, as it covers a few episodes, at 212 pages.
There is a few typos here and there, quotation marks in the wrong places for example, and for some reason my copy has a glaring printing error - when you turn the onto page 171, it takes you to a different scene, than the previous page, and then a couple of pages on, jumps back to the events that were happening on page 170. It is quite jarring, so maybe this has been corrected - or perhaps not!
The front picture, appears to be just a standard stock photo taken from a later episode, possibly to pull in the readers - it definitely does not appear in the book, as I can see Chrissie Latham and what looks like Lou Kelly in the background. There are four mini bios on the back cover, of the four main characters in this particular book, with Franky, Karen, Lynnette, and Bea.
If you loved Prisoner, these are definitely worth picking up, if you can see them at a decent price. Some of the volumes, particularly Frustrations of Vera go for ridiculous prices. But they are definitely worth getting a hold of if you can. Of course, it will make you want to watch all 20 seasons again - shaky sets and all!
I picked up this one first of all, as it seemed to be more based around the "beginning" of the show, or what I can remember of the earliest episodes. As far as I can remember, this is based around the first handful of episodes, and introduces us to some of the stalwarts of Wentworth Detention Centre - Bea Smith, Doreen, Lizzie (who only appears briefly), Mum, and good ol' Franky.
A lot of this feels very familiar, even though it's been years now since I saw the early episodes and it reads like a long episode. It does go into the background of a few of the characters, particularly Erica Davidson at the beginning, who was always a bit of a cold fish to me. It's clearly been written by someone who loves Prisoner, as the characters jump off the page, and match my recollections of them. It's also slightly longer than your average novelization, as it covers a few episodes, at 212 pages.
There is a few typos here and there, quotation marks in the wrong places for example, and for some reason my copy has a glaring printing error - when you turn the onto page 171, it takes you to a different scene, than the previous page, and then a couple of pages on, jumps back to the events that were happening on page 170. It is quite jarring, so maybe this has been corrected - or perhaps not!
The front picture, appears to be just a standard stock photo taken from a later episode, possibly to pull in the readers - it definitely does not appear in the book, as I can see Chrissie Latham and what looks like Lou Kelly in the background. There are four mini bios on the back cover, of the four main characters in this particular book, with Franky, Karen, Lynnette, and Bea.
If you loved Prisoner, these are definitely worth picking up, if you can see them at a decent price. Some of the volumes, particularly Frustrations of Vera go for ridiculous prices. But they are definitely worth getting a hold of if you can. Of course, it will make you want to watch all 20 seasons again - shaky sets and all!
April 5, 2020
from the tv series on Netflix wentworth the women in prison there is bea smith and frankie doyle both fighting for top dog to the girls the arrival of karen travers and lynn warner who says she was convicted of a crime she never committed. as they try to get use to their new life in prison..and bea and mum are realeased from jail when their sentence is done.
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September 9, 2014I was looking through my "read" books and have nothing in 1980 - this is pretty much what I was reading in 1980, I think....
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews