The
lowdown: 'Within These Walls' is a British drama
series set in a fictitious women's prison, HMP Stone Park. It
series starred Googie Withers
as the newly-appointed prison governer, Faye Boswell. Unlike later prison
dramas, the
focus was on the prison's
staff rather than the inmates, and particularly the private life of Boswell,
who lived with her
university student son,
Paul (Nigel Crewe). Googie Withers left after the third series, and the
prison was subsequently
run by two new govenors,
played by Katharine Blake and Sarah Lawson. Other regular characters included
the deputy
governor, Charles Radley
(Jerome Willis), and the prison doctor, Dr. Peter Mayes (Denys Hawthorne).
Plots dealt with
many aspects of prison life,
including the treatment of prisoners, drug abuse, prison violence, mentally-ill
offenders and
the odd escape attempt.
A total of 72 episodes were broadcast on ITV1 between 4 January 1974 and
15 April 1978.
The
episode: 'Prisoner by Marriage' was the 5th episode of
the series, and was first broadcast on 1 February 1974. A
number of new prisoners
are sent to Stone Park, including a troubled 16-year-old, Mary Harris,
and Jane Brogan (Pam
Scotcher), who has been
transferred from another prison to be near her husband and young children.
Brogan is serving
a two-year sentence for
shoplifting, but she does not intend to remain at Stone Park. She
is put in a cell with Isabelle
Coyne (Diana Beevers), who
is in prison for fraud and is learning to paint. Brogan quickly learns
that Coyne is having a
relationship with the prison's
art teacher, David Jenkins (played by Colin Baker), which Brogan uses to
her advantage by
trying to convince her to
take part in an escape plan. Meanwhile, Dr Mayes is angered by the prison
system's treatment
of Harris, who has been
sent to Stone Park despite not having committed a serious offence. Coyne
refuses to take part
in the escape, so Brogan
sends an anonymous letter telling Boswell of the relationship and that
Jenkins is taking letters
out of the prison on behalf
of Coyne. Jenkins is suspended and Coyne destroys her paintings,
while Brogan's husband
Dennis informs governor
Boswell of the escape attempt.
Who
connections: Apart from Baker, the
episode included several Doctor Who actors. Dennis Brogan
was played by
Tom
Chadbon (Duggan in City of Death), Jerome Willis played Stevens
in The Green Death and Denys Hawthorne was
Security Officer Rudge in
Terror of the Vervoids). Other Who actors who appeared in
the series include Michael Sheard,
Anthony Ainley, Geoffrey
Beevers, Roger Lloyd-Pack (The Age of Steel/Rise of the Cybermen),
Wanda Moore (Dr Ruth
Ingram in The Time Monster),
Charles Morgan (The Invasion of Time), Angela Bruce (Brigadier Bambera
in Battlefield),
Bernard Horsfall (The
Deadly Assassin) and Paul Darrow (Timelash).
Video clips: David
Jenkins 2.8mb
Jenkins meets Boswell
4.8mb Jenkins
is suspended 3.3mb |
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