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Inmates, prison staff, psychopaths, dodgy solicitors, celebrities, camp cooks.. all of these may have come and gone throughout the 692 episode run of Prisoner, but there were a few basic ingredients that remained constant, like the ingredients of a good sponge cake recipe. A liberal governor with ideas about reform, a nasty officer to clash with the governor and be cruel to the inmates, a nice officer to be sympathetic and sort out their problems, and a top dog among the inmates (with a strong anti-drugs stance).
The first 'nasty' officer in the series was Vera Bennett. She wore her hair pulled back in a severe style, presumably to indicate harshness - a technique that was repeated when Joan Ferguson was introduced. Vera could be cruel to the women, and would take great pleasure in stirring up trouble with the inmates. She had ambition to progress in her career, and the prison seemed to be the most significant thing in her life, with her home life dominated by her demanding and unsympathetic mother. Her love life consisted of a few failed relationships, with men like Graham Lang and George Lucas interested only in using her, and Terry Harrison turning out to have underworld connections then getting shot, and dying in her arms. But when things got too much, Vera sought comfort with alcohol, and was seen wallowing in drunken self pity at home, making a fool of herself in a bar, and once even arriving at work drunk.
Alcohol was a method of escape that future 'bad screw' Colleen Powell would inherit. She shared the same kind of ambition in her career, but seemed to have a more aggressive drive. She started off barely mumbling in the background, then became a stroppy union rep, and the way her career obsession seemed to leap overnight to centre stage at around the time Vera left, might have seemed a bit 'convenient' to more cynical viewers. She became cruel to the women, earning the nickname "Po-Face Powell" (a nickname being a sure sign of making it as a baddie officer). But unlike Vera's trouble making and Joan's physical violence, Colleen's weapon was her cutting sarcasm. Sadly her 'nastiness' seemed to dwindle around the time Joan arrived, and by the time she left the series, she'd become a reasonably 'good' officer.
Colleen was the first of the 'bad' officers whose sexuality was a strong part of their character. Not only did she have an affair with an inmate's husband, but she was also seen trying to come onto Jim Fletcher in order to get her way. As for the subsequent bad screws, Joan had been in a relationship with an inmate in a previous prison. She sexually harassed Hannah Simpson after taking a fancy to her, and her midnight black-gloved body searches always seemed to suggest something very sinister and sexual. Len Murphy was happy to reap the benefits of a trap gone wrong, when he ended up having sex with Lou Kelly. And on the outside, Judy Bryant had managed to track down officer Jock Stewart by hiding in a sleazy massage parlour he frequented. Later in the series, during a different confrontation, he raped her.
Jock Stewart was a large man, with a loud, growling voice, and was therefore physically intimidating. He was corrupt, bullying the women (for example, putting pressure on Doreen Anderson to sell her mother's house), and like Joan Ferguson and Len Murphy, he used physical violence as a method of attack. This included the murder of inmate Sharon Gilmour, who was found dead at the bottom of a staircase after he had pushed her.
Similarly, Len Murphy had an intimidating presence, and despite his initial 'niceness', his true nature was soon revealed. He was also violent and cruel, and had a particular hatred of lesbians after his wife had left him for another woman. This did not make his relationship with Joan easy, and even more friction was created from the two of them being equally ambitious and competitive in their quest for the governorship.
Like Vera before her, Joan Ferguson's career seemed to dominate her life. Also like her, she had a single surviving parent who had a strong influence on her life (in this case her father, whom she idolised and strived to impress). There were further shades of Vera with her lonely social life, and her tragic love life, with her first lover murdered, and a failed relationship with fellow officer Terri Malone.
Joan was certainly cruel to the women, but she took things much further than Vera and Colleen would go, frequently breaking the rules for her own means. She'd take a cut from the proceeds of any illegal gambling, get involved with contraband smuggling, and use violence to get her way. She was also willing to let prisoners out of their cells at night, to make 'night visits' to their unsuspecting victims, something that corrupt officer Anne Yates had done for Bea Smith in the very first episodes.
Vera had been an interestingly drawn character, with her harsh Wentworth personality, but with a more 'human' side seen outside the prison environment. She cared for her mother, despite the cruel way she treated Vera, and her more affectionate nature was revealed in her romances, and when she wanted to adopt a dog the inmates had found.
So the idea of using an "achilles heel" to make a baddie officer more three dimensional was used many times, but not always as successfully as with Vera. Colleen Powell had her teenage daughter and her fondness for Susie Driscoll. Len Murphy may have had a soft spot for Bobbie Mitchell. But when it came to Joan, things seemed to get a bit out of control. Not only did she have her beloved father, the Major, she also had a beloved dog (also called Major), and liked Lorilei Wilkinson a lot. But worst of all were the number of sugary-sweet children that seemed to be wheeled on every so often to remind us of her nice side, which was getting much harder to forget as the series went on. Most notable examples were the revoltingly chirpy Shane Munroe, who she wanted to adopt, her encounters with Jilly Coulson (a neighbour's child, the neighbour ending up in Wentworth of course), and the saccharine pathos of the little girl she met while in hospital.
There are many similarities between the different 'nasty screws', such as ambition, a contrasting private life, or the use of nicknames ("Vinegartits", "Po-Face", "Fergo", "The Freak"). But perhaps most interesting is the way the 'baddies' made their departures. Anne Yates, Len Murphy and Joan Ferguson all ended up in prison themselves, and Jock Stewart had already spent time behind bars by the time he was last heard of, permanently disabled after (ironically) falling down some steps in pursuit of Judy Bryant. Anne Yates even went a stage further, and was suffocated in the dryer in the prison laundry. Vera seemed to be the only one who eventually got what she wanted, the position of prison governor, albeit at Barnhurst prison. Despite her severity and her faults, and unlike the others just mentioned, Vera was never a 'corrupt' officer. So perhaps the characters' destinies represent some kind of moralistic payback.
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