Top Ten: Wedding Belles

Weddings were included in Prisoner to add a bit of excitement, with various subplots attached, or as a way of saying goodbye to a character and closing their story. They weren't exclusively for inmates either. Here are the most memorable ones.

1. Julie Egbert & Steve Ryan
Steve's snobby mother asked Anne Reynolds to stop the wedding, but she refused. So Amy Ryan paid Joan instead. Julie was kidnapped in her wedding dress by Kath Maxwell’s gang, taken to the boiler room (where else?) and held there by Merle, who thought it was a game. The idea was to frame Rita and Alice for an attack on Kath and Janet. Hasty repairs were done to Julie's dress and make-up, but Joan took advantage of the chaos and called the Minister to come. Despite his orders, he was too late, and ordered Anne's resignation, promoting Joan to acting governor. Joan immediately revoked Julie's transfer to Barnhurst and stopped the couple using the conjugal suite. But when faced with a camera crew, Anne persuaded the Minister to make the wedding into positive publicity, and she was immediately reinstated. So all else went ahead as planned.

2. Doreen Anderson & Kevin Burns
The first wedding held in the grounds of the prison. Doreen initially lied about her dress size, so when Kevin brought the dress, it had to be let out. She asked Erica to give her away, and the service took place in the garden.

3. Marlene Warren & Matt Delaney
Similarly, Marlene also had problems with dress size, and split the seams of the first one she tried on. After a nightmare of her dress falling apart, she vowed to diet before the big day. She also managed to dye her hair bright red during this time for a bit of ‘comic’ relief. Her release came through just before the wedding, but she wanted the service in the prison, so Anne agreed to 'lose' the paperwork for a few days. Her mother arrived with her own wedding dress, which was a perfect fit (though the enormous top-heavy veil was far more laughable than anything in Marlene's nightmare). Andrew Fry arrived to give the order for Matt and Frank Burke to be transferred to a prison farm, but Pat Slattery deliberately held things up so the wedding could take place. When the van eventually drove away with new husband Matt, Marlene decided not to watch.

4. Joyce Barry & Mervin Pringle
Joyce's son Jim opposed the wedding, taking an instant dislike to Mervin at first, and especially while Joyce's first husband was ill. The inmates and staff decided to hold a celebration in Wentworth for the couple, which involved costumes and a cake. Alice had agreed to do the cake (despite her family being recently killed by Lou Kelly) and it did accidentally end up on the floor at one stage. Poor Alice also suffered a laxative-filled chocolate mousse that had been intended for Joan. The festivities were disrupted by the discovery of a dead body in solitary. As for the wedding reception on the outside, this seemed to be dominated by Uncle Perc, and his antiquated video camera, huge studio light, and Vaseline to smear on the lens!

5. Petra Roberts & Scott Collins
Anyone who'd seen the blatantly ripped-off Karen Travers and Greg Miller storyline would have known these two would get hitched in the end. The preparations included Lizzie pinching brandy from the governor's office for the cake, which was subsequently dropped by Pixie. The wedding took place in the garden, and the couple spent the night in the conjugal suite. Afterwards, Petra's case was declared a mistrial, and she was released.

6. Meg Jackson & Bob Morris
Tracey Morris arrived as a prisoner at Wentworth, along with death threats, which inadvertently led to Meg being shot by a masked gunman while supervising a visit. Not a good way to start a romance, I suppose, but Bob Morris was becoming increasingly interested in Meg. This was much to Tracey's horror (at first) but eventually the couple were married, and Meg happily donned the oven gloves for him in her Spanish-style kitchen and avoided mentioning her job to his clients when they entertained.

7. Pippa Reynolds & Ben Fulbright
The tempestuous relationship between lawyer Ben and sulky, spoiled Pippa, eventually resulted in their engagement. But when Pippa accepted a job in London just before the wedding, Ben was annoyed and told her to decide between the wedding or the job. Fortunately for Pippa, her new employer agreed to wait 3 weeks (until after the wedding) so she didn't have to choose one or the other. Just before the wedding, there was a skuffle at Wentworth, and Rita ended up in solitary after hitting Pippa. Slasher got to hear of this, and so Pippa's wedding had a gang of bikers revving their engines outside.

8. Karen Travers & Greg Miller
Karen and Greg had known each other at university where they were lovers, but Karen later married someone else. During her imprisonment at Wentworth, their love was rekindled, and they got engaged. After Karen's release, she was inadvertently shot by someone out for Greg. She was rushed to hospital, and her survival was uncertain. Karen did recover, and her mother offered to help her and Greg relocate to Queensland after the wedding. Soon after, Greg returned to Wentworth while trying to sell up his practice, and was able to show off their wedding photos.

9. Janet Conway & Ian Mahoney
A bit of a strained relationship with the obsessive Janet and easy going Ian, but they eventually decided to marry. At one point, Janet had second thoughts about the wedding, when she thought she might be pregnant and didn't know how Ian would react. During her leaving party, the doctor phoned to confirm the news, and Ian was happy about it. We didn't actually see the wedding, but Ian and Janet drove away from Wentworth in a car sprayed with good wishes (where did the women get all the shaving foam?) as the inmates sang from the cell windows at them.

10. Lynn Warner & Doug Parker
The first inmate to get married in Prisoner. Lynn had met Doug (a prisoner in a male prison) when he was in a work group doing repairs at Wentworth. When they were both released, he visited Lynn at her parents' farm, and they ran away together. They moved in with his friend Bernie, then got married. But Bernie involved them both in a payroll snatch, which resulted in the death of both men, and Lynn's recapture and return to Wentworth.