New Releases
More Classic Aussie Drama Out Now
Via Vision Entertainment will be re-releasing seasons five and six of Prisoner: Cell Block H on DVD on the 17th August.
In these episodes there is death and destruction following a devastating fire at the Wentworth Detention Centre. Cop killer Nola McKenzie (Carole Skinner) decides to drown fellow inmate Paddy Lawson (Anna Hruby) in a wash-basin to save herself from being extradited back to Western Australia where she’s facing the death penalty. Nola soon begins smuggling drugs into the prison but top dog Bea Smith (Val Lehman) puts a stop to her antics by shooting her through the head.
Lives are on the line when bombs are planted in the prison, and the inmates find themselves under strict quarantine when there’s an outbreak of the highly contagious Lassa Fever. Judy Bryant (Betty Bobbitt) is back behind bars after helping the terminally ill Hazel Kent (Belinda Davey) to end her life at the halfway house. Cold-blooded killer Bev Baker (Maggie Dence) decides to stab social worker Rob Summerton (Jeremy Kewley) through the heart with a knitting needle just for kicks. The vicious inmate Angel Adams (Kylie Foster) arranges for two of her cohorts to pack rape the kindly prison officer Meg Jackson (Elspeth Ballantyne), and Governor Ann Reynolds (Gerda Nicolson) is concerned to find a lump in her breast.
Pictured Top: Main Image: Return to the Wentworth Detention Centre with Prisoner: Collection Three. Right: Things go bad at the halfway house for Judy Bryant (Betty Bobbitt) in Prisoner. Left: More heartache awaits the kindly screw Meg Jackson (Elspeth Ballantyne) in Prisoner.
Born romantic Pixie Mason (Judy McBurney) is facing multiple bigamy charges, and the sadistic lesbian warder Joan ‘The Freak’ Ferguson (Maggie Kirkpatrick) continues her reign of terror bashing up inmates and running assorted rackets. Ferguson’s ambition to control the whole prison is put in to jeopardy when the equally brutal officer Len Murphy (Maurie Fields) joins the staff and he makes it quite clear that he can’t abide lesbians.
The deranged screw David Bridges (David Waters) decides to free some of the inmates from their life behind bars by murdering them, and there is heartache for officer Colleen ‘Po Face’ Powell (Judith McGrath) when her entire family is wiped out by a car bomb. The unscrupulous psychiatrist Dr Jonathan Edmunds (Bryan Marshall) decides to use the inmates as guineapigs in his experiments using hypnosis, and things continue to go from bad to worse for governor Ann Reynolds and officer Meg Jackson when they are held hostage by a deranged nutcase in a rat-infested warehouse which is rigged with trip wires and explosives.
Bonus features include an interview with Anne Phelan (Myra Desmond), an audio commentary with Tina Bursill (Sonia Stevens), and specially recorded features with both Val Lehman and Amanda Muggleton (Chrissie Latham).
Familiar faces appearing in these episodes include Les Dayman from Homicide; Peter Bensley, Ric Herbert, Anne Lucas, Tony Alvarez, Nick Holland, Julie Nihill, Lisa Aldenhoven, Rodney Bell, Genevieve Lemon, Margo Lee and Robyn Gibbes from The Young Doctors; Syd Conabere and Lisa Crittenden from Sons & Daughters; Norman Yemm and Reg Gorman from The Sullivans; Ian Smith, Anne Charleston, Vivean Gray, Myra de Groot, Peter O’Brien, Darius Perkins, and Maggie Millar from Neighbours; Ray Meagher and Roger Oakley from Home & Away; Ron Shand from Number 96; Terry Gill and Marie Redshaw from The Flying Doctors; Brian James from Skyways; Paul Karo from The Box; Tim Elston from Richmond Hill; Vic Gordon from Matlock Police; Maureen Edwards from A Country Practice; Ken James from Skippy; Gregory Ross from Cop Shop; and Annette Andre from Crossroads.
You can pre-order Prisoner: Collection Three now from the Via Vision website.
Grace Gibson Productions have released some more gems from their vast archive of radio serials.
The final Classic Cactus volume brings us plenty more political satire. This time around we have a cabinet leak, kicking galoots, and we learn all about Kim Jong’s Missile.
Inset Bottom Left: The political satire rolls on in How Green Was My Cactus. Inset Top Left: There’s drama for all tastes in Dual Purpose Drama Library. Main Picture: Anne Haddy played Helen Daniels in Neighbours and can be heard in Dual Purpose Drama Library.
Volume two of Dual Purpose Drama Library covers a range of genres across eight original stories from the pen of Creswick Jenkinson who also wrote television hits such as Motel and Skippy The Bush Kangaroo. As the title suggests this serial was presented differently by each broadcaster, some stations stripped episodes five days a week but in other listening regions they combined a week’s worth of episodes into one hour-long special to give their audiences a complete story from beginning to end.
In this volume we have The Train of Events in which a honeymooning couple take a trip on the Trans Europe Express only to find themselves embroiled in a case of mystery and murder. In The Christine Hunter Affair an English governess is approached by the police who want her to pose as a French girl who is associated with a notorious jewel thief but will she find romance in the process. Finders Weepers introduces us to a farmerette who dreams of digging up a pot of gold but when her dream becomes a reality with a hoard of hidden cash the problems really begin.
We are transported to the Bahamas with Ebb Tide on Cat Island but life in paradise turns sour for a happily married couple when a conniving woman with a cunning plan comes into their lives.
Fans of tales from the Wild West will enjoy A Bullet for Jubilo, and The Final Analysis takes us into the steaming jungle of Costa Rica where we learn that man is half beast and half divine. The Autumn Years introduces us to Ted Browning (Stewart Ginn) who has been looking forward to his retirement for decades but his new way of life is blighted when greedy developers build a monstrous apartment block on some vacant land directly opposite his home.
In No Way Out we encounter a family who are trapped by their dreary existence, all of this changes when a mysterious stranger comes calling, but could this breath of fresh air be a dangerous escapee who is wanted by the police!
Cast members include Anne Haddy from Neighbours, James Condon, Richard Meikle, Ruth Cracknell, Max Meldrum, Ron Haddrick, Nigel Lovell, Neva Carr Glyn, Lyndall Barbour, Dinah Shearing, Walter Sullivan, Max Osbiston, Gordon Glenwright, and Lou Vernon.
Listeners worldwide can order these radio serials on CD, USB or as digital downloads from the Grace Gibson website.
Images copyright- Grundy Organization/Fremantle Australia/Via Vision Entertainment. IRS Grace Gibson Productions.
