No much more mundanely, I just got swamped in the treacle of everyday humdrum when I returned to Lilyland after all my high flying adventures, plus it’s taken me this long to fully process the totally trippy fulsome fabulousness of it all, inasmuch as I ever will be able to take it all in! You might have heard of Eighty Days Around The World With Phileas Fogg (or Willy Fog the cartoon if you’re of the same vintage as me! Altogether now, “Hey now the story must go on ‘cos a lot of time has gone, we must be ready to go awaaaaaaay!”) …well, this is Ten Days Around The World With Lily’s Blog!
But before I finally creak myself into gear with this, I must take a minute to acknowledge my pimped up crib in this hood now, thanks to me homeys Scott and Barry! Let’s give a big shout out to the OTI posse! Bo! Hark at my gangsta speak! Well I have been hanging out with my main man Lionel Fellowes recently…that’ll be Mr Lionel to you! What am I like though?! As if I’m not some twee daftie from Averagetown, Scotland! The only hood I’ve been in is the one that keeps the rain out!
No really though, I’m feeling very swish with this swanky new backdrop! It’s a bit like as if somebody had redecorated my house while I was away! I wish! Scott and Barry…can you get your paintbrushes out and see to that next time?!
That reminds me of a funny story about my Nan’s Dad. One day one of her neighbours came running over to her house freaking out that there was a strange man asleep on her sofa! It turned out that it was my Nan’s Dad, who, being fond of a drop, had got himself into such a merry state that when he thought he’d pay her a visit he went into the wrong house and crashed out on this poor random woman’s couch! This was in the days when people left their doors unlocked…my Nan’s neighbour wasn’t a madwoman or anything! Well, she might well have been a madwoman for all I know but not especially for that reason!
I’d imagine if he’d woken up before the lady got home he’d have assumed much the same as me in my jazzy new surroundings! Oh dear, I hope I haven’t done the same…gotten myself into a drunken state and woken up on the wrong blogpage!
Digressing from my digression (and why not?!) something similar happened when one of my friends got married the other year. It was a proper Scottish wedding in a lovely old hotel by the sea with all the men in kilts (och aye!) and copious amounts of alcohol of course! Anyway, after the reception came to an end and all the folks who weren’t staying in the hotel headed home, we ended up in the residents bar carrying the party on into the wee small hours that grew bigger and bigger as the night stumbled on into morning again!
Eventually my friend’s shiny new husband disappeared! We thought he’d gone to the loo but he didn’t come back! *Gasp!* Had he been abducted by kinky kilt loving aliens?! Had he flushed himself away?! What was the answer to this mystery?!
A little while later we thought we’d all better finally turn in for the night (or the morning rather!). As my cobber was saying cheerio to me as she was letting herself into the bridal suite just along from my room, two porters passed us and said to her that they’d found a man asleep outside her room, and as he’d mumbled that it was his room when they managed to stir him they’d helped him in!
We laughed about it of course and they went on their way, but then we started panicking about what we were going to do if it wasn’t her husband and was just some other random chappie! So we crept in tentatively, (in case it was some deranged axe wielding pervert or something!), but sure enough, it was our missing groom, lying in a spreadeagled stupor (but not too spreadeagled, I’m thankful to say!) still in full kiltie regalia!
Speaking of kilts, in case you ever wondered, yes it’s absolutely true about Scotsmen and their kilts, not that I know this from that encounter, I hasten to add! Another of my friends many moons ago played the bagpipes in a police pipe band, and he said that when they were inspected, his Pipe Major used to go around with a mirror on his shoe to check they were all complying, if that’s not too much information for you! What a carry on up the Khyber indeed!
Anyway, where was I? Where am I?! Ah yes, a blog about Prisoner! Aw, I should have saved that digression for an entry about Jock Stewart some other time! You know, I often wonder what I’m going to do when I exhaust my well of silly pointless asides! I guess you’ll be well sick of me before I reach that point though…that’s if you aren’t already!
So what a feast of fabulous I had of all things Prisoner in the Promised Land back in February then! I think I’ve been in a state of shock ever since at the wonder of it all! I can hardly string a sentence together about it, never mind a whole blog! But I needs must give myself a slap and a shake and get on with it, because that’s what I’m here for after all and it’ll be the 40th anniversary before I get myself into gear at the rate I’m going if I don’t crack on!
So I last left you just on the very cusp of diving into the delights that awaited me! Especially for any uninitiated souls who happen to have randomly wilfed their way into these witterings (the devil makes work for idle hands, don’t you know, as the actress said to the bishop!), how can I put it into words what it was like even walking through those gates of Wentworth?!
Actually, that’s a point, I’ve been really quiet about my experiences to any of my friends and family who aren’t fans of the show, because it’s like the ‘Nam…although in a good way rather than an horrific one – in spite of how any detractors of the show out there may disagree!
But really, (and I am fully aware of just how shallow this sounds!), you have to live it to really know what it’s like to be totally devoted for nearly two thirds of your life to a television show made in a land as faraway as faraway can be (which even stopped production before you became aware of it!), utterly, inexplicably consumed by it, and then one day to find yourself walking through the gates of where it was made with a chance to meet so many of the people responsible for creating just what you idolise about it!
It was quite funny while I was out in Oz actually, because I stayed with a couple of lovely friends and became quite accustomed to the quizzical looks, raised eyebrows and jaws hitting the floor all over the place when I met various friends and family of theirs and I was egged on to tell them what I was over for! I felt like The Bearded Lady of Shady Lane!
Funnily enough, the only bunch who didn’t treat me as if I was several shortbread fingers short of a tin (oo-er!) were the guys at my friend’s running club! I’m really proud of my friend (well, I’m really proud of all of my friends for the way they inspire me to get through the day in all kinds of ways), but I’m really proud of this particular friend for lots of reasons too but also because he’s a really good amateur runner and did so well in the Melbourne Marathon last year that he’s been invited to the Boston Marathon in the jolly old U S of A! Woo! Go, Chris!
So anyway, when we were chatting about it later and I asked Chris why these guys were the only ones who didn’t treat me as if I were off my rocker when they heard about my mad old expedition, he said it was because with all the commitment they needed to keep on top of their game they could identify with that level of obsession and devotion!
So there I was, on Sunday, 22nd February, standing within those hallowed portals trying to soak up every ounce of experience awaiting me, having reached almost as near to Prisoner paradise as it’s possible for a fan of the show to get! Did it ever really happen?! As the days, weeks and now months have stretched on from those incredible few days of my life, it seems even more ethereal!
It’s funny how the most vivid experiences of your life, good or bad, the ones that leave the greatest impression, are the ones that are hardest to accept. It’s like your own in-built shock absorbers kick in to protect you from being completely overwhelmed by it all! And boy, could I be overwhelmed by the magic of that time! I mean, I’m easily excited and thrilled by the wonder of the world all around me in my everyday life and the promise of each new day, never mind to be basking in something as totally trippy and off-the-hook as that!
I’ve started a little A Country Practice run recently and have really been enjoying that little escape into a much gentler world and especially how within a couple of episodes most of the cares of life are resolved! I wouldn’t mind living in Wandin Valley myself!
More of the treats as always are the spottings of so many lovely familiar faces who I’ve enjoyed in so many other things, quite a few wonderful cameos from Prisoner actors, but it’s also been a treat to see actors that I’ve grown to love from other things too popping in to say hello.
Spookily enough, I was watching a few episodes the other week that really touched me and struck a chord with me in the context of these Prisoner extravaganzas. In my little run of ACP, everyone in the Valley is besotted with a The Archers-esque radio soap called Green Pastures, and so the place grinds to a virtual standstill with the excitement and anticipation triggered by the news that three of the actors from the show are coming to visit the area on a promotional tour!
Admittedly exaggerated and a tad overblown in the way it’s played out, I thought it was still an amusing, endearing look at the attitude and behaviour of people on both sides of the footlights from a similar premise to my real life Prisoner experiences (and given that I’m great believer that discretion is the better part of valour, that’s all I have to say about that!), and being the big softie that I am, I loved that goodness and kindness ended up winning the day, that fundamental compassion and humanity latent within most people, (even the unlikeliest of candidates!), beneath the outer shell of the persona they project, which, given half a chance will shine through. Hark at me channelling my inner Meg!
Anyway, I particularly enjoyed a little cameo by the wonderful Sheila Kennelly, who wasn’t in Prisoner sadly, but I really loved her to bits in Number 96 and especially from Home & Away (in fact, even though I’ve enjoyed her work in a few different things now, she’ll always be Floss from H&A to me!). Her character in ACP is Green Pastures biggest fan, and in dialogue dripping with pathos given her plight (that I won’t spoil for anyone who hasn’t seen it) she enthuses to dishy Dr Simon Bowen, “It sounds silly I know, but they’re just like family to me. I never thought I’d get to meet them in person...”
Dr Simon points out that it’s a big day for a lot of their fans, but she adds meaningfully, “For me, the most exciting day of my life....” Awwwww! And that’s exactly how it was for me to find myself in Melbourne, in the grounds of the studios where it all began for Prisoner with the chance to meet so many people that I’ve admired for so long.
It’s funny, I can separate fiction from reality (what do you mean Prisoner wasn’t a fly on the wall documentary?!) and I am aware that it’s total Pretendland, but (to my shame!) I’ve spent more time minding about the characters of Prisoner and puzzling out their motivations in countless scenarios during the course of the show, not to mention following the careers of the actors and actresses themselves in so many other things, than I have worrying about what some of my own wider family are all about and what they’re up to!
I mean, at the end of the day they’re professional actors you hardly know from anybody you’d pass in the street, but you get to care so much about the characters they bring to life and they become so familiar to you though their work that they do seem almost like family. I think there’s something about the intimacy of the medium of television that especially lends itself to that sort of a feeling (I used to have a little Garfield poster which said, “You’re never alone with a TV!”), even more so with a show as emotionally intense as Prisoner.
And so for that reason getting the chance to actually meet some of these people was even more of a joy and a bit like Floss from H&A in ACP (if you’re still following me...I’m not even sure I’m still following me!) they really were a couple of the most exciting days of my life too! *Big contended sigh!*
And so on to a bit of a flavour of the first big party in Nunawading then. We were all marshalled into a big marquee outside the front entrance of the studios, not a million miles away in its resonance of ‘The Great Escape’ storyline!
I kept expecting Mr Gillespie to be grouching away grumpily (i.e. his default demeanour!) between the guy lines, and I definitely kept well away from any manhole covers in case Anne ‘I’m as mad as a bag of spanners!’ Griffin (fabulous cameeeeeeeeeo by the ever reliable and totally iconic Rowena Wallace in that storyline...so meeeeeeeeemorable!) was lurking around with a wheelbarrow and offered to (quite literally!) cover for me as I attempted a reverse of that plot and tunnelled my way into the studios!
The only other thing that was missing was an old upright piano and Queen Erica leading us in a few thousand choruses of This Old Man as we waited for the turns to be introduced! This Old Man… would you like to hear my contender for possibly the corniest joke in the whole world?! That’s quite a boast coming from me, I know!
Okay, here we go! One day a frog goes into a bank and approaches the teller. He can see from her name badge that her name is Patricia Whack, so he begins, “Miss Whack, I’d like to take out a £10,000 loan to go on holiday.”
Patty looks at the frog in disbelief and asks his name. The frog says his name is Kermit Jagger, his Dad is Mick Jagger, and that it’s okay, he knows the bank manager.
Patty explains that he will need to secure the loan with some collateral. The frog says, “Sure. I have this,” and produces a tiny porcelain elephant, about an inch tall, bright pink and perfectly formed.
Very confused, Patty explains that she’ll have to consult with the bank manager and disappears into a back office. She finds the manager and says, “There’s a frog called Kermit Jagger out there who claims to know you and would like to borrow £10,000, and he wants to use this as collateral.”
She holds up the little pink elephant and asks, “I mean, what in the world is this?!”
The bank manager looks back at her and replies…
*Brace yourselves!*
“It’s a knickknack, Patty Whack. Give the frog a loan. His old man’s a Rolling Stone!”
*Boom ching!*
I guess I ought to quit while I’m behind now!
Anyway (!!!), back to the big day again, well in terms of the amazing line-up that awaited us, it’s such old news now that it’s almost ancient history, so I guess most people will have heard all about it one way or another. I don’t think I want to be giving up my day job any time soon for a career with Reuters!
It really was an extraordinary experience though to get the chance to see and in most cases actually meet so many stars I never in a million years ever thought I’d have the opportunity to encounter in real life. So I have to take my hat off to all concerned for all the hard work they must have put into making this happen over the two days (not least the stars themselves for giving up their time)…or I would if I were wearing one!
It’s a good job we were on soft ground actually because I could have done myself a serious injury as my jaw hit the floor and my eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets in amazement as each star was introduced!
I was going to name a few of my faves and those I was especially thrilled about (I was actually incredibly fortunate because during the course of my time in Oz I actually got to meet or at least see the people behind most of my very favourite characters in the show), but that’s not really fair because it was so good of everyone to make it who was there.
And so, (and I don’t doubt people will have done this already on either or both of the Prisoner forums or any of the websites out there, so I am sorry!), just for anyone in the world of Prisoner fandom who happened to have missed the main line-up that day (deepest apologies if I’ve missed anyone out!), in alphabetical order, here they are then (or rather there they were on that day!).
Oh, you’ll have to pretend the theme song and whoever you like doing the lock-up as if it’s the real credits…actually if it were the real credits it’ll be quite apt if I make a few mistakes or omissions or add people who weren’t there!
Lisa Aldenhoven
Carol Burns
Kirsty Child
Jane Clifton
Will Deumer
Patsy King
Margaret Laurence
Cassandra Lehman
Joanne Lehman
Val Lehman
Anne Lucas
Gerard Maguire
Colette Mann
Judith McGrath
Amanda Muggleton
Anne Phelan
Barry Quin
Jentah Sobott
Fiona Spence
Peta Toppano
A big old woo for that! Trippy though! I can’t possibly have actually seen all these people in real life, never mind met most of them, and all in the space of a few hours! I know I said I wasn’t going to single anyone out, but I’m just going to have to let my Saint Meg halo slip and let it out before I burst! For anybody who knows me as a Prisoner fan, you wouldn’t need to be Zara Moonbeam to foresee what I’m going to say next, because I just can’t help myself! Two words… Patsy King!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh my days! What to say?! I still get all emotional now even just thinking about it! As most of you will know by now I guess, Erica Davidson is after all the hub of my universe and as I’ve said many, many times, I worship at the temple of her fabulousness! The sky could fall in tomorrow, civilisation as we know it could crumble, and I could still meet my Maker joyful in the knowledge that I actually had an audience with Queen Erica!
Anyway, I’ll meander in my usual rambling roundabout way towards sharing that with you with a flavour of some of my experiences and impressions leading up to that big moment! First up, I couldn’t believe what a lucky Lily I was because with the layout and positioning of the seating in the marquee I found myself right in front of the top table and just a stone’s throw away from a mind blowing ensemble of Anne Lucas, Patsy King, Fiona Spence, Colette Mann, Amanda Muggleton, Margaret Laurence and Kirsty Child…not that I’d want to be lobbing any stones at them!
With the way that they were all sitting in a line of lushness and from the angle I was sitting, I managed to take a quick snap of them in profile (given that… a) they didn’t know I was taking it and I’m not a third rate paparazzi and b) I’m a rubbish photographer anyway, I’ll spare them and myself and leave you to paint a picture in your own heads of that!) and one of my friends quipped when he saw it that this was Queen Erica’s “This is how I would look on a stamp/coin!” pose, and suitably regal she looks too!
I’d bought a fancy dan new camera especially for the occasion, but I was in such an awestruck daze and so excited about soaking up the experience that it ended being the only photo I took the whole time across both events I attended!! I’m such a galah!
That reminds me of another mad thing I got up to a few years ago! For a laugh I thought it would be fun to live out my Eliza Doolittle fantasies and got all togged up and actually went to Royal Ascot Opening Day! That was an eye opener on so many levels (!), but what prompted me to launch into this random digression was that we managed to get right up to the rail for the carriage procession of all the royals when they arrive.
Given for a pleb like me it really was another once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (in fact, it’s a wonder they let me in the gates in the first place!) I stood ready with camera poised and tasked my friend with videoing it. From my efforts, I ended up with a set of blurry blobs so I can now proudly say, “You see that little blurry blob there? That’s the Queen! And that taller blurry blob in the topper is Prince Philip!” but my friend fared even more fearfully because he was so busy rubbernecking all the royals trotting past that all we got was some very captivating footage of the grass at his feet to the sound of clippety clopping and polite applause!
Talking of rubbernecking, it was like walking into the pages of Hello! magazine with the collection of other famous faces swanning around putting on the Ritz! At one stage I spied Cilla Black coming towards us, a triumph in tangerine, and very unsubtly (in the way that you always behave like a pie in these situations…well, you do if you’re me!) out of the corner of my mouth I whispered theatrically to my friend, “Cilla Black!”
He didn’t seem to pay any attention so I tried a bit louder, “Cilla Black!” Still no response! Getting exasperated because she was nearly on top of us by this point I squealed, “ORANGE!” and as casual as you like, without missing a beat, my friend nonchalantly replied, “Oh right, Cilla Black!”
Anyway, never mind Royal Ascot, my two Prisoner parties in Melbourne were like a million Ascots all rolled into one! After the introductory preambles, including a very affecting speech by Anne Phelan about how it had been agreed that a portion of the proceeds from the day would be split between Positive Women and the victims of the recent horrendous fires around Melbourne, in memory of their colleague and friend Reg Evans, which I thought was a nice, decent touch, it was time for the frenzy of the grand autograph scavenger hunt to begin!
The way it worked on the Sunday was that there was a system in place where at first you had to queue to buy tokens for your autographs of the stars. Being a canny Scot and clocking that they were actually poker chips, I was kicking myself for having missed a trick there because I could’ve saved myself a fortune by going down to Argos before I left and buying 200 tokens for a tenner! Only joking, honest! It’s a bit like that credit card advert… the chance to collect the autographs of so many legends in the one afternoon = priceless!
Anyway, as it turned out, Lady Luck wasn’t really smiling upon me in this regard because the demand for the tokens soon outstripped supply, and given that I’m the world’s worst at queuing, it wasn’t exactly a recipe for success for me that day! Honestly, don’t ever ask me to go up for a round of drinks in a busy pub because Captain Oates of the Antarctic would have more chance of making it back than I would!
The trouble is, I’m the kind of person who apologises when somebody else lets a door swing in my face or clips me with their trolley in a supermarket or whatever, so I think I must have let just about everybody who was there that day be served before me (and some had even come back for seconds!) before I actually made it to the front of the queue! If only I’d read this article for a few tips on the art of successful queuing!
Consequently, thanks to what a sappy sap I am, I just had to make do with whatever dribble of tokens were left by the time I finally reached my goal! I think I averaged about ten at a time, which given that I had my OTI calendar, my own little autograph book and one each for two of my friends, meant that after every couple of stars I visited I had to repeat the process all over again! Thankfully this system was abandoned in due course and the stars did begin accepting money directly for their monikers, but not before I became so friendly with the really nice man selling the tokens that we were practically exchanging Christmas cards!
It was happy days though, because I was just so tripped out to be there in the first place, and the actual process of queuing madly enough proved to be one of the highlights of the day in itself, because I got chatting with so many really wonderful fellow fans of the show. It was such a treat to get to hang out with people who really know what it’s all about!
I must confess, I was really ever so apprehensive about going beforehand because it was the first time I’ve been to anything like that on my own, and I was so worried I’d end up having to channel Daphne Graham and talk to the shrubbery, but it so completely wasn’t like that, I’m thankful to say!
Everyone was so lovely and friendly towards me and I had such a laugh at some of the tales they had to tell! One guy was talking about the fact that it had been the memorial service in Melbourne that day for the victims of the recent fires, and how Princess Anne was in town for it and that he’d caught a glimpse of her on the way to the service. Bear with me, I know that’s not a very promising start for an hilarious aside! Anyway, he gushed, “Princess Anne and Prisoner all in the one day…I had to take a valium!”
There were more stories that are far too outrageous to share in polite company, so I’ll leave that to your vivid imaginations to conjure! If you ever bump into me at any future Prisoner dos though, just pour a couple of glasses of wine down my neck and I’ll sing like a canary!
Anyway, with my first bundle of tokens in my hot little hands, it was all systems go! I realised pretty quickly that even though I had all afternoon, thanks to what a silly sausage I am I’d never have time to get to meet all the stars, but I gave it my best shot anyway, and went away more than happy that I did manage to say hello to the majority of them.
From this point on really this is going to be a bit of a boring read for anybody looking for some dirt dishing or juicy gossip I’m afraid, because I don’t really have a bad word to say about any of the stars I got to meet!
To be sure, human nature being what it is, it’s quite understandably not everyone’s cup of biscuit to be thrown into a pressure cooker environment like that and overwhelmed by a seemingly never-ending throng of eager beavers gawping at you like stunned mullets (stunned mullets?! Speak for yourself Lily!) and thrusting their autograph books and bits and bobs under your nose (oo-er!) for something you did thirty years ago and from which you’ve moved on considerably, and some folks were more into the experience and zen, friendly and approachable than others, but that’s life's rich tapestry for you!
I just reckon it was absolutely brilliant for as many of them to give up their time as did at the two events to mark such a special and significant milestone for the show, some of them, just like the fans, travelling from far and wide to get there, so much respect to them all!
So anyway, I started off my mad autograph hunt on very safe ground and headed for Anne Phelan, partly for convenience because she was sitting close by, but also because from anything I’ve ever heard or read about her she was apparently a lovely, down-to-earth, warm person, as indeed I found her to be, and she put me at ease straight away.
Something I ought to mention is how it’s a total once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet these people who really are legends, nay up with the Gods in your eyes, you know their characters in the show and heaps of other things they’ve done in their careers inside out, and then when it’s your big chance, you find that while you might have checked, double-checked and triple-checked that you’d got your ticket, money, camera, paper and about 40 pens with you, the one thing you did forget to bring along was your brain and you can’t think of anything intelligent (or indeed intelligible!) to say to them!
Well, that’s how it is if you’re a total banana like me, just walking around in a total daze doing my goofy lady Frank Spencer impersonation at them all which is my default setting for scenarios like these! “So you’ve come all the way from Scotland then?” “Ah-ha-ha-hum!” “And that’s ‘To Lily’?” “Ah-ha-ha-hum!” replicated for almost each and every star I met!
Next up was Gerard Maguire, (*Big squeal inside my own head! “I’VE MET FLETCH THE LETCH!”*), who even wrote “Keep smiling!” in my autograph book which was no wonder given that I was beaming soppily away like a Cheshire Cat at the poor guy! If I’m ever lucky enough to get to meet him again, or for anyone else who does, I’d be much obliged if you could ask him for me whether it’s okay for me to stop smiling now, because my jaws aren’t half beginning to ache! Aw, he was a really lovely, easygoing chap though and it was a real pleasure to meet him too.
Okay, I think you get the point now, as far as I’m concerned most of them were really lovely, indeed they were all lovely for turning up in the first place, so I promise to flush my head down the loo if I say that again! But just to stress that if I don’t use the word lovely in the same breath as mentioning any of the other stars I saw or met, it doesn’t mean that they weren’t or aren’t lovely! Indeed you’re lovely too for reading this! Okay Lily, step away from the word lovely now and move it along!
Even though Gerard (Gerard…hark at me! Just because I’ve met him once under totally mad circumstances I’m on first name terms with him now!), sorry Mr Maguire (!), was sitting right next to Peta Toppano, I’m so unassertive and hopeless that I sort of got muscled out by the throng of people and ended up having to go to the back of the queue again, and I still ended up missing Peta Toppano because I sort of got pushed to the other side of the table and ended up getting to say hello to Lisa Aldenhoven on the other side of her! What am I like?!
That was really ever such a treat to meet Sally Lee from episode one though, because I think her performance in Prisoner absolutely rocks (I’m with Ian Bradley in his commentary for episode one when he mentions something about how he wished she’d been in the show for longer) and she was ever such a nice, appreciative lady to meet in real life too, so that was a bonus!
Well, third time lucky and after getting jostled to the back again I finally reached Peta Toppano! Totally mindbending to get to spend a minute or two in the company of another real icon of Australian television! Along with appreciating Karen Travers' journey in the early days of Prisoner, I think she’s absolutely awesome as the second incarnation of Jilly in the camp as Christmas (and therefore completely fabulous!) Return To Eden!
One of my dearest friends is a huuuuuuuuuge fan of her in that and calls her Bitch-Travers for her outrageously scheming and conniving antics in that show, a million miles away from the earnest Karen in Prisoner! It was such a gas though, because I mentioned it to her and so she was good enough to sign her autograph for my friend as 'Jilly in RTE!' So cool!
Speaking of cool, fabulous, awesome and every other exclamation in the dictionary, it had to be time now to make a beeline for the person responsible for my absolute idol in the show…Patsy King!!!!! I really didn’t did I?! Well, I’ve got the autographs to prove it so I guess I must have!
Oh my word! What a total joy! More so because (as I’ve said before!) you’re always on very dangerous ground meeting your heroes in case they burst your bubble and they come crashing off that pedestal that you’ve placed them on (it has happened to me, even with people I’ve never actually met! I’m not so starry-eyed and saccharine that I’m blindly in love with everybody just because I admire and appreciate their work…honest!), but in the case of Patsy King she really did live up to and even exceed my expectations of what she might be like to meet, not that I ever thought in a million years that I’d ever get the chance to meet her in the first place!
What I loved about her was that she really did seem to be having as much of a ball as the fans (so if she wasn’t, even more kudos and respect to her for being so consummately professional as to appear to be enjoying it as much as the fans!), and indeed she was still happily and obligingly signing autographs right up until Val Lehman called time on proceedings at the very end of the day, long after many of her colleagues had fled the scene!
When setting the scene for what happened with my little encounter with her, I guess I should try to paint a picture of the way I talk! I like to think I’ve got quite a soft Scottish accent, but I do know that for anyone not used to it, it would still take some tuning into to pick up everything I say! Think Taggart-lite, but on helium!
So there sat Patsy King, with pen poised over my OTI calendar (for the month of April of course, featuring her good self in consultation with Ian Smith on the fringe of the Governor’s office set – funny how fascinating it is to see it as a set like that, because such is the magic of television that even though you know it isn’t a real room, when you’re immersed in the moment in the show, it so completely feels like it is a real room!), and after pondering what she might have been in such a deep and meaningful conversation about, she asked me for my name, and accordingly wrote, “Dear Lally…” on my calendar, asking me what Lally was short for!
I blushed a deeper shade of puce than I was already and mumbled, “Erm…Lilian!” I think Fiona Spence had to help me out a bit but we got there in the end! Of course, being the super person that she is she apologised profusely, but it really was just me and my silly old accent! If only I could enunciate like my idol! Besides which, she could call me anything she liked and write whatever she felt like on my calendar because she’s Queen Erica…it somehow makes it even more cool that she misheard my name!
That reminds me of a really funny story Kenneth Williams once told about a similar experience he had when he was doing a book signing appearance. This little lady got to the front of the queue, and as he looked up expectantly with his pen at the ready, she said, “Emmachissit…”
So he wrote with a flourish, “To Emma Chissit, Best Wishes, Kenneth Williams,” and handed over the book with a big smile. The lady frowned at it and asked, “What’s this?” He replied, “Well, it’s your name, I just wrote it in my little inscription there for you.”
She blustered crossly, “No no no, that’s not my name! I only wanted to know what price it is! Emmachissit?!” Ho ho!
Anyway (!), as I touched on there, in a double whammy of fabness, sitting right beside her at the time was Fiona Spence, and it was a total delight to meet her too, not only because poor old Vera ‘Solitaire’s the only game in town!’ Bennett’s another of my very favourite characters in the show, but also because she was every bit as nice as I’d hoped she’d be and that she’d come across in anything I’d read or heard from or about her. I can’t tell you what a happy, lucky Lily (or Lally!) I feel looking back on it all now.
It must have got a bit wearying for them as the day wore on (it was another baking hot day in Melbourne and consequently a bit of a pressure cooker environment with the mass of hyped up folks to have to deal with!), but what was great was that the majority of them really gave a lot of themselves rather than just going through the motions and were so patient and obliging with us.
Next up, Will Deumer was sitting beside her, and I’m so glad to have met him because he was another top guy and really approachable too, and I really enjoyed the little chat I had with him. Mind you, I’d have to say that or Mr Lionel would be sending some of ‘his people’ round to have ‘a little word’ with me!
What was I was really chuffed about was that even though I guess he’d technically been invited in his capacity as Karen’s abortion doctor in episode one, seeing as it wouldn’t be very nice signing my autograph books as ‘Karen’s abortion doctor’ (!!!) he signed them as Lionel Fellowes! Give the man a cigar! So cool though to have met Mr Lionel in real life though, and that he turned out to be as sound as a pound in real life! It really was one of the many absolute highlights over the couple of days for me! Hopefully that’s saved me from a pair of concrete slippers and the swim that needs no towel in the Yarra!
The next victim on my hitlist (listen to me being all underworldy again after chatting about Lionel Fellowes!) turned out to be Colette Mann, and I have to say that I really liked her too! Well, not because I have to, (it’s not like she’s sitting here with a gun to my head or anything!), but it is absolutely true!
I do tend to admire people who call a spade a spade and say what they see, I think because I’m so completely not like that myself and will go all around the houses rather than risk offending anyone or provoking a confrontation! Lily by name, lily-livered by nature!
So I do like the cut of her jib (quite randomly, I also like the cut of the jib of the expression ‘cut of your jib’ (!) and if you ever wondered what it’s all about, according to this little article, it’s a nautical term referring to the style of the triangular sail at the front of sailing ships – different countries had their own style of sail and so the nationality of a ship and a sailor’s opinion of it could be determined from the jib - so there you go, every day’s a school day!), and especially that she’s always come across as quite a cluey, witty lady in real life. I think Ian Bradley says something about that in his commentary for episode one, about how in that respect out of the original cast she’s least like the character she played in Prisoner.
Besides, I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for dippy Doreen and her hard knock life and times in the show, so it was even more of a treat to actually get to meet her, especially as she rarely participates in these kind of fan events. What was really nice was that even though it didn’t seem like this sort of thing was her bag, she had made the effort to come along and she didn’t hide herself away in a corner or anything, and indeed she was quite pleasant and patient with me and even took the trouble to write a nice message in my autograph book wishing me a good time in Oz rather than just jotting her name, so fair play to her!
I was going to head for Carol Burns next, but as I was waiting in the queue another fan kindly tipped me off that Judith McGrath was about to leave soon, so keen not to miss her, I headed for the table where she was sitting instead. Again, there was quite a crush of people around her waiting for their autographs, and it took me ages to eventually get my turn, to the point where I was starting to think that I was going to miss her, but I got there in the end. I’m such an admirer of her work in the show, so on balance it was worth it to have the chance to say g’day to ol’ Po-face and tick her off my list in my demon autograph frenzy!
On my way back out of the marquee towards where Carol Burns was standing meeting the fans, I came across Jentah Sobott, and it was so special to meet such a nice, interesting, soulful lady …a little island of calm in a sea of insanity! Most of the insanity coming from my direction of course! Where’s Dr Weissman when you need him?!
Another of the real highlights of my day came when I finally got my opportunity to meet Carol Burns. As I’ve said, it was really decent of all the stars who were there to even turn up in the first place, and so many that I met were so kind, generous and obliging, but Carol Burns really did come across as one of the most giving of them all.
She stood quite patiently outside the marquee in the full heat of the day for so long taking the time for all the fans who wanted to meet her, and what especially impressed me was that even though her performance as Franky on the show was one of the most extraordinarily powerful displays of character acting that I’ve ever come across (no wonder it apparently even caused a sensation amongst her own peers in the industry at the time) and people were queuing to see her because they wanted to meet such an icon of the show, she didn’t have any ego about her and seemed genuinely interested in everyone as real people, not just as abstract entities as frenzied fans of the show!
All the other fans I spoke to who’d met her had nothing but good to say about their experience of her and the impression she’d made on them. Warmth, humility and charisma are great gifts I think, in any walk of life, certainly of value as an actor where you have to inhabit another persona and see the world through their eyes, but more importantly they're an asset too as a human being rubbing along on this mortal coil with other human beings. The few minutes she gave me of her time really enriched my whole experience of the day, and I’m so grateful for that.
The day was starting to draw to its close as I was heading back to the marquee and took my chance to say hello to Jane Clifton along the way. Just like most of the others, she was great too and really down to earth and good fun. What was especially cool was as she was writing “Hi Lily…” in my little book she started singing “Hi Lili, hi-lo…” to me, “A song of love is a sad song, hi Lili, hi Lili, hi-lo…”
I used to love that film when I was a little because it was all about a girl called Lili (funnily enough!) and how a puppeteer falls in love with her but is so shy that he can only express his feelings for her through his puppets (bless!). I managed to pick it up on DVD only last year (hurrah for t’internet!) and saw it for the first time in years and couldn’t believe all the adult subtext that went waaaaay over my head when I was knee-high to a grasshopper! Such an innocent flower I was!
I know this sounds like a wind-up, but even though it was released back in 1953, according to its IMDB profile page, the publicity for it featured the first known appearance of the smiley emoticon! An advert for the film which appeared in The New York Tribune, along with presumably other papers, read, “Today You'll laugh :-) You'll cry :-( You'll love <3 Lili" Awwwwww! I really <3 that!
Anyway, it was sooooooo cool that there was Jane Clifton singing my very own song to me and not even The Midnight Special! Awesome! It really is a wonderful life if you don’t weaken!
Time really does fly when you’re having fun, because my magic moments winged away and I found myself meeting my last star of the day, Anne Lucas. What was really funny (and also so neat!) was that as I was waiting for my turn I got chatting with her husband Ian Bradley, legendary producer of the show and one of my big behind the scenes heroes, so I managed to score his moniker for my little books too! Deep joy!
What was really nice actually was that there were a few of the crew there that afternoon and they got a bit of a big up at the beginning too, which I really appreciated, because the many people involved behind the scenes of Prisoner are every bit as important and stellar in my eyes as those in front of the camera!
I made a prize pie out of myself though (just for a change!) because we were nattering away and I gushed to him that what I especially enjoy and appreciate about the early days of the show is the enormous amount of research and groundwork they put into it, which I think really shines through in some of what’s translated to screen (indeed, you can find examples of that all the way through the show, for that matter).
Ian Bradley commented that a lot of that stemmed into a judicial report into the conditions in prisons, which had been published a year or two before the creation of the show, prompting me to enthuse eagerly, “Yes, the Nagel Report!”
And so Ian sheepishly added, “Yes, well, erm…you’d probably know more about that than I would!”
I felt like such a prize anorak! I really needed Anne Griffin to be around at that point with a shovel ready to dig a hole for me and bury me with a few boulders! I wish I’d just chatted to him about the weather instead!!!
What a good sort he was though (if understandably a bit bemused by what a banana he had before him!), as was his wife, who was ever so nice to me (and even signed one of my little books for one of my friends as Eve Turner from TYD (The Young Doctors) because I mentioned to her that she’s a big fan of that show too), so I was so glad that my very last meeting of the day was such a happy one (even if I did make a bit of a ninny out of myself, but like I say, no change there!).
And so that was Lily’s lot then! Given what a total sap I am and how woeful I was at the token buying malarkey at the outset, I don’t reckon I fared too badly all things considered! I only missed out on a handful of stars – Kirsty Child, Margaret Laurence, Val (and Cassandra and Joanne) Lehman, Amanda Muggleton and Barry Quin. Oh Dr Greg, how could you have eluded me?! Maybe he’d been given advance warning about me and deliberately kept well away!!!
Never mind, worst things happen at sea and even if I’d come away with no autographs or encounters at all to write home about, I’d still have been more than chuffed with the whole wonderful experience of even being there in the first place! At least I did get to clock everyone who was there, even if at a distance, and am happy to say that Dr Greg is every bit as dreamy in real life as he ever was in the show! Actually it’s probably just as well I didn’t get to meet him, because most probably I’d have melted to mush on the spot anyway!
It was quite funny because after I got back I was watching an early episode of Prisoner with my Mum and Dr Greg popped up (so to speak!!!) and I gushed to her, “You know, he’s every bit as handsome in real life!”
“Who?” she asked distractedly.
“Dr Greg!” I replied…as if it needed to be said!
“Dr Egg?!” she queried! I hearby declare that Dr Greg shall henceforth be known as Dr Egg!
We really love Easter and as old as I am being what a soppy big kid I am we head over to a hill on Easter Sunday to have an egg rolling competition with our decorated hardboiled eggs! This year we went with a Prisoner theme in honour of my big adventure and so my Mum decorated her egg and named it Ericegg and mine of course was Dr Egg!
Hilariously we hadn’t boiled our eggs hard enough (now how on earth could *that* have happened with Dr Egg?!!!!!) and so they totally disintegrated on impact with the hillside on our first roll! How apt is that for anything to do with Prisoner?! Only joking, serious fans!
I was laughing to one of my friends when I was telling him about it that if we’d brought Megg along too and recreated that famous ‘power walking’ corridor scene from episode four, Megg would have been rolling angrily away with Ericegg power rolling behind her, and then if Dr Egg had mistimed it and actually collided into the back of them can you imagine the carnage that would have ensued?! All that you’d need would be a slop of milk and a bit of toast and you’d have a tasty supper snack of scrambled Prisoner characters!
Anyway, back to my Wentworth wonderland back in February, what a day of days it really was! I do apologise for not mentioning anything about the amazing auction that was going on in the marquee and other entertainments and delights, but I missed most of that I’m afraid because I was in too much of an autograph hunting frenzy, especially as I knew that time was against me in terms being able to get to see everyone who was there!
At one point the nice man on the token table urged me to go and get something to eat, but even though there was plentiful provender on offer and lots of lovely drinkies, narry a bite nor a sip passed my lips all afternoon, because like I said to him, I have the rest of my life to eat and drink, getting to meet so many of my heroes was a total one-off!
And as the sun set on that remarkable day and we all went our separate ways, it wasn’t even over at that, because there was the added bonus of the fabby OTI party in St Kilda on the Monday night to look forward to too! I really had an absolute ball then too and it was a super treat to get to meet some more Prisoner megastars that evening as well! What a feast of all things fabulous I had over those two days!
First up, I really must apologise to all the many superfans of the Freak out there in the ether who missed out on the opportunity to meet Maggie Kirkpatrick, because although I love Maggie K’s work in the show and am mindful of Joan Ferguson’s iconic status and immense contribution to the programme, I guess I must be one of the very few Prisoner fans who isn’t actually a fan of the Freak as a character, so in that respect the experience was a little bit wasted on me! I’m so sorry!
That being said, I’m still fully appreciative of just what a lucky Lily I was to get the chance to get to meet one of the absolute legends of the show and indeed of the Australian acting fraternity in general! Awesome!
Another real pleasure for me was getting the chance to meet Reylene Pearce sitting next to her, because I really warmed to her straight away in the few minutes I had with her as she was signing my autographs and thought what a nice, caring, considerate lady she comes across as.
She provided me one of the most pleasant surprises of my time in Oz actually because stupidly (because I should be intelligent enough to realise they’re all professional actors and actresses and therefore not necessarily a bit like the characters they played!) I’d wondered if she’d have any trace of Phyllis about her and was even a bit scared of meeting her (!), but she wasn’t at all like her, I’m absolutely delighted to say!
In fact, I’m going to have to run upstairs and flush my head down the loo for using that word, because I really think she is lovely! Excuse me while I drip all over my keyboard now! It’s so great when your own prejudices and stupidity are proved wrong like that though and you get to see the error of your ways in a happy result!
Speaking of lovely, (seeing as I’m all wet now anyway I might as well start going into lovely overkill again!), so was Maxine Klibingaitis sitting the other side of her. The gothic 1984 season of Prisoner really is one of my favourite spells of the show (I think the tempo that it sustains all the way through the 400s is totally mindblowing), and I really loved little Bobbie Mitchell’s journey amidst the melee of all that.
Thanks heaps to the heart and vulnerability that Maxine brought to the role, tempering Bobbie's street kid edge, I think she really holds her own as a believable character you can really feel for, in a period of the series so rich in depth and colour, all the more impressive given how young and relatively inexperienced Maxine must have been at the time.
I really can’t overemphasise just how special it was getting to meet all these people and finding that most of them are every bit as great as the characters I’ve for so long enjoyed watching them bring to life in the wonderful world of Wentworth.
Sitting the other side of Maxine, it was really great to see Maggie Millar again after meeting her in Glasgow last year, so that was quite cool to be able to catch up with her. I think she’s such an incredible, inspirational lady so it was another treat being able to spend a few more minutes in her company, and this time on her own home ground in Australia!
Last but by no means least on the very end of the table was Lois Collinder, which was really fab for me because as I said to her, I’m such a fan of Lurch in the show and absolutely love her path in the series as it draws to a close, especially being the big old romantic that I am how she gets her happy ending with Harry! I could never tire of watching her final scene with Harry in episode 692 where he gives her the rose (the class of Ann Reynolds in teeing that up, “And for heaven’s sake hold the lady’s hand!”) and then when she passes it on to Rita.
I think it’s such a beautiful motif for the swansong of the series, taking us all the way back to the way that imagery was heavily used in the opening episodes and linking in of course to the haunting refrain of the theme song itself, and I’m so happy for Lurch that she gets her place in that. Nectar! And so it really was nectar for me too getting the chance to meet Lois and share with her a little bit of my enthusiasm for her contribution to the show!
That evening the only star I missed out on meeting was Louise Siversen, which again although it was a shame, I was still glad that I got to catch a brief glimpse of her in real life and grateful that, along with the others over the two days, she’d taken the trouble to be there anyway.
I really enjoyed the party that evening, and even allowed myself the luxury of having something to eat (the food was delicious!). I knew the auction for Queen Erica’s pen (as with all the goodies for sale at the party at the studios the day before) was way out of my league, but it was enough of a prize for me to even be there in the first place.
The time I had at the parties over the two days really was one of the most extraordinary, amazing experiences of my life and I can’t thank everyone involved, stars, organisers and fellow fans, enough for making the magic of it all happen and giving me a lifetime of memories to take home to sunny Scotland with me and cherish forever.
But I wasn’t even quite done at that with my Prisoner odyssey, because I got to check out the locations on a whistle stop tour of Melbourne on the Saturday after the big shindigs! First up, in the morning I’d booked myself on the Neighbours Backlot Tour, which was enjoyable enough in itself as a Neighbours tragic from way back! I don’t think I could ever visit Melbourne without making a pilgrimage to Ramsay Street!
Amazing how much security they have there because I remember back in the day you could just sail up and literally knock on the poor people's doors and rummage in their rubbish – not that I ever did myself, I hasten to add! The first time I came to Melbourne ten years ago the Robinson house was up for sale in real life and a girl told me she even pretended to be interested in buying it just so she could have a stickybeak at what it was like inside! I know you’re rolling your eyes at the “a girl told me” line and thinking it was me myself, but really it wasn’t! Honest!
Anyway, the whole point of this in a Prisoner context, and the real reason I’d booked the tour in the first place was, other than the fact that about a gazillion people from Prisoner have worked on or been in Neighbours, it allowed me back inside the gates of Wentworth again and right up to its hallowed walls this time!
Speaking of Neighbours and the Prisoner connection, I came soooooo close to a little extra Prisoner-esque encounter in that I’d booked myself on a Neighbours party in Sydney for when I was due back there just in time on the Sunday afternoon, which was due to feature Carmella (don’t say who - you’ll know if you’ve watched Neighbours at all in the last year or two!) and Dr Karl (LEGEND! I love Alan Fletcher’s work on the show, especially in tandem with Prisoner’s own Jackie Woodburne) and, more interesting to us as Prisoner fans, Stefan Dennis and Steve Bastoni, because as young whippersnappers of course they both had roles in Prisoner too!
I was dying to quiz them as to any memories they had of their time on Prisoner (laughing in the face of feeling like Lizzie Birdsworth surrounded by about 200 eighteen year-old backpackers only there because of Neighbours!), but alas it wasn’t to be as I got word when I was in Oz that the party had been cancelled. Awwwww! Not to worry, worse things happen at sea!
Anyway, back to my Neighbours Tour and Lasseters schmasseters I say! It’s never been the same since Nell Mangel left in 1988 anyway, if you ask me! Not that anyone was going to ask me on a blog about Prisoner! All I was really interested in was the redbrick wonder of Wentworth! After checking with the nice tour guide (and much to the bemusement of the downy faced backpackers on my tour who couldn’t even spell Prisoner, never mind know what it was!), I even got to run right up to the building and clap the bricks! I’ll never wash my hands again!
It was so great to be able to take a few hasty extreme close-ups of those famous false windows and the entrance and what have you, and I did have a quick scoot about the garden and was thrilled that it looked like the old brick barbecue was still there (couldn’t spot Ettie’s Freedom statue though!).
What was funny though was that it was exactly how one of my friends had said to me before I left for Oz who’d been there before. I know it’s a cliché that everything on television is smaller in real life than it appears on the screen but it’s absolutely true!
When you see that iconic roof where Franky Doyle and much later on in the show Daphne Graham pondered a descent into oblivion (“Franky sure makes a mess of everything!” “She would’ve if she’d jumped!”), and where Leanne Bourke really did meet her doom, you think, “Girl, you could have just hopped down there with no worse than a sprained ankle!”
Well, maybe not quite (I’ve told myself a million times not to exaggerate!) but it sure isn’t as high as the clever camera work makes it appear!
Next up, after leaving my Neighbours Tour my friend gave me an extra special treat and we did a mad scavenger hunt of loads of other Prisoner locations across Melbourne, including Barnhurst, Blackmoor, Dr Greg’s (sorry Dr Egg’s!) surgery where Karen nearly went for a Burton, the site of the first halfway house and Holly’s Haberdashery, the unlikely setting for the climax to Margo’s infamous payroll robbery, and the courthouse where Toni McNally was shot (and setting for loads of other storylines), so it was all super stuff! I was leaping out of the car and taking snaps of random buildings before we got hit with a no standing charge like a good ‘un!
It’s such a blast to be able to watch the show now and think, “Oooh, I’ve been there!” A bit like how the astronauts who walked on the moon must have felt looking up at it! Well, it is to a silly old sap like me, at any rate!
The only thing I was a little bit disappointed about is that I’ve still to achieve my long held dream of paying homage to my all-time favourite location, the Pizza Hut on stilts! Never mind, maybe next time if it’s still there! That’s if I’m ever allowed back into Australia!
Ah, but one other little Prisoner-esque tale to share with you of my adventures in Oz before I finally leave you in peace to give your poor old eyes a rest from this marathon meandering! Another treat amidst such a fabulous feast of delights while I was out there was seeing Maggie Kirkpatrick actually on stage again in the Melbourne production of Wicked The Musical! How apt for Joan Ferguson to be in WICKED The Musical!
This was another especially super spoiling for me and a lovely old nostalgia trip because I have been lucky enough to see Maggie Kirkpatrick on stage once before in Prisoner The Musical with Lily Savage in Glasgow many moons ago!
It was nice to enjoy her performance in Wicked The Musical in less of a drunken blur than when I went to Prisoner The Musical, because back then I was a scatty student (as opposed to a wacky workie that I am now!), and got so overexcited about the fact that I was actually going to see one of the actresses from my top show live on stage in a musical about it of all things, that me and my oppo overdid the pre-theatre preparations and got ourselves totally pie-eyed!
It’s all a bit of a wine-soaked haze, but I seem to remember being surrounded in the upper circle of the theatre by about a thousand old ladies with teacosies on their heads all tutting in disapproval at the way they were sending up the wobbly walls and all that jazz (which my mate and I found even more hilarious as a consequence!), the extreme thrill of seeing Maggie K actually reprising her role as Joan Ferguson before my very (drunken!) eyes, Lily Savage being as much of a riot as ever (I think Paul O’Grady really is one of the funniest guys around!) and Linda Nolan playing the Governor and at one point standing up on her desk and singing “I’m In The Mood For Dancing!” Somebody please confirm I didn’t dream that bit!
Oh yes, and it was around the time of the film release of the musical Evita. The bar on the first floor of the King’s Theatre has a little outer balcony and so me and my cobber were having a laugh with a bunch of guys and entertaining Glasgow below with a stirring rendition of “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina!” It might have brought tears to Argentina if our caterwauling had carried that far!
So anyway, that’s what made it even more of a blast to get the chance to see Maggie K live on stage again quite a few years later in another musical! She was as fab as you can imagine somebody with her grasp of her craft and all her experience would be, and the musical was quite stunning too.
What tickled me was in the interval they were selling bright green daiquiris in fabulous light up cocktail glasses that they called Oz-mopolitans! Geddit?! Well, as you know, I’m easily pleased as pie! So funny because when I returned to my seat an usherette told me to turn my glass off! As my friend commented to me, “Don’t you hate it when that happens?!” Well, there’s a first time for everything!
What I thought was especially neat in terms of my trip was seeing a musical about The Wizard Of Oz in Oz! This carried through to my journey home actually because I watched Australia the film on the plane, which I managed to fit in while I was still flying over Australia, which was kind of cool too, but also because it also incorporates the melody and fragments of images from The Wizard Of Oz movie in the film.
I first saw it at the pictures back home just after Christmas, and once I got over the gaudy very Baz Luhrmann-esque style of the opening in particular, I really loved it as an old fashioned epic of the kind I was reared on. I think the young boy in it, Brandon Waters, is especially mesmerising, but it was also great to bask in a supporting cast that reads like a Who’s Who of some of the real legends of Australian film over the last 40 years, and a treat from a Prisoner perspective to see ubiquitous Bill Hunter (honestly, it feels like he’s been in almost every Australian film I’ve ever loved!) and Sandy Gore too.
My friend was only mentioning to me the other day just how classy an actress she is, not just for her work as Kay White in Prisoner but also from the stunning performance she put into that seminal mini series of the early 1990s, Brides Of Christ.
So I loved how it felt like I’d come full circle through all my magical experiences and adventures over just a few short weeks by seeing that again as I wended my way across the miles from the far side of the world and back to Lilyland. If only I’d had Chrissie Latham’s fabulous canary yellow slingbacks, because instead of sitting on a plane for a day, all I’d need to do is step into them, click my heels three times and say, “There’s no place like home…there’s no place like home!”
As Dorothy sang...and I guess there might be a few friends of Dorothy out there in Prisonerland! ;)
Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue,Indeed! Thank you, Prisoner for making my dreams come true!
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.
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