The second rerun began in May 2014, by station TV4 Guld and again airing Monday through to Thursdays, and screening at 10:00pm, with episode 32 on July 3. A TV producer spotted Bobbitt and hired her to appear on the Australian TV show Daly at Night (1962-63), hosted by the American comedian Jonathan Daly. She had comedy spots as, in her words, “a female Victor Borge, singing off-key” and was known as “the dizzy brunette from Big Bear in Pennsylvania”. Prisoner was part of Channel 5's schedule when it launched in 1997. [33] The series returned to the UK in September 2023 after 22 years when it was added to the channel's streaming service My5. [34] United States [ edit ] Believing that Prisoner would resonate with new audiences, in 2010 111 group programming director Darren Chau planned to replay the series against the introduction of digital channel Eleven and Network Ten's plan to move Neighbours to Eleven. The channel ran a promotional campaign highlighting the rerun, with a new version of the theme song by Ella Hooper and a cast reunion. [ citation needed] Awards and nominations [ edit ] Organization None of the original cast was initially scheduled to return for the first series, but on 29 November 2012 it was confirmed that Anne Charleston (who appeared in the original series) would make a guest appearance, as well as Sigrid Thornton who was in the original series as Ros Coulson, Thornton would play Sonia Stevens. [15] Wentworth premiered in Australia on Foxtel's SoHo channel on 1 May 2013. [16] [17] [18] As of 2018, the series was still in production, with a sixth season premiering on 19 June 2018, while a seventh season had been announced and due to air in 2019. Season 7 aired in May 2019. While Wentworth was confirmed for a 2021 ending, it won't surpass Prisoner in episodes, but will surpass the show in years on air. [19] During Wentworth 13 actors who appeared in Prisoner also appeared in Wentworth in a guest capacity, including Tina Bursill who appeared in Prisoner as the character of Sonia Stevens she was cast in Wentworth as Eve Wilder [20] and several others.

In 2009, writer Allan Caswell alleged that Alabama's song " Christmas in Dixie" was 'ripped off' from "On the Inside", but conceded that legal action was unlikely as both he and Alabama were signed to Sony. [11] Cover versions [ edit ] The series gained a positive reception. Initially conceived as a standalone miniseries of 16 episodes, its popularity meant it was developed into an ongoing series. It has since endured worldwide, acquiring cult classic status, particularly for its somewhat outrageous acting and plotlines.

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Other series to have featured Prisoner spoofs included The Paul Hogan Show, Let the Blood Run Free, Naked Video and The Krypton Factor. Due to Prisoner 's popularity in the UK during the late 1980s, its British fan club organised personal-appearance tours for several actresses including Val Lehman (Bea Smith), Carol Burns (Franky Doyle), Betty Bobbitt (Judy Bryant), Sheila Florance (Lizzie Birdsworth), Amanda Muggleton (Chrissie Latham) and Judy McBurney (Pixie Mason). A TV special, The Great Escape, was produced in 1990. The programme, which featured Val Lehman, Sheila Florance, Amanda Muggleton and Carol Burns on their 1990 UK visit, includes extensive footage of their on-stage interview with TV presenter Anna Soubry in which the cast members discuss their time on the series. Recorded at the Derby Assembly Rooms in Derby, [27] it was briefly available in the UK on VHS video. [28] The actor was more concerned about the soap’s violence. “One week you’d be raped and the next you’d be at someone with a bit of lead pipe,” she said. Network Ten began rerunning Prisoner on 8 May 1995; the series was cancelled, despite promises that it would return after the 1996 Christmas break. BBC UKTV began airing it from the beginning on 30 November 1997, at 12:15am on Tuesday and Thursday and 11:30pm on Saturday and Sunday. A repeat was broadcast at 2pm on Monday. From March 2022, the show is available for streaming at 10play. [52] [ citation needed] In Canada, Prisoner began on 10 September 1979 [44] as Caged Women on Global Television Network, at the time a small television network serving southern and eastern Ontario; [25] the program was seen weekly on Monday nights at 9pm [45]

A stage version of Prisoner, based on the original scripts, was produced in 1989 and toured the United Kingdom. Elspeth Ballantyne (Meg Morris) and Patsy King (Erica Davidson) reprised their characters and Glenda Linscott (Rita Connors) played a new character, Angela Mason. A second tour, with Fiona Spence ( Vera Bennett) and Jane Clifton (Margo Gaffney), followed in 1990; Jacqui Gordon (Susie Driscoll) played new character Kath Evans.

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The song was a hit in Australia in 1979 when the television show was launched, and reached number three on the UK Singles Chart in 1989 when the show attracted millions of viewers in its late night slot in ITV regions. [3] [4] Chart (1979–1981) The series was shown in Sweden where it was a cult broadcast on TV4, from 7 September 1994 and entitled Kvinofangelset (The Women's Prison). a fan club organised a regular get together and collected several thousands of signatures from fans to repeat the series in again, which TV4 did so in 2000, After the series ended that year, work began to persuade the network to repeat the series a third time. The network originally screened the series three times a week (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) in the late night program slot of 1am, with the final episode airing on 3 February 2000. Knox, David (29 November 2012). "Anne Charleston guests in Wentworth". TV Tonight . Retrieved 1 February 2013. a b Doughty J (8 October 1987). "Allan Caswell Loves His Country". The Courier-Mail. Nationwide News Pty Limited. She stayed in Australia and appeared in stage revues before acting with the Melbourne Theatre Company and teaming up with Mann and another actor, Anne Phelan, to perform 1940s songs in a tour of the 70s stage show The Glitter Sisters.

The broadcast schedule was later changed to five nights a week airing at midnight. Season 8 began broadcasting Sjuan in September 2017 at 3:00 pm.In New Zealand, Prisoner was first shown on TV2 on Monday 2 March 1981 and aired up to four afternoons a week, Monday to Thursday, at 2:30p.m. before moving to twice a week, Mondays and Tuesdays, in the same timeslot by October 1985. On Monday 9 February 1987, the series was moved to TV One and continued to air Mondays and Tuesdays at around 2:30p.m. until Thursday 23 July 1987 when it aired only on Thursdays in that slot. The final episode of Prisoner was broadcast on Friday 16 September 1988 at 2:35p.m. The series was rerun on Orange and, later, Sky 1. [25]

The series was first aired in the United States on KTLA in Los Angeles on 8 August 1979, initially under the original name, Prisoner. [35] Shown Wednesdays at 8pm, it was the first Australian series broadcast in prime time in the United States. [ citation needed] The series, whose first two episodes were screened as a two-hour special, was viewed by a quarter of all television viewers in the Los Angeles market and was in second place for the night, beaten only by ABC's Charlie's Angels. [36] Toppano, along with Kerry Armstrong were the first actors to be seen on screen, during the opening credits. February 1979 was when the series debuted on ATV-10 as a two-hour special; the show had its national debut in Sydney on TEN-10 the night before on 26 February, where it was televised as a two-part premiere, with the second part seen on 27 February. The show would move to Tuesdays at 9 p.m. in the fall of 1980, continuing with the Caged Women title. [46] The show would be off the schedule by the 1981–1982 television season, [47] but by the fall of 1982, Global would reintroduce the show to the schedule, still as Caged Women, in the half-hour format, weeknights at midnight and 12:30am. [48] The program would be off the schedule by the start of the 1983–1984 season. [49]During the repeat run from 2000 until October 2004, the network screening was four times a week (Monday to Thursday) at 2:15 am. The episodes were then repeated on weekends with both the Monday and Tuesday episode on Saturday and the Wednesday and Thursday episodes on Sunday.