''Within These Walls'' is a British

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

drama programme made by

London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...

for ITV and shown between 1974 and 1978. It portrayed life in HMP Stone Park, a fictional women's prison. Unlike later women-in-prison TV series, '' Bad Girls'' (ITV, 1999-2006), and Australian series, ''

Prisoner A prisoner (also known as an inmate or detainee) is a person who is deprived of liberty against their will. This can be by confinement, captivity, or forcible restraint. The term applies particularly to serving a prison sentence in a prison. ...

'' (aka ''Prisoner: Cell Block H'', Grundy Organisation, original run: 1979-1986), and '' Wentworth'' (2013-2021), ''Within These Walls'' tended to centre its story-lines around the prison staff rather than the inmates. The lead character was played by British film actor

Googie Withers Georgette Lizette Withers, CBE, AO (12 March 191715 July 2011), known professionally as Googie Withers, was an English entertainer who was a dancer and actress with a lengthy career spanning some nine decades in theatre, film, and television. ...

who played the well-groomed, genteel governor Faye Boswell and episodes revolved around her attempts to liberalise the prison regime while managing her personal life at home. Another prominent character was her Chief Officer, Mrs. Armitage (Mona Bruce). Googie Withers left after three series; in Series Four her character was replaced as governor by Helen Forrester ( Katharine Blake), who in turn left to be replaced in the final Series Five by Susan Marshall ( Sarah Lawson). Creator and screenwriter of the programme, David Butler, appeared in some episodes as prison chaplain, Rev. Henry Prentice

DVD release

As of November 2011, Network have released all five series on DVD in the UK,Network DVD Series 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 sets
/ref> with the exception of "Nowhere for the Kids", an episode from Series Two which appears to be missing from the archives.

Screening

The programme was broadcast around 9:00 p.m. (although exact times varied around the ITV regions), but prisoners were locked in their cells 30 minutes before 9:00pm.

Cast

as Prison Governor - Faye Boswell * Katharine Blake as Prison Governor - Helen Forrester * Sarah Lawson as Prison Governor - Sarah Marshall * Mona Bruce as Chief Officer Mrs. Armitage * Jerome Willis as Prison Deputy Governor Charles Radley *

Denys Hawthorne Denys Vernon Hawthorne (9 August 1932 – 16 October 2009) was an actor from Northern Ireland who was known for his work in theatre, film, television and radio. Life Denys Hawthorne was born into an upper middle-class Protestant family in Portad ...

as Dr. Peter Mayes * Beth Harris as Miss Clarke * Elaine Wells as Principal Prison Officer Spencer *

Sonia Graham Sonia Graham (born Sonia Mary Biddlecombe; 22 August 1929 – 18 February 2018) was an English actress whose career spanned over 40 years. She appeared in several British television series. She trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Dram ...

as Assistant Governor Martha Parrish * Miranda Forbes as Prison Officer Parsons * Janet Lees Price as Assistant Governor Janet Harker Successful alumnae from the series included

Helen Worth Helen Worth (born Cathryn Helen Wigglesworth; 7 January 1951) is an English actress. She is best known for portraying the role of Gail Platt in the ITV soap opera, '' Coronation Street'', a role that she has played since 1974. In 2014, she r ...

, later widely known for her role of

Gail Platt Gail Rodwell (also Potter, Tilsley, Platt, Hillman and McIntyre) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'', played by Helen Worth. The character first appeared on-screen on 29 July 1974. Gail is the daught ...

on ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Orig ...

''. Worth appeared in an episode of season 1 alongside Cheryl Murray. The two would be reunited as flatmates in Coronation Street in 1977, when Murray joined the cast as Suzie Birchall. Shirley Cheriton and Anna Wing both appeared in the season 2 episode "Skivers", long before becoming original cast members of ''

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the Ea ...

'' together

Episodes

Series overview

Series 1 (1974)

Series 2 (1975)

Series 3 (1975)

Series 4 (1976)

Series 5 (1978)

The Lost episode

Episode three from series 2, "Nowhere for the Kids", no longer exists in any format, but its script is included in PDF format on Series Two, Disc One. The script is located in the root directory of the DVD and is called "Within These Walls-N#149129.pdf" The script list
St. John's Waterloo
church as the rehearsal hall for read-through for the shows. Despite indications that this episode is unofficially available on the video-sharing website YouTube, this is not the case. 'The Slap' (series 2 episode 4) is incorrectly labelled ‘Nowhere For The Kids' on YouTube.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0159226, title=Within These Walls English-language television shows 1970s British drama television series 1974 British television series debuts 1978 British television series endings British prison television series 1970s British LGBT-related television series Lesbian-related television shows Imprisonment and detention of women ITV television dramas London Weekend Television shows Television series by ITV Studios