Long before Bad Girls was even thought of we had this gritty Australian depiction of prison life, which featured lesbianism when it was still very much a controversial subject, murder, prostitution, drugs, corrupt officers, riots, escapes, babies being buried alive and so much more.
I'm reviewing this particular volume because a) it's just been released here in the UK, and b) it includes some of my favourite episodes which were dominated by the arrival of new inmates, Sandy Edwards and Kate Peterson. The DVDs cover episodes 225-256 and is released on Fremantle Home Entertainment. Extras are Val Lehman (Bea Smith) reminiscing about her time with the show. If you read on, please be aware that this review will contain some spoilers.
Vera Bennett has just left and (not) said her goodbyes, and the irrepressible Colleen Powell (po-face) has been promoted to acting chief prison officer in her place - cue a lot of tension amongst the prisoners and staff alike as she stamps her authority wherever she can, doing whatever it takes to make her promotion a permanent one.
Bea steps down as top dog and it soon becomes apparant she is ill. It turns out to be kidney disease and she needs a transplant operation - fast!
With Bea out of the way the road is clear for a new top dog to take over - step forward Sandy Edwards, a tough murderess who doesn't care who she steps on to take over. Despite a few teething troubles she soon becomes popular with the inmates as she gets plenty of scams going, one of which sees Judy and Doreen sent to Barnhurst for a few episodes.
You'd think that with all these main players gone that the series would suffer. Not so, as Marie Winter, a nasty piece of work already known to Bea and Sandy, is transferred to Wentworth and coaxes Sandy into starting one of the most exciting riots Wentworth has ever seen. It's certainly my favourite riot of the series and is covered over three of the best episodes ever.
After the riot, Marie sets Sandy up to take the blame so she is out of the way in solitary. With no competition left, Marie takes over and starts bringing drugs into the prison - something which gets Bea's back up immediately on her return after her transplant, Bea then teams up with Sandy against Marie. In the meantime Sandy has also started a fling with new prison officer, Steve Faulkner.
During all of this in-fighting, the supposedly good-natured Kate Peterson is playing a dangerous and cunning game by doing deals with Detective Inspector Grace and Officer Powell to get her murder conviction overturned. She does this by passing on information (lagging) about the other inmates, mainly Sandy and Marie, both of whom would kill her without hesitation if they found out. Bea is the only person who doesn't trust her from the start and has her fears confirmed by a doctor at the hospital, but how can she convince Sandy that her friend is no good?
So with all of this action to be had, and you can throw in Lizzie burning her house down after receiving threatening phone calls, Erica's kidnap by anti-prison activists, Jim's rocky relationship with temperamental new officer Janet Conway, Judy being paroled and bumping into evil Jock Stewart again, Doreen's escape from the attendance centre which the women are cleaning up as a work release project and so much more besides, how could you miss out on viewing these episodes again. I really couldn't give this any less than 10/10.
