Within These Walls
Encyclopedia
Within These Walls is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 drama programme made by London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television was the name of the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties including south Suffolk, middle and east Hampshire, Oxfordshire, south Bedfordshire, south Northamptonshire, parts of Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Warwickshire, east Dorset and...

 for ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 and shown between 1974 and 1978. It portrayed life in HMP Stone Park, a fictional women's prison. Unlike the later women-in-prison TV series Prisoner
Prisoner (TV series)
Prisoner is an Australian television soap opera which was set in the Wentworth Detention Centre, a fictional women's prison. The series was produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation and ran on Network Ten for 692 episodes from 27 February 1979 to 11 December 1986.The series was inspired by the 1970s...

(aka Prisoner: Cell Block H) and Bad Girls, Within These Walls tended to centre its storylines around the prison staff rather than the inmates.

The lead character was the well-groomed, genteel governor Faye Boswell (Googie Withers
Googie Withers
Georgette Lizette "Googie" Withers CBE, AO was an English theatre, film and television actress. She was a longtime resident of Australia with her husband, the actor John McCallum, with whom she often appeared.-Biography:...

), 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).

The creator and writer of the programme, David Butler
David Butler (screenwriter)
David Butler was a Scottish writer of numerous screenplays and teleplays who won an Emmy Award and was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe...

, played the prison chaplain, the Rev Henry Prentice, in some episodes.

As of November 2011 Network DVD
Network DVD
Network DVD is a DVD publishing company that specialises in classic British television. In particular, it has the rights to a number of well-known ITV programmes...

 have released all five series in the UK , with the exception of "Nowhere for the Kids", an episode from Series Two which appears to have been wiped from the archives.

Ironically, the only audience unable to watch the series were real-life prison inmates: The programme was broadcast at 9:00 p.m., but prisoners were locked in their cells 30 minutes earlier.

Cast

  • Googie Withers
    Googie Withers
    Georgette Lizette "Googie" Withers CBE, AO was an English theatre, film and television actress. She was a longtime resident of Australia with her husband, the actor John McCallum, with whom she often appeared.-Biography:...

     as Prison Governor - Faye Boswell
  • Katharine Blake as Prison Governor - Helen Forrester
  • Sarah Lawson as Prison Governor - Sarah Marshall
  • Mona Bruce as Mrs. Armitage
  • Jerome Willis
    Jerome Willis
    Jerome Willis is a prominent British stage and screen actor with more than 100 screen credits to his name.Willis had a leading role in the ITV drama series The Sandbaggers as Matthew Peele. He also appeared in Z Cars as DCS Richards, Within These Walls as Charles Radley, and Doctor Who as...

     as Charles Radley
  • Denys Hawthorne as Dr. Peter Mayes
  • Beth Harris as Miss Clarke
  • Elaine Wells as Prison Officer Spencer
  • Sonia Graham as Martha Parrish
  • Miranda Forbes as Prison Officer Parsons
  • Janet Lees-Price as Janet Harker


Another successful alumnus from this series was Helen Worth
Helen Worth
Helen Worth is an English actress, best known for her portrayal of the Coronation Street character Gail McIntyre- Early life :...

, now widely known for her role of Gail Platt
Gail Platt
Gail McIntyre is a long-standing fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actress Helen Worth, the character first appeared on screen on 12 July 1974...

 on Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...

.

Overview

Season |Originally aired |DVD release dates Series 1 13 January 1974 - March 1974 17 July 2006 4
Series 2 12 (Episode 3 'Nowhere For The Kids' missing) January 1975 - April 1975 6 April 2009 4
Series 3 16 September 1975 - December 1975 8 March 2010 4
Series 4 17 September 1976 - December 1976 30 June 2011 5
Series 5 13 January 1978 - April 1978 7 November 2011

Series 1

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St. John's Waterloo church as the rehearsal hall for read-through for the shows.
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