\u201cI didn\u2019t want to rehash what had come before but I also didn\u2019t want to disrespect those characters in any way; I was a massive Prisoner fan.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nMcTighe wrote the pilot episode over New Year in 2012, which led to the show being commissioned, before penning most of the first season alongside a few guest writers. <\/span>\u201cFrom season 2 we had more of a writers\u2019 room setup where there was a core group of 3 of us <\/span>\u2013<\/span> me, Marcia Gardner and John Ridley <\/span>\u2013<\/span> and we basically were in charge of story for the show from that point and we\u2019d bring in guest writers here and there but mainly it was the core group of the three of us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nSeason 1 mainly concerned itself with the shifting power dynamics between new arrival Bea Smith (Danielle Cormack), a forty-something-year-old hairdresser convicted of attempting to murder her abusive husband, prison top dog and murderer Jacs Holt (Kris McQuade) and Jacs\u2019 rival, Franky Doyle (Nicole Da Silva).<\/span><\/p>\nFans entered the world of Wentworth through the eyes of lead protagonist Bea, and so \u201cshe had to be<\/span> relatable and to kind of be an everywoman.\u201d \u201cWe knew that we wanted to track her rise to top dog across multiple seasons and how that might play out roughly and then once we cast Danielle she was just a force of nature really and a brilliant actor she just gave Bea such humanity and strength.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nFrankie, meanwhile, an angry biker whose soft and sensitive side was soon revealed, was \u201creally fun to write\u201d. \u201cShe\u2019s just such a beautiful kind of complex character and her evolution was one of my favourite things about the show. She starts out as a real antagonist; someone who\u2019s incredibly dangerous and hot headed and the way she matured over the course of those first seasons was really brilliant. Nicole did such a great job with that role.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\nThen came season 2. With Jacs dead (thanks to Bea) and Franky having seized the position of top dog, it was time to introduce prison governor <\/span>Joan (AKA \u201cThe Freak\u201d) Ferguson<\/span> (Pamela Rabe), the show\u2019s main antagonist.<\/span><\/p>\nMaggie Kirkpatrick, who portrayed Ferguson with menace in Prisoner, was certainly a tough act to follow, but Rabe, who was \u201cthe first and only choice for that role\u201d, put her own spin on the sadistic character \u2013 and was transfixing. <\/span><\/p>\n\u201cShe was just so great and committed and so much fun,\u201d McTighe recalls. \u201cIn the scene directions of her very first episode I wrote for h<\/span>er: \u2018she strides down the corridor like Darth Vader\u2019. And then in rehearsals she brought her own lightsaber in and was just kind of mucking about with that. And she\u2019s just that kind of person; she\u2019s the total opposite of that character and she\u2019s the nicest person. But as soon as she got in uniform she was literally terrifying.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nWhile Ferguson soon revealed herself to be a raging psychopath <\/span>\u2013 and actually ended up behind the prison bars after setting the prison on fire at the end of season 3 \u2013 at first <\/span>the character had to be \u201cas<\/span> grounded as possible.\u201d \u201cShe could have been a very over the top villain but that kind of wouldn\u2019t have worked with the tone of the show. Later on she got to do some crazy stuff but early on Pam kept her so grounded and believable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\nIt wasn\u2019t until the end of season 4 that Ferguson ended up behind bars for good after stabbing Bea Smith to death \u2013 a move that sent shockwaves through Wentworth\u2019s<\/span> fans, many of whom were devastated to see such an abrupt end to the blossoming romance between Bea and Allie.<\/span><\/p>\nWhile killing off the show\u2019s main character was \u201ca hard decision to make\u201d, another season of her and Allie being happy together would, according to McTighe, \u201chave been the death of the show\u201d. \u201cI think Bea\u2019s death made the show feel real and dangerous because if Bea wasn\u2019t safe then no one was. <\/span>When Danielle left that left a hole in the show, but that was kind of the point. The show needed to recalibrate and refresh and it needed a real shakeup of dynamics at that point. It did so much in terms of ramping up the conflict of the show, which then ran an extra five seasons past that point so I don\u2019t think it was the wrong decision to make.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nMcTighe also wanted to respect the original show\u2019s legacy, in which Bea meets a tragic end, too. <\/span>\u201cIn the original Bea\u2019s arc was a tragedy, and we were kind of emulating that through this show in a different way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThere was one character arc in the original series that the writers didn\u2019t emulate, however: that of Franky\u2019s, who is shot pretty early on in the first season of Prisoner. <\/span><\/p>\nIn Wentworth, in contrast, she\u2019s last seen as a free and happy woman in season 6, after managing to prove her innocence on murder charges. \u201cAnd actually changing the story of that character and making her more hopeful was really important. I remember watching the original Prisoner as a kid and feeling really kind of robbed that Franky had left so early, so we wanted to make a lot more of her and give her her own story. And by the time we\u2019d done that we felt there\u2019s no way that we couldn\u2019t give her a hopeful ending. She really deserved a happy ending.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nWentworth was initially axed when it reached its seventh season, but Foxtel renewed it for two more seasons following an unprecedented fan campaign, meaning the original ending of season 7 \u2013 that offered \u201creally nice closure at the end of an epic season\u201d \u2013 never made it onto the screen. <\/span>\u201cIt was a real shame because there was some lovely stuff in there with Franky and Bridget coming back, meeting Vera\u2019s baby. And some original Prisoner actors came back as well <\/span>\u2013<\/span> Val Lehman, Colette Mann and Fiona Spence came back doing cameos for us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cWe saw Ruby released and Rita out there to greet her and that was kind of a really nice ending for their characters. And then a new group of prisoners arrive who are kind of inducted by Boomer and that was basically saying to the audience the world goes on, Wentworth never stops, the story\u2019s not over, and that felt like really nice closure at the end of an epic season.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nBut with two more seasons on the horizon, the original ending was cut, and a new cliffhanger added in, which teased the return of Ferguson after she was buried alive at the end of season 5.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cAll of the extras in that scene are crew so the story wouldn\u2019t leak,\u201d says McTighe, who also made a brief appearance in the scene. \u201c<\/span>We shot it at about 2am near the production office in secret because no one could know and we were smuggling Pam around under a blanket in disguise. It was a lot of fun to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
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