Interview: Prisoner Cell Block H's Val Lehman

Ten million viewers in the UK were hooked on the antics of the denim-clad inmates of Prisoner Cell Block H during the late 80s and early 90s. Now, as the first 32 episodes are released on DVD, we talk to Val Lehman, who played top dog Bea Smith in the series...

The series is finally getting released on DVD - why has it taken so long?
I really don't know why it wasn't done earlier. We had to push and push as the fans wanted it desperately.One of the things that might have let Prisoner down in the past is that there are 692 episodes and it's the first time that anything of that size has been released.

What has your involvement been with the DVD releases?
I've done a lot of the promotion for it as they seem to think that my character was fairly influential. Noone wanted to get on the wrong side of Bea Smith so they asked me to promote it. They also came to me to discuss actually putting it together. They weren't sure that it would be a viable proposition but I convinced them with the help of the fans that it would be. 

Why do you think the show is still so popular?
I think that one of the reasons is that the show discussed extremely pertinent women's issues in a very down-to-earth manner because we were very down-to-earth ladies. We weren't polite young girls at an afternoon tea party at Buckingham Palace. The issues that we discussed - rape, murder, incest, domestic violence - these things don't go away, they don't change a lot so it's still relevant.

Do you think it has aged well?
(Laughing) Apart from the costumes! Also, the face of prisons has changed slightly now because of the drug abuse problem and the terrorist problem. Prisons are slightly different now than how they used to be when the show was first made back in 1979.

Why do you think Bea was so popular with viewers? It's quite unusual for people to take a murderer to their hearts...
Well, she was a champion of the underdog and she also stood up to authority. She was a very big fish in a very tiny pond and was almost a law onto herself in many ways. Although she was a murderer, her first murder was a crime of passion - had she been in France she would probably have gotten off. She was not an institutionalised prisoner - she was a reasonably intelligent woman whose best friend betrayed her by having an affair with her husband. She lost it and killed her best friend. Later, she realised that she had made a mistake - she should have killed her husband and so she rectified that.

Did you enjoy being in the show?
Yes, of course I did because my character was never wrong and totally invincible. Who wouldn't enjoy it?

Did you ever get injured during any of the fight scenes?
No, never. I choreographed nearly all the fight scenes I was involved in because they originally had a stunt person but he had no idea how women fought so he just gave up basically.

Did you enjoy closing down the steam press on the other characters?
I didn't do that terribly often - I was only allowed to do it twice in four and a half years!

What was your favourite storyline?
I particularly enjoyed the storyline where my character lost her memory as I got to explore Bea as she was before she had any memory of being in prison. That stretched me a bit and gave me a better understanding of her. I think that the fire scenes were pretty good and also a storyline I had with the lovely Arkie Whitely who played Donna Mason. She had a drug problem and she died in Bea's arms. I think that was some of my best work on the show.

Were there any storylines you didn't enjoy?
Yes, there was one storyline which I flatly refused to have anything to do with. I objected to it so strongly that they allowed my character to escape so I never had to see it. It was a storyline about two young people who were arrested on drugs charges. To all intents and purposes they were two young girls but it turns out that one of them was actually a boy. He'd got through the whole induction into the prison as a young man. I said 'oh, come on - I'm trying to hold on to my credibility here'. I said it can't be drugs charge because they would be cavity searched. They asked me if it would apease me if it was shoplifting instead of drug charges.  I said no it wouldn't appease me so they changed the storyline that I was involved in and had my character escape which was very nice of them. I'm astounded now when I think back that I had that power!

Were you happy with your exit storyline?
Not particularly but I gave them very little notice - they had just seven weeks to come up with it. When I decided I was going, I went. There was a typographical error on my contract because normally it was eight weeks. I walked in one Friday and said 'I'm giving you seven weeks notice as of today'. Bang!

If you could have chosen any exit for Bea, what would you have liked to have happened to her?
I would have liked her to have murdered the Freak and die in the effort. Unfortunately that would have taken two very major characters out of the show at once. It might have murdered the show as well.

Who do you think was the best villain?
That's hard - it's a toss-up between Vinegar Tits and the Freak of course. I think the nastiest character was probably the Freak.

Did the tensions between the prisoners and prison officers ever spill over into the actors playing them?
Not really, although on one occasion I remember one of the actors who plays a prison officer was complaining and saying 'all we are is ushers, we usher the prisoners into the dining room, we usher them into the recreation room'. I was a bit cheesed off so I turned around and said 'well afterall the show is called Prisoner, not Screw.' (Laughing) I was being flippant!

Apart from Bea, who was your favourite prisoner?
Lizzie because she was a devil but also incredibly likeable. I also think that Sheila, who was actually very grand in real life, played her beautifully. Another character I really liked, who was very evil, was Nola McKenzie who Bea branded with the soldering iron. Originally the script demanded that I write 'killer' on her chest with a soldering iron and I said 'c'mon - we'll be here all week. I think just a k will do'.

Some people say that the sets wobbled - is there any truth in that?
Well, none of the permanent prison sets wobbled - I should know as I threw enough people up against those walls! The only ones that may have wobbled would perhaps have been the governor's house or some of the prison officer's houses because they were not permanent and were just set up in the studio.

Would you like to see the show remade?
I think there's room for another show about women in prison as I think the face of prisons has changed considerably. It would be a completely different sort of show. A lot of our prisons in Australia are now privately run and there is room for all sorts of corruption - that would make an interesting show.

Did you go to see the Prisoner musical starring Lily Savage?
No, I didn't bother - nor did I do any of the other stage plays. I was working in England on the stage myself at the time and trying to hold on to my credibility as an actress.

Several actors have gone from soaps in Australia to roles in some of the UK's most popular shows - Would you be interested in doing that?
I was living in the UK for seven years but they wouldn't let me do anything on screen unfortunately. They thought that I was too high profile and too well recognised which disappointed me. I wouldn't mind something like that - it would be great fun.

What are you up to at the moment?
I'm organising the party to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first episode of Prisoner going to air which is being held on 22 February next year in the grounds of the studios where the show was shot. It's going to be a big one with a couple of hundred people and probably about 20 or 30 cast members. Full details are available at http://www.val-lehman.com/

Prisoner Cell Block H - Volume 1 featuring the first 32 episodes plus audio commentaries and exclusive photos is out now - Buy it here