The excellent Prisoners Wives series finale was a great end to an entertaining, but initially slow burning, six part series. Although the title suggests something along the lines of the trashy Footballers Wives but behind bars, this is not the case. For one thing, we don’t have characters like Tanya Turner with her twitchy eyes and nail extensions. This series is much more of a realistic look at life on either side of the bars, and follows the lives of four very different women struggling to cope with her significant other half serving time.
Tonight’s episode had it all: drug money collecting from Robin Hood airport in Nottingham (now you can’t get more glamorous than that); vicar kissing; heart breaking court room scenes and finally, and perhaps most dramatically, giving birth in a toilet cubicle while being chased by a gun wielding guy hell bent on revenge. Phew. This is not Larkrise to Candleford.
Without a doubt, the show’s success is down to the female leads. So many good characters, so many good performances. Harriet (who is played by the actress who was the long suffering Mrs Brittas in the Brittas Empire – for those of you who remember it!) is a dithering, fragile and awkward Mum, whose son is serving time in prison for possession of a gun. Unfortunately it was she who shopped him in, so the relationship isn’t great. You feel for her in every episode and her attempts to connect with her son are touching. Her son (who in earlier episodes had a hair cut like Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons) is a ticking timebomb who has been beaten up, smashed up his cell and who has now converted to Islam. This episode Harriet finally does something for herself and kisses the very nice prison chaplain (as you do). I say kiss, she more lunges on him and sticks her lips to his without asking. It all turns out ok though, as he asks her out for dinner (Harriet is definitely in line for a bit of happy time.) He’s much nicer than Mr Brittas ever was anyway. On top of this, she chills out a bit for once, whilst smoking a spliff with the young good looking and eternally nice next door neighbour, who could be Barbie’s Ken.
The best performance of the series though is Gemma, the doe eyed pregnant young wife, whose seemingly perfect cute husband (him from Robin Hood) is on remand for murdering an ex-business associate (something to do with illegal trafficking and dodgy DVDs.) Emma Rigby whose only previous acting credits include a long stint in Hollyoaks (in which her main role was probably to look pretty wearing a bikini in the student bar) is excellent as the naïve Gemma whose world is turned upside down. By the last episode she is running (although waddling fast given the fact that she is in labour) away from a mad gunman (her husband’s business partner who she identified for the Police) who is trying to kill her. She is strong to the very end, giving birth to a son in a ladies toilet cubicle (no epidural or warm floaty pool for her) while her would be murderer stands outside pointing the gun at her. For such a pretty face, she can do a whole range of emotions, from sad and desperate to angry and screaming. Very believable. Very un-Hollyoaks.
Franny is the gangster’s moll trophy wife, glamorous and confident. Her sinister hubby Paul (who is played by the nasty guy who was going to marry Lady Mary in Downton Abbey) is over protective and has given her and their two pretentious teenage children an opulent lifestyle of big houses, private schooling and posh cars from illegal drug money. In earlier episodes this nice lifestyle came crashing down around her hair extensions as the baliffs came and took everything. She was left to go crawling back to her Dad and his council house to seek refuge. The lure of money is never far away from her though (even though her Dad protests she is putting herself and the children in danger) as Paul persuades her to pick up dirty money from the airport (cue shifty looks all round). Someone must have been watching though because her Dad’s house is later ransacked and he is beaten up in the process. Suddenly those expensive lunches and Prada handbags don’t seem as appealing.
Lou is probably my least favourite character, but she is still watchable in a kind of Bianca Jackson way (she could be her long lost sibling). She does some great scowls throughout the series and has got a bit of a potty mouth, especially when dealing with her son’s prim teachers. In this episode she is cruelly sent down for 6 monthsfor drug dealing just days after her partner walked free after serving his time. She has a really cute son called Mason who unfortunately gets mixed up in his Mum’s desperate dealings as she tries to deal with being a single Mum living on a drug riddled estate.
I really enjoyed Prisoners Wives and definitely feel it has much more to give, there are certainly many more layers to explore with the female characters and much more drama to come to warrant a second series. Plus I’d like Harriet to have her own stint on Daybreak, giving advice on dealing with dodgy sons!
