Within These Walls

1974

Seasons & Episodes

7.6| 0h30m| en
Synopsis

Within These Walls is a British television drama programme made by London Weekend Television for ITV 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 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, 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. Googie Withers left after three series; in Series Four her character was replaced as governor by Helen Forrester, who in turn left to be replaced in the final Series Five by Susan Marshall. The creator and writer of the programme, David Butler, played the prison chaplain, the Rev Henry Prentice, in some episodes. As of November 2011 Network DVD 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.

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Reviews

ManiakJiggy This is How Movies Should Be Made
NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!
Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
Enoch Sneed This was quite a pioneering series about life in a womens' prison that did not flinch from controversial subject matter.Apart from the lives of the prisoners themselves much of the drama rose from the tension between the 'enlightened' policies of prison governor Faye Boswell (Googie Withers) and the more traditional 'bang them up, you can't trust them' approach of her senior officers. In between were Charles Radley (Jerome Willis) and Dr Mayes (Denys Hawthorne) who sympathised with Faye's ideals but realised the need for pragmatism when dealing with convicted criminals.In one episode Faye established a special wing for drug addicts, who she felt were not criminal in the true sense and needed to be sheltered from genuine villains while they dealt with their addictions. The prisoners are allowed to decorate the area and live more freely. Unfortunately this provides such a sheltered environment for people who already have problems dealing with the real world that one girl almost kills herself with an overdose as soon as she is released in order to get back in.Other topics include the violence and bullying of life inside a community of convicts, separation from husbands and boyfriends who may or may not be faithful, and the pressures of life as a prison officer. In an all-female setting lesbianism, of course, was an issue to be addressed (how my mother must have enjoyed explaining that to me when I was 10!).The series was a big hit. It is now being released on DVD and is well worth watching as a well-written, acted and directed quality production of its day.