Wentworth is an Australian television drama series developed by Lara Radulovich and David Hannam from Reg Watson's original concept as a contemporary reimagining of Prisoner, which ran on Network Ten from 1979 to 1986. The series is set in the modern day and centres on Bea Smith's early days in prison.
Fans of the iconic Prisoner series which pushed boundaries over three decades ago and still today boasts a loyal following worldwide, will remember Bea Smith as gutsy and fearless, ruling Wentworth Correctional Centre with an iron fist.
But who was Bea Smith before prison? How did a wife and mother from the suburbs become a top dog without rival?
Wentworth is a dynamic, often confronting, drama series that begins with Bea's early days in prison. Set in the present day, it is a modern adaptation of Prisoner contemporising legendary characters and their stories for today's audience.
The series takes the viewer inside to an uncompromising environment exploring the politics of women in a world without men, and how such a threatening experience both challenges and often changes those confined and working behind the razor wire.
The audience will be introduced to Bea all over again and meet her allies and enemies in the form of inmates: Doreen Anderson, Liz Birdsworth and Franky Doyle, and there are new faces such as Jacs Holt, the ruthless matriarch of a crime family who now reigns over Wentworth.
Favourite officers will also return. Meg Jackson carries a shameful secret; Vera Bennett, the well-meaning officer who discovers everyone has a price; Erica Davidson, the crusading lawyer; Matthew Fletcher who believes in retribution rather than rehabilitation and Meg's husband Will Jackson, whose past still haunts him.
Each episode explores an individual character's backstory providing an insight to what makes them tick and the circumstances that led them to Wentworth. In doing so we discover the difference between an inmate and an officer is sometimes simply geography, because they're all prisoners in surprisingly different ways.
Like the original Prisoner, Wentworth is, at its heart, a series about survival, a character drama featuring women living in a pressure cooker environment.
Despite the rivalries and power struggles, this family of misfits and rebels are forced to forge unlikely friendships and allegiances if they want to survive their time inside.