Cast enjoyed good time starring in TV’s popular prison drama Bad Girls
Lockdown has left most of us with bags of time on our hands and, in a desperate bid to distract ourselves from life’s stresses and strains, more of us are seeking solace from classic television nostalgia. So, is it time to revisit HMP Larkhall and re-acquaint ourselves with its resident Bad Girls? Steve Cain finds out.
From its debut in May 1999, Bad Girls grabbed the attention of the nation.
Offering a gripping glimpse of life behind bars, it combined gritty drama with touching comedy and won the enduring loyalty of millions of fans.
Of course, there had been television dramas set in women’s prisons before.
Within These Walls, starring Googie Withers, ran for four years during the 1970s, and who could forget the wobbling sets and questionable performances in the 1980s kitsch cult classic Prisoner: Cell Block H?
But Bad Girls was, undoubtedly, the most successful of all.
At its peak, it regularly attracted audiences of more than eight million and won the National Television Award for Best Drama for two consecutive years.
One of HMP Larkhall’s most popular storylines was the love triangle involving firm-but-fair Wing Governor Karen Betts, rotten-to-thecore Principal Officer Jim Fenner and his long-suffering wife Marilyn.
On the surface, Jim was a popular officer with an easygoing and self-deprecating nature.
A seemingly devoted family man with a wife and two children, in actual fact he was sexually motivated with dubious morals.
Furthermore, he’d had several sexual relationships with prisoners and officers alike.
“I don’t think Marilyn knew too much about Jim’s antics at work,” says Kim Taylforth, who played her.
“She was a good wife and he was the model husband at home. When she found out about her husband’s shenanigans, it broke her heart and then made her really angry.
“That’s why she packed up all his clothes and threw them in the prison yard.”
Karen Betts, played by Emmerdale star Claire King, was a self-made working class woman who had joined the WRAF aged 17 and qualified there as a state registered nurse before joining the prison service and seizing every opportunity it offered.
She successfully completed a BA in sociology and rose, quickly, through the ranks to take charge of the notorious G-wing.
During her tenure as Wing Governor, and throughout the duration of the series, Karen encountered a number of challenges which she always approached in her characteristic calm and unflappable manner.
From having a hypodermic needle filled with HIVinfected blood held inches away from her face by ‘Mad’ Tessa Spall, to co-ordinating emergency plans to rescue a fellow officer held hostage by a psychopathic inmate, Karen Betts faced each problem with confidence and style.
With her mane of blonde hair, cheekbones you could cut yourself on, and dressed in a pin-striped power-suit, she’d handle the most difficult of situations with professionalism and authority.
“Karen was a brilliant character to play,” says Claire King, who is back in Emmerdale playing Kim Tate.
“She treated people properly and you could trust her as a mate.”
However, it wasn’t just the prisoners who posed problems for Karen.
She also had to contend with militant staff and the old-style union culture of the Prison Officers’ Association.
Sylvia Hollamby was one officer who never approved of Karen’s ambition, remarking:
Claire King is now back in Emmerdale (p
“You watch, she’ll be out of that uniform and into a suit faster than Clark Kent.”
But, Karen’s true nemesis was Jim Fenner.
Having had a brief liaison at a conference, four years earlier, both Karen and Jim, were less than pleased to be reunited at Larkhall.
Their love-hate relationship was a roller-coaster, which eventually went off the rails.
When Karen, and her ally Helen Stewart, had finally gathered enough photographs and statements to expose Fenner’s corruption he tried to attack her but she fought back.
Subsequently, he broke into her home and stole the evidence before ruthlessly framing Karen for a hit-andrun accident in which a pedestrian died.
Eventually, with the help of Neil Grayling, the Governing Governor of Larkhall, :
Karen was able to clear her name and Jim Fenner was arrested on his wedding day.
“Fenner was so devious, so fascinating – a great character to play,” says Jack Ellis, who portrayed him.
“That role provided me with six years of employment and put me very much in the public eye,” he admits.
“I enjoyed it, to a degree, and I even supplied some of the storylines, but by the end it became impossible for me to continue playing such a selfish, murdering rapist.”
Surprisingly, despite playing such an evil and ruthless character, Jack didn’t receive that much hostility from members of the viewing public.
He was spared the wrath of little old ladies hitting him with their walking sticks in the supermarket, which often seems to afflict many other television villains.
“After the nine o’clock watershed,
people have a very different view of television characters,” he explains.
“They tend to associate more closely with soap characters than they do with characters in a drama.
“Somehow there seems to be more of a distance.’
Kim Taylforth fondly recalls acting opposite Ellis.
“My overriding memory of Bad Girls was working with Jack.
“He is the loveliest person and nothing like his slimy character. We had such a laugh together.”
For Claire King, one of the most enjoyable aspects was the glamour of playing Wing Governor Karen. “The wardrobe mistress and I agreed that Versace and Jean Paul Gaultier suits looked better on screen and lasted longer than anything cheaper.
“And the costume budget had to go somewhere, after all!”
During lockdown classic television dramas have enjoyed something of a renaissance, with viewers turning in droves to streaming services such as BritBox for a comforting fix of nostalgia.
So, is it time to repeat or, perhaps, even reboot Bad Girls?
“I don’t think making a new series of Bad Girls would work,” admits Kim Taylforth.
“Prisons have changed so much and political correctness would make it impossible to reflect that in a drama series. I think it should be left as it is.’
Kim is quite clear about why she believes Bad Girls was such a success. “It was filmed in a real prison, in Oxford, so it looked more authentic,” she says. “There were no wobbly walls and the characters were more real. That’s why it was so much better than other prison dramas.”