Wentworth, the new drama based on iconic Australian TV series Prisoner, starts production in Melbourne next week.
The 10-part series will be filmed on a purpose-built women’s prison, the Wentworth Detention Centre, where inmates and corrections staff will be forced to forge unlikely friendships to survive on the inside.
The cast includes Danielle Cormack (Underbelly Razor, Rake) as Wentworth’s latest arrival, suburban wife and mum Bea Smith; Nicole Da Silva (Rush, East West 101) as Gen Y lesbian Franky Doyle; Celia Ireland (Laid, All Saints) as earthy Liz Birdsworth; and Shareena Clanton as young Aboriginal woman Doreen Anderson.
Catherine McClements (Rush, Water Rats) and Kate Atkinson (Offspring, Rush) play Governor Meg Jackson and her deputy Vera Bennett. Aaron Jeffery (Underbelly Badness, McLeod’s Daughters) and Robbie Magasiva (Shortland Street) are corrections officers Matthew “Fletch” Fletcher and Will Jackson. Leeanna Walsman (Underbelly Badness) plays progressive and crusading lawyer Erica Davidson.
Most of the Wentworth characters also appeared in the original Prisoner series which included Val Lehman as Bea Smith, Carol Burns as Franky Doyle, Sheila Florence as Lizzie Birdsworth and Colette Mann as Doreen Anderson.
Kris McQuade (Killing Time, The Circuit) plays a new character in Wentworth: crime matriarch Jacs Holt.
Foxtel executive director of television Brian Walsh said: “Wentworth will be bold Australian storytelling with this remarkable group of actors portraying the rivalries, power struggles and heartbreak of prison life in a drama tailor-made for the subscription television audience.”
The FremantleMedia Australia production will employ in excess of 300 cast and crew during the four-month shoot.
The series will premiere on Foxtel’s SoHo channel in 2013.
The new cast of Wentworth.