Life on Prisoner Cell Block H

WHEN gritty Australian soap Prisoner Cell Block H first aired 45 years ago today, no one could have predicted the cult status it would achieve worldwide.

- EMMA PRYER

Set in a women's jail, it became one of Australia's most successful TV dramas of all time after being exported to more than 80 countries.

Five years after its 1979 launch, Yorkshire Television bought the British rights and millions here tuned in to weekly late-night episodes, which even sparked a trend for Prisoner parties.

It spawned multiple spin-offs, including the 2013 series Wentworth, a male version called Punishment, starring Mel Gibson, and a camp West End show starring the late Paul O'Grady's alter ego Lily Savage. Re-runs of Prisoner still air on My5 today.

Throughout its 692-episode, eighty-year run, the show was famous for its outrageous plots and characters, including twisted warden "The Freak" and formidable lag "Queen" Bea Smith.

But the show also tackled serious issues, such as drug abuse and sexual assault. Set in the fictional Wentworth Detention Centre, it revolved around the lives of the female inmates and the often corrupt prison officers.

For former Neighbours star Colette Mann - who played inmate Doreen Burns from the very first episode - the show's legacy still burns brightly.

Colette, 74, said: "The show changed my life and I have the fans to thank for that. Never in a million years did I imagine I'd be in England now, still going to Prisoner conventions, still getting fan mail and still being recognised as Doreen on the London Underground.

Clearly, I haven't aged a bit." Childlike Doreen - famed for her phrase, "What are we going to do now, Bea?" and for carrying a teddy bear experienced lesbian affairs, fell pregnant by a rapist and tried to take her own life.

Fans often wrote to Colette at the Grundy studios in Melbourne, where the show was filmed.