We’d like to thank everybody who sent in questions and apologise for the length of time it’s taken to answer them.
1. We’ve all been hearing rumours in the press and on the Internet that Series 7 is the very last series of Bad Girls and that after the Christmas special, there will be no more. I hope this isn’t true. Can you shed any light on this subject?
A. Well, so much for rumours, eh? Bad Girls Series 8 has been commissioned by ITV for transmission this year.
2. I was just wondering if there’s ever going to be a follow up of the Helen and Nikki storyline. At the end of series three, there was a “to be continued”, something that led a lot of the fans to believe that there would be a follow up. Also, would you ever consider/have considered doing a follow up series on any of the other ex inmates, i.e. Roisin and Cassie, Kris and Selena, Crystal and Josh, Barbara and Henry so that we could see what it would be like for them to adapt to life on the outside after so long being behind bars.
A. We weren’t able to follow Helen & Nikki’s story beyond the end of Series 3 owing to the actors’ unavailability, but we wanted fans to know that Helen & Nikki’s relationship was enduring, hence the ‘to be continued’. BG is essentially a prison-based drama, so it’s never been part of our plans to follow our ex-inmate characters’ lives outside prison. However, Tina’s story in Series 7 was used to show how hard it is for many ex-prisoners to adapt to life outside in the absence of effective support and after-care.
3. You’ll probably be inundated with people asking this question but can you please set the record straight on what happened to Kris and Selena? Why did you choose to leave the storyline there? Why have they not been mentioned? Also, is Colin gone for good?
A. There really wasn’t more we could do to follow the Kris & Selena story within the framework of BG. According to our research, the likely developments after Kris’s escape & their joint protest atop the monument were that Selena would forfeit her Prison Officer’s career & be charged with aiding & abetting a criminal’s escape. In light of her past immaculate record, the judge could have given her a short suspended sentence. Kris would have been immediately transferred to another prison to await her appeal, which would have taken quite a while, but it’s likely she would eventually have won her case. We were delighted that so many fans were moved by Kris & Selena’s story & would like to think that K & S would now be back together & continuing to campaign for justice for women. The continuation of Colin’s role in BG was determined by the actor’s availability, as is often the case.
4. When are the tickets for the musical going to be available to buy and where is it going to be shown?
A. The first production of the musical is going to be at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, 27th May – 1st July 2006. Tickets are on sale now.
5. Do you have any news about when Bombshell will be aired?
A. We are as much in the dark as you. Bombshell is one of several dramas whose transmission has been delayed for reasons known only to the ITV schedulers. We hope to see it transmitted in 2006.
6. My wife and I were devastated by the murder of Yvonne Atkins. How did you come to the decision to plot the storyline that way? At the end of series 5 did you already have the idea of having Fenner murdered in the hanging cell in series 7?
A. We did at one stage plot the storyline to allow for the possibility that Yvonne had somehow managed to escape, but Linda Henry was adamant that her character should die. We decided to have Jim murdered in the hanging cell when we were developing the stories for Series 7. Prior to that, we were storylining on the basis that Jack Ellis was leaving the show at the end of Series 6. So, as you can see, our power over our characters’ fates is somewhat less than god-like, but we hope you felt that Jim finally got his just desserts for his many crimes. We, too, really miss Yvonne Atkins.
7. When you are creating characters for Bad Girls, do you ever create them in the hope that a certain actor or actress will portray them?
A. We don’t usually have any particular actor in mind when we create characters, but we were very keen to have Helen Fraser play Sylvia Hollamby, based on having worked with Helen on a couple of episodes of Coronation Street when she played the hypnotist who attempted to cure Jack Duckworth of his smoking habit.
8. I’ve noticed that in all of the series of Bad Girls I’ve seen, sexual assaults/victimisations are never really resolved. We’ve had the Helen/Jim crotch grabbing (where Helen was afraid that she wouldn’t be believed), Karen’s rape (where it was her word against Fenner’s), Zandra’s de-crutching (is that not a sexual assault?), Rachel Hicks and her whole deal with Fenner, Sally Ann Howe’s rape and Shell being shipped out in series 5. Why is it that a progressive, forward thinking, gay and women friendly company continually undermine such a serious topic?
A. We surely don’t undermine the serious topic of sexual assault by showing how difficult it is for women to get justice? On the contrary, we feel that we’re highlighting how the vast majority of sexual assaults on women do go unpunished. In particular, we’ve always set out to show how the closed world of prison affords so little protection for incarcerated women from sexual predators like Fenner, who have the key to cell doors. His character was based on a real prison officer we were told about by the late Chris Tchaikovsky, our original consultant on BG – there had been numerous complaints of sexual assault made against this officer by women prisoners but he always eluded investigation. Regarding Zandra’s decrutching – yes, of course, this was a serious assault, perpetrated by women on another woman, as does happen in women’s prisons but was very likely unheard of by the majority of people before we dramatised it. Our point was to show the desperate degradation and bullying that can result from the government’s misguided policy of imprisoning drug users, which only the most bigoted of Daily Mail readers could applaud.
9. If you could bring any character back into the series who would it be? Also, if you were going to write a good character out, i.e. Yvonne or Shaz, why would you choose to kill them when they could easily be written back in if they hadn’t been killed off?
A. See answers above – we don’t always have the option of keeping or bringing back characters we love.
10. Will there be an updated or new version of the Bad Girls book?
A. We don’t currently have plans – but if there are any interested publishers out there…?
11. After airing, will the Christmas special be released on its own or as part of the Series 7 DVD collection? Also, will the ‘Bad Girls Most Wanted’ ITV2 special be included as an extra on a DVD box-set in the future?
A. Discussions are still underway with our distributors so we can’t say either way about these yet. Sorry.
12. Just wanted to congratulate you on an excellent series. Bad Girls has just got better and better. I wondered whether you had ever thought of a Bad Girls spin-off. By this I mean, Bad Boys? Wondered what your thoughts would be on that.
A. Thank you very much for the compliment! Re spin-offs… the only other thoughts we’ve had were about Bad Kids, set in a Young Offenders’ rehab unit with a mixed group of teenagers, but it’s still at the treatment stage just now.
13. I really loved the storyline between Pat and Sheena, please tell me that you are planning to carry this on. Having said that, I was a bit concerned by how quickly the characters fell in love – to a lot of people this made the storyline seem rushed (almost as if the whole relationship had been added to the series as an afterthought and tagged on) and at times, it even lacked credibility.
A. Well, it has been known for people to fall for each other without warning & against their better instincts… With Pat & Sheena, we wanted Pat to find herself caught up in an emotional involvement much against her will & better judgement. We set up a relationship which is beset with obstacles to its continuation, not least of which is Sheena’s desire to get back with her baby son…
14. I love the new officer Vicky Floyd, are there any plans to make her a permanent character and to give her storylines of her own? I also really liked Paula Miles (PO in series 5 and 6), don’t you think it’s about time Bad Girls had a permanent PO from an ethnic background?
A. Again, we would have liked to keep Paula Miles & develop her character but this wasn’t possible. And we had a story for Vicky Floyd involving Colin’s character, but then Tristan wasn’t available. Plans are underway to introduce new PO characters in series 8.
15. Will Janine and Darlene get some storylines in the next series?
A. Yes.
16. Please bring back the old ‘group’/‘gang’ feeling that there used to be. The gang used to be Yvonne, Nikki, Barbara, Crystal, the Julies, Denny, Zandra, with the addition of Buki, Shaz, Tina and Kris as characters came and went. Series 7 saw little of this ‘group’ feeling, please bring it back.
A. Will do our best – we agree it’s a very important part of the BG mix.
17. How many series do you think there will be of Bad Girls? Are there plans to bring back any old faces for future series? Maybe ‘Mad’ Tessa Spall for instance.
A. We never know if there’s going to be another series of BG until ITV commissions it. We don’t rule out the possibility of bringing back some characters but at the same time know that, because BG’s been going for this long, characters we think of as ‘old faces’ would be entirely new to newer members of our audience. On the whole we tend to think it’s better to bring in entirely new characters – but, never say never…
18. How come Frances Myers left Bad Girls so suddenly? She was an excellent character who is very sadly missed.
A. And missed by us too – but, as we’ve said, we don’t make all the decisions…
19. Now that Fenner has gone, are there plans to bring in a new baddie? Maybe it would be a good idea to bring in a female Fenner type screw. A bit like Joan Ferguson from Cell Block H. Whoever it is, Fenner will be a hard act to follow.
A. BG will definitely be a different show without Jack Ellis as Jim Fenner & we’re not planning to try & replace him with a Fenner duplicate.
20. When did you first come up with the concept of Bad Girls, and how did the premise come about? From the point of conceiving the idea, how long did the process of getting it from script to screen take? Also, do you have any advice for aspiring screenwriters? Is it a difficult media to break into if you have no previous experience?
A. It was Eileen who came up with the idea of doing a women’s prison drama, then we all worked on the concept together, in consultation with Chris Tchaikovsky at Women In Prison. We took 2 weeks off & locked ourselves away in a villa in Italy to brainstorm the treatment - & at the end of that time we had written biogs for all the key characters of the first series & their main storylines. All in all it probably took about a year before the first series transmitted. Our basic advice to aspiring screenwriters is very simple – watch and analyse as much drama as you can – try and work out why it works for you or it doesn’t – study the craft of storytelling - & keep on writing and re-writing until you’ve written something you’d not be embarrassed to see on screen. It is a difficult medium to get into but doors eventually open if you apply yourself to learning the craft and you’ve got a good ear for dialogue and something interesting/entertaining to say.
21. What sort of source material do you use in researching for background and for realistic content for storylines and social issues raised since the untimely death of Chris Tchaikovsky?
Do you feel that the loss of Chris has led to the new ‘camp’ Bad Girls that we have seen for the last couple of years? Chris’s background information brought us the original ‘hard hitting, original drama’ and these days, BG isn’t really based much on the issues of prison life, but rather the vivacious lives of the characters and unreal storylines. Some also say that the storylines are repetitive, for example, Phyl and Bev’s hooch storyline echo the Julies’ attempt in Series One, and the many wannabe Nikki Wade’s that have been brought in (Kris and Pat). What is your response to this? As a huge fan who has watched BG from the very start, I can accept these changes but I know many oldtimers from back in the day do not watch the show anymore and say that it has turned into “Footballers’ Wives trash”, what is your response to this?
A. We miss Chris hugely but we stay in contact with her former colleagues at W.I.P. & other prison campaign groups. We also have ex-prison officer & ex-prisoner consultants. We continue to receive endorsements from academics & campaigners for prison reform for highlighting many real issues concerning conditions in prison and raising awareness of the plight of women prisoners. However, we’re not making a documentary. Much of what happens in HMP Larkhall has or could happen in prisons, and we will continue to raise issues, but our primary requirement is to entertain our audience. Some repetition over a long running series is actually integral to the realism of the show. After all, prisoners lead quite narrow, prescriptive lives, therefore they're bound to come up with some similar strategies to circumvent the system. Hopefully, part of the fun of BG is watching a new dog perform an old trick - but with a fresh twist.
22. I shan’t ask what you have in store for the next series as I rather like the suspense. But if I did have a question it would be – how do you go about forming storylines for each series? Do viewers comments, like those you have invited, actually have an impact in deciding where you will go with particular characters storylines and how set in stone are these ideas? Also, what do you find more difficult, the creation of the direction a series will take or conveying these ideas to the writers of each individual episode?
A. We hold regular story conferences to brainstorm ideas for the series, during which our researchers will contribute ideas for stories based on actual events. Viewers’ comments are important to us and from time to time audience research is conducted to assess the popularity of characters and storylines. Other factors such as the availability of actors contribute to our decisions. We tend to develop the stories & characters organically, episode by episode, within an overall plan for the series. Storylining is always the most important and difficult job.
23. I think everyone’s favourite moment in Bad Girls this series has to be the death of Jim Fenner (it was definitely mine!). However, he was one of those characters that everybody loved to hate; did you find it hard to write out such a dominant character? Why was Julie J chosen as the killer? Are there reels of film that show him being killed by someone else?
A. It was clearly time for Jim to get his final comeuppance & he had made many enemies both amongst the prisoners & officers, but we wanted him to be dispatched by one of the Julies as they’ve had to endure him the longest & were also the closest to Yvonne among our present inmates.
23.a. A lot of people have wondered what the reasoning was behind killing Fenner rather than having him brought to book and having to face the consequences of his past actions. In some ways a lot of fans feel that it was a ‘cop out’. Many people’s ‘fantasy’ storyline involved a huge trial with characters like Karen, Nikki, Helen, Shell and Neil being brought in to testify against him – was this something you considered at all?
A. In our dreams, but not possible in reality, owing to actors’ availability.
23.b. Another point to consider here is that yet again, you are giving the message that violence is the answer, a theme that has continued to crop up in Bad Girls – i.e. the murder of DC Gossard, the death of Kris and Milly’s father, Yvonne’s attempt to put a hit on Fenner, the hit that Lauren put on Charlie. How do you respond to that? Having said all that, the murder and the ensuing investigation has been a gripping storyline and has of course left us with a multi cliffhanger ending to what has been a thoroughly good, enjoyable and high standard series seven.
A. We don’t always endorse the behaviour of our characters.
24. Helen was a champion for inmates’ rights. What do you think that she would be doing now some four years later?
A. We think she’d still be out there fighting, working for one of the prison reform groups, or perhaps HM Prisons Inspectorate, inspired by its admirable chief Ann Owers.
25. One of the main things I loved about Series 7 was the introduction of so many new characters, both permanent and short term. I’m glad that we have the endearing hero and a strong relationship, the darker characters and some great sources of comedy. Who out of all of the new arrivals this series has been your favourite and why?
A. Thank you very much. We love seeing new characters come to life and setting up new dynamics amongst the existing inmates and staff. In particular, we think Pat and Joy have made a great impact on G Wing.
26. There’s an obvious shift in the tone and overall feel of the show as it has progressed, was this intentional or was it just the natural evolution of Bad Girls? Also, this series appeared quite dark in my opinion, what with Fenner’s heavy involvement and episodes such as those that focussed on Pat’s past and Laura Canning; will the next series follow suit, or will you be opting for a lighter atmosphere following the intensity of this one, especially evident in the latter part of the series.
A. We did aim to make Series 7 somewhat darker, and inevitably the downfall of Jim Fenner played a big part in that. Bad Girls has always relied on delivering dramatic stories balanced with warmth and comedy. In Series 8 we’ll be pursuing the same mix of elements, and updating some of Larkhall’s procedures and facilities to reflect changes in current prison practice. This will no doubt have both dramatic and comic consequences.
27. I was intrigued by Phyl’s very obvious reaction to the attempted rape by Frank followed by her decision to kill Dr Nicholson and the way she literally ‘shrank back’ when the barman in the Spanish pub tried to come onto her. Does Phyl have a deep trauma in her past that will be explored in later series?
A. Quite possibly, yes. But whether or not she’ll share it with us remains to be seen.
28. Is Sylvia really mellowing or is it just an illusion?
A. Sylvia is as Sylvia does. We do try to teach her a few things, but whether she’ll ever really learn is another matter.
29. Have you ever considered painting G-Wing new colours (blue, white, grey) and refurbishing it to give it a fresh look?
A. Our set has often been used by other tv programmes and is frequently painted in other colours – including blue and grey. However, the distinctive Larkhall green is always restored and we currently have no plans to change it.
30. As Bad Girls has evolved I have noticed a number of characters with very similar attributes appearing, e.g. Monica/Barbara, Shell/Natalie, Dominic/Colin, Frances/Joy, Yvonne/Pat etc. Do you think their qualities are necessary for the show to work?
A. We think BG thrives on a mix of characters from different backgrounds. Obviously, Monica and Barbara have in common that they are older and middle class, but beyond that their stories are quite different. Likewise, Shell and Natalie might both be blonde bullies, but that’s about all they have in common. We clearly need “top dog” characters on both sides of the bars, so it’s more that the roles are similar rather than the characters themselves.
31. Do the actors ever spend time in a bona-fide prison to help them get into the right mood?
A. Some of the cast of Bad Girls have visited various prisons and we’ve had ex-prisoners visit our set - and they have confirmed that the G Wing set is alarmingly good at recreating the mood of prison.
32. Have you ever had a complaint from the Prison Service about the way they have been portrayed in Bad Girls?
A. Certain serving prison officers are not best pleased at taking on the nickname of Bodybag. Individually, many POs we’ve met are great fans of the show and recognise the authenticity of many of the characters and stories we’ve portrayed.
33. Did you ever think that Bad Girls would last so long and have such a strong following?
A. No. It’s amazing to think we’ve now transmitted over 100 hours of BG. We set out to write the kind of tv that we wanted to watch, and we’re just thrilled that so many people seem to get it.
34. What happened to Karen Betts at the end of the last series and will she be returning?
A. Although Jim Fenner managed to wriggle out of the hit and run conviction, Karen at least remained in the clear. She may have been prematurely celebrating Jim’s demise at the end of Series 6, but it’s safe to assume she has placed her own bouquet of barbed wire on his grave. After all she went through, it’s probably unlikely that she’ll be looking to return to the prison service.
35. Have you ever dreamt about Bad Girls, Footballers’ Wives, Bombshell or any of the other dramas you have produced?
A. Yes, and often with characters popping up in the wrong dramas to add extra nightmarish confusion.
36. Firstly, I would like to congratulate you on your wonderful creation. Bad Girls is undoubtedly the best television ever and I am an absolutely die-hard fan of your show. Series 7 has been excellent, addictive in every way, and you deserve merit for that. But my question is, do you feel that you portrayals of men over the 7 series have been fair? Besides Dominic and Josh, no male character has come into the show as a ‘goody’. Jim, Colin and Kevin all came in as baddies and, of the remaining male characters, Neil is the only goody – and he was a bad guy in the past anyway!
A. A lot of our characters, whether male or female, make a journey from being perceived as “baddies” to revealing something more complex and sympathetic. Hardly any of our characters are without flaws – even Helen Stewart lacked judgement sometimes. (Incidentally you forget another of our male good guys was Mark Waddle, who put up a good fight against Fenner.)
37. Have Shed Productions ever considered introducing a range of Bad Girls merchandise? Owing to the huge success of the show I would assume that it would be a huge seller.
A. We’ve no plans at present, but it’s not something we’d rule out if the right idea came along.
38. How do you explain Series 7’s poor performance in the ratings?
A. We wouldn’t really agree that BG has performed poorly. Ratings for all terrestrial channels have been falling in the last few years owing to the ever-stronger competition from digital and cable channels. Even though BG frequently had a difficult lead-in from ITV’s poorly performing eight o’clock shows, Series 7 still averaged 5m viewers and a 22% share throughout its Tuesday night run. This compares favourably to ITV’s average audience share of 20% at this time on Tuesday. Furthermore, BG was up against much stronger competition than in some previous series: Cutting It, CSI, Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares, Big Brother. When audience share ratings are averaged across the run we consistently outperformed all other channels in this slot. Bad Girls was also available on ITV2 where the average audience was 312,000 and this (aside from football and films) puts Bad Girls firmly in ITV2’s Top 10.
We’re not complacent, though. Of course we want higher ratings. But all we can do is work as hard as we can to make a show that we’re proud of. Then it’s up to where we get placed in the schedule and, more importantly, on who tunes in to watch us.
