Di receives another letter from Gnasher—“Your husband is a poof, I seen him in a poof bar. Ask him if he wants to sit on my pointed stick.”—Neil, who doesn’t know that Di sent the letter herself, is angry but refuses to be intimidated by the threats. However, when he sees that Di’s car has been spray-painted with the word “pervert”, he is forced to take it seriously—especially when Di suggests that Gnasher could be a PO.
The axe finally falls on Larkhall and Neil receives official notification that an offer has been made to a private security firm, Linford Securities. Neil wastes no time in ingratiating himself with Linford’s Chief Executive, Eric Bostock—ditto Jim Fenner who almost falls over himself in his eagerness to stab Karen in the back. Even though she’s aware that her position as Wing Governor is currently rather precarious, Karen refuses to jump to Bostock’s tune. As far as she’s concerned, private security firms have no idea about what it takes to run a women’s prison and she wastes no time in telling him so.
Buki is determined to be reunited with the child she abandoned as a baby, but as she starts her campaign by writing a fake solicitor’s letter threatening to sue Social Services for the ‘theft’ of her baby, her chances of being allowed to see him look slim. Meanwhile, Snowball has contracted salmonella from deliberately eating raw chicken, fully away that, despite her record of escaping, no screw will want to be handcuffed to someone suffering from projectile vomiting. Her condition quickly worsens and she is transferred to the local hospital…the same hospital in which Ritchie is recovering from his gunshot wound.
Now that they’ve got Denny and the Julies in their pocket, Phyl and Bev decide that it’s time to ingratiate themselves with Yvonne. They do this by painting a portrait of Shaz as a surprise for Denny. Next on their list of suckers is Hollamby—she’s bound to be good for a few bottles of gin in exchange for contacting her late husband. Hollamby is not impressed when Bev suggests that Bobby might be seeing other women in the afterlife, and sets her sights on a man on her own—Henry. Being a man of the cloth, Henry has been offering his support following Bobby’s death—but he’s rather alarmed when he’s invited to a romantic dinner. How can he tell Hollamby he’s engaged to one of the inmates?
Snowball is hamming it up in her hospital bed and making several trips to the toilet in order to be sick. She waits until Di is on escort duty before making another dash to the loo. Opportunity finally strikes and she ties up an old woman and steals her clothes before making a break for Ritchie’s bedside. However, by this time Karen is already on the case and when Snowball arrives on Ritchie’s wing, she finds the police waiting for her.
Shell gives birth to Ronan Beckham Dockley without complications, and is genuinely besotted with her baby boy. Colin is expecting Shell to carry on ‘business’ as usual, but Shell angrily refuses his advances and then threatens to blow the whistle on Jim and his pimping scheme. In response, Fenner accuses Shell of trying to smother her baby and she is distraught when he is taken away. Now all Fenner has to do is get Shell out of Larkhall quick-smart and he does this by arranging for her to be transferred to a secure psychiatric unit. Neil knows that keeping an unstable Shell on G-Wing while Bostock is sniffing about is a recipe for disaster, so he signs the relevant papers without hesitation. Shell is bundled into a waiting van and driven away into the night.
Episode Factsheet
What happens to women who give birth inside prison?
Find out in the fact sheet compiled by The Centre for Crime
and Justice Studies.
Episode 4 - Babies
Memorable Moments
Hedges – (After seeing Bostock arrive) “Grayling’s going to crawl right up his arse to keep his lousy job.”
Fenner – “I’ll see him there then.”
Phyl – “You know, we should get those two Julie half-wits to knock us up a couple more cushion covers.”
Bev – “They’d probably do it for a handful of magic beans.”
Julie S – “You wanna be careful trusting Fenner.”
Shell – “Just because no-one’s asked you to come out of retirement.”
Julie S – “I’ll do your baby clothes, but only because I want to buy some poetry books…the only thing the library’s got to offer here is the Oxford book of bleedin’ children’s verse.”
Shell – “Palestines!”
Hollamby – “If you’re a medium, how come you ended up in here?”
Phyl – “Well sadly, she can only help others…if they trust in her gift.”
Denny – “You trust any of us…Bodybag?”
Hollamby – “On your way Blood! Talk about gullible; her head buttons up the back!”
Shell – “Never mind all this ‘I wanna be your mum’ bollocks from Atkins…she just wants another kid ‘cause she’s spazzyfied hers! Eh, maybe I could adopt you as my sister…Denny Dockley, what do you think?”
Denny – “I think you’re a prize bleedin’ nutter mate!”
Phyl – “You know that Atkins creature is top-dog don’t you?”
Bev – “Is that like being best of breed?”
Shell – “You wanna be ashamed of yourself – taking the food out of my baby’s mouth – I ain’t done hand-jobs for a tenner since I was at school!”
Fenner – “If it wasn’t for me darlin’, you wouldn’t be earning a penny. (Laughs) Just like old times eh?”
Shell – “Yeah, me stuck in here washing screw’s spunk off me hands…it’s bleedin’ groundhog day!”
Yvonne – “Legally possible? If we gave a shit about what was legally possible we wouldn’t be in here…would we?”
Shell – (Holding baby) Bleedin’ ‘ell! If it ain’t Pedro staring back at me!”
Di – “Didn’t you know who the father was?”
Shell – “Hoped he was high up in the British Embassy innit? Worth a fortune…instead, I got a dishwasher from Fuengirola!”
Bev – “So Shell Dockley has reproduced.”
Phyl – “Who on earth would be happy about a baby being born in a place like this?”
Bev – “Why would anyone be happy about a baby being born anywhere?”
