A to Z of HMP Larkhall
O
Officer’s Club
A bar situated right next door to Larkhall where the POs can relax after their shifts – in Fenner’s case, sometimes also during lunch hour. Di once shagged Mark in the men’s toilets (s3ep13), she was also the cause of the temporary closure of the club when her then boyfriend, Barry Pearce, tried to knock Ken Blakeson’s block off (s4ep2).
Phyl and Bev set up a scam with Denise, the red-band who cleaned the Officer’s Club – they would inveigle cream cakes out of the baker’s delivery man and then swap them for pilfered bottles of spirits (s7ep3-ep9).
Joy strongly disapproved of the Officer’s Club – she wanted her POs out there mixing with the general public rather than forming their own cliques – and at some point after taking over as Number One, she closed it.
O’Kane, Tina
Tina arrived on G-Wing as Tina Purvis, but after her younger sister Maxi’s death, she changed her name to Julie O’Kane and upped the number of Julies from 2 to 3 (s4ep12). Feeling more than a little left out during Julie S’s battle with breast cancer, she changed her name again, this time to Tina O’Kane (s5ep10). Tina became one of the tiny band of inmates who have been released from Larkhall in one piece after completely their sentence, not once, but twice (s6ep12 & s8ep7). However, she was unable to cope with life on the outside on either occasion and purposely committed crimes in order to be returned to Larkhall.
Read Tina’s character profile.
O’Kane, Virginia
Brothel madam who ran a string of illicit premises across London. Whilst on remand at Larkhall, Virginia was blackmailed by Fenner into allowing him to run her massage parlours in exchange for a share in the profits (s3ep13). She also embarked on an unlikely friendship with Tina that resulted in jealous Maxi and Al drowning her in the bathtub (s3ep16).
Read Virginia’s character profile.
Open Day
In yet another PR exercise, Neil decided to throw open the gates of Larkhall to a number of eminent visitors and local business people. Because the prison would be full of strange faces and the possibility of security being slightly laxer than usual, Snowball decided that it would be the optimum day to make her escape. The day ended in tragedy and chaos when her bomb exploded in the library (s4ep16).
Open Prison
A type of prison with a more relaxed regime than Larkhall and which is used to detain low-risk prisoners. Inmates in open prisons have their own rooms with keys rather than cells and are more or less allowed the freedom of the prison grounds. Some inmates may also be allowed out to work during the day, or go home at weekends to spend time with their families.
Charlotte Myddleton was transferred out of Larkhall to an open prison – many suspected that her influential father had been pulling strings behind the scenes (s3ep11). Cassie and Roisin were also transferred to open prison, only in their case it was in preparation for their release on a full pardon after saving Neil’s life (s5ep1).
Denny (s5ep15) and Phyl and Bev (s5ep7) have all been rewarded for good behaviour with a transfer to an open prison. However, Phyl and Bev took the phrase ‘open’ a bit too literally and ended up being sent back to Larkhall (s5ep13).
Owsyn, Phyl
Phyl is the technical, analytical and scientific half of the Costa Cons. Always with an eye on the main chance, she was G-Wing’s top-dog for a brief period after Yvonne’s death, but was eventually hobbled by Frances (s6ep2). A lowly inmate once more, she and Bev returned to their old tricks and began to charm cream cakes out the baker’s delivery man to swap for bottles of booze before jumping on the chance to escape to Spain (s7ep9). Both were eventually apprehended and sent back to Larkhall.
Read Phyl’s character profile.
Oxalic Acid
Oxalic acid is abundantly present in many plants and is a poisonous substance that irritates the lining of the gut when consumed, and can prove fatal in large doses. Phyl and Bev were very interested to discover that rhubarb leaves contain a dangerously high concentration of oxalic acid and decided to use an extract of the leaves to spike the screw’s milk. However, the plan backfired when Julie S borrowed the milk to make pancakes for the inmates (s6ep6). Most of the women on the wing fell ill, and Al died after choking on her vomit. Natalie sussed out Phyl and Bev’s involvement and went on to blackmail them into spiking Frances’s coffee, although she didn’t die as planned (s6ep7).
Oxford Prison
Before the construction of the exterior Bad Girls set (Series 4 onwards), outside scenes were shot at the then disused Oxford Prison. Nowadays, the prison is a hotel.