D

D-Wing
Another of Larkhall’s wings. Barry, Gina, Mark, Kevin, and Donny were all originally D-Wing POs.

Davidson, Detective Sergeant
The police detective who took Cassie and Roisin’s statements after Cassie decided to “own up” to blackmailing Roisin into helping her to cover up her crime (s4ep5).

Davis, Mr
The solicitor who represented Di when she was charged with Fenner’s murder (s7ep12).

Dawn
As lumpy as the mashed potatoes she dished up behind the servery, Dawn was an extra who got the odd line and who tended to act as a minion for Shell during Series 1 – 3.

Dawson, Andy
Julie J’s bastard ex-husband. When she was sent down, he applied for a court order to prevent her from seeing her children and then took them off to live in America.

Dawson, Eddie ‘The Drill’
Julie J’s loathed ex father-in-law. His funeral provided her with the opportunity to see her children, Martin and Rhiannon for the first time in years (s2ep3).

Dawson, Gary
Julie J’s youngest son. The last time she saw him he was in nappies.

Dawson, Martin
Julie J’s eldest son. She last saw him when Lauren Atkins smuggled him into Larkhall to visit (s2ep3).

Dawson, Rhiannon
Julie J’s daughter. We first saw Rhiannon when Lauren Atkins smuggled her into Larkhall to visit (s2ep3). Rhiannon made a shock return to Larkhall, this time on the wrong side of the bars when she was sentenced to sixteen days for shoplifting (s4ep5). Horrified when they discovered that Rhiannon’s boyfriend had put her on the game, the Julies gained revenge by pouring a tea-urn full of boiling water over his lap. Rhiannon later appeared at the Julies’ subsequent GBH trial to testify against them. Her evidence was instrumental in the eight year sentence they each received (s4ep13).

Dawson, Sonya
Julie J’s real name.

Debbie
‘Mad’ Tessa Spall’s cellmate and eternal beloved during her time as an inmate at HMP Newby. Debbie was terrified of Tessa’s obsessive and violent behaviour and asked then Newby PO, Karen Betts, to move her to another cell. Tessa became convinced that Karen had moved Debbie out of spite and very nearly got her revenge when she was transferred to Larkhall (s2ep5).

De-crutching
Exactly what it sounds like. The inmates’ practise of forcibly removing concealed items of contraband (usually drugs) from a fellow prisoner’s person. This punishment was once memorably inflicted on Zandra by Shell and Denny and a family-sized tub of margarine (s1ep2) (see Crutching).

Dedicated Search Team (DST)
Well-hard prison heavies who are trained to search inmates, staff, and cells for contraband. They have frightened the life out of many an inmate and officer on G-Wing including Nikki (s1ep2), Lorna (s1ep9), Yvonne and Charlie’s solicitor (s3ep4), the whole of G-Wing after the riot (s3ep12) and after Bev’s overdose (s6ep2), and on one occasion, the entire prison in a quest to find the gun Ritchie Atkins planted in Karen’s handbag (s5ep1).

Denise
Rotund red-band from D-Wing who worked as a cleaner in the PO’s club. She smuggled bottles of assorted spirits to Phyl and Bev in exchange for the boxes of cream cakes they wheedled out of Frank, the baker’s delivery man.

Derbyshire, Mrs
The manager of the nursing home Bobby and Sylvia Hollamby targeted for their advertising campaign. Unsurprisingly, she took great exception to them handing out flyers advertising Bobby’s undertaking skills (s5ep2).

Derek
The financial advisor employed by Dr Nicholson and who arranged a loan for Hollamby while she was waiting for the inheritance from her recently deceased Aunt Margaret to come through (s7ep5).

Detox
A form of drug rehabilitation, used to treat alcoholism or other drug addiction. The process involves abstinence to clear the drug from the body, accompanied by social and environmental support during the associated physiological and psychological changes. Zandra went into detox in a quest to convince Helen to give permission for a G-Wing wedding (s1ep3).

Devlin, Jessie
Denny’s mother, a chronic alcoholic whose daughter was taken from her by Social Services. After mother and daughter were reunited thanks to a shock meeting on G-Wing (s1ep6), Jessie tried her best to stay off the booze. She eventually returned to her old ways (s2ep4) and later died from an alcohol-related illness (s4ep14).

DF118
An opioid analgesic called Dihydrocodeine that is prescribed as a strong painkiller. Crystal got in contact with a nurse friend on the outside and ordered Josh to smuggle a quantity of DF118s onto G-Wing to help alleviate Zandra’s pain (s2ep8).

Diamonds
Stolen by Sergei Konchalovsky and secreted in the safe in his suite at the Hotel Americanas. While fellow Russian gangster, Mikhail, tortured Sergei for the diamond’s whereabouts, Phyl and Bev were sneaked into the suite by a friendly hotel employee. They stumbled across the safe, broke into it, and made off with the stones themselves (s7ep9).

Diary
Kept by Barbara, the Bridget Jones of G-Wing. She used it to record details of the dire prison diet and her observations on her fellow inmates. Barbara couldn’t resist committing details of Helen and Nikki’s relationship to paper, albeit in code. Disaster struck when Fenner found the diary, cracked the code, and then used it to force Helen’s resignation (s3ep15).

This was the second time Fenner used a diary in an attempt to get rid of Helen. Shortly before he helped her to escape, he ordered Shell to forge six weeks of diary entries that accused Helen’s lifers’ regime of being lax. Helen was much too clever to fall for such an obvious attempt to frame her and it was Stubberfield who ended up falling on his sword as a result of Shell’s escape (s3ep8).

Dickens, Charles
One of the major British authors of the Victorian era. He wrote Little Dorritt, the book about a “terrible prison” that Nikki was reading just before she and Helen kissed for the first time (s1ep9).

Dictaphone
A sound recording device most commonly used to record speech for later playback or to be typed into print. Phyl and Bev finagled the theft of Rowan’s Dictaphone and listened with interest to his observations about his patients. Phyl twigged that Rowan was putting together a TV documentary and used the knowledge to blackmail him into transferring her to a cushy private clinic (s8ep2).

"Die Bastard"
Scratched into the side of Fenner’s car by Di after he kicked her out of the marital home and then demanded a divorced (s7ep10). This became one of the many pieces of circumstantial evidence that led to the police charging her with Fenner’s murder (s7ep11).

Discharge Order
Used by Fenner’s solicitor to secure his client’s release from prison when new evidence suggesting Ben Phillips/Hennessy was responsible for the fatal hit-and-run Fenner was serving time on remand for (s7ep1).

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
This is a diagnosis described as the existence in an individual of two or more distinct identities or ego-states, each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment. Recently considered a rare and mysterious psychiatric curiosity, DID is now understood to be fairly common effect of severe trauma in early childhood, most typically extreme, repeated physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse. After suffering abuse, G-Wing inmate Angela Robbins developed another identity called ‘Andy’. He was an aggressive, foul-mouthed man who attacked both Lou and Pat before Angela’s condition was diagnosed and she was transferred to a secure psychiatric unit for treatment (s8ep3).

Dockley, Dena
Shell’s daughter. She was fostered and later adopted.

Dockley, Kayley
Shell’s daughter. She was fostered and later adopted.

Dockley, Rita
Shell’s mother. It transpired that she allowed her husband to sexually abuse Shell over the course of many years (s2ep6). Rita looked after Shell’s daughters until Shell decided to have them both taken into care. She didn’t want to run the risk of history repeating itself (s2ep8).

Dockley, Ronan Beckham
Shell’s baby son. She hoped that he would grow up to be a “singing footballer”.

Dockley, Shell
G-Wing’s most illustrious evil bitch in residence. After terrorising her fellow inmates, and G-Wing’s POs during Series 1, 2, and 3, she escaped to Spain with her chief henchwoman, Denny (s3ep7). She was eventually spotted working in an Amsterdam strip-club and brought back to Larkhall (s5ep1) in time to give birth to her son, Ronan (s5ep4). After falsely accusing Shell of attacking her baby, Fenner arranged to have her transferred to a secure mental hospital and she left Larkhall forever.

Read Shell’s character profile.

Doctor No-No
The inmates’ nickname for Dr Nicholson because of his reluctance to prescribe anything stronger than paracetemol.

Doctor Yes-Yes
Fans’ nickname for Thomas because of Helen’s inability to keep her hands off him.

Documentary
Shot by a team from Kickin’ Productions, the ill-fated fly-on-the-wall documentary Lady Lags provided Fenner with an opportunity to smuggle Shell out of Larkhall. It was also instrumental in Stubberfield’s forced resignation (s3ep7 – ep8).

Rowan also planned to base a documentary on the women of Larkhall called Women Inside. Mad, Bad, or Sad? He claimed to want to highlight the problems faced by female inmates, but there was really nothing altruistic about Rowan and professional recognition was his real aim. All of his well-laid plans came to naught when Joy refused to give her consent (s8ep9).

Dressing Gown
Notably, Shell’s “slippy” silk dressing-gown that had a habit of flying from her body whenever a male PO was in the immediate vicinity.

Drugs
Heroin, cannabis, cocaine, crack, speed, ecstasty, crystal meth, and tranquilisers… smuggled, stolen, taken, and freely available for purchase on G-Wing.

Drugs Cabinet
A cupboard in the SMO’s office where all the dangerous drugs are kept under lock and key. Rowan claimed Vicky had broken into the cabinet to steal the drugs that caused her to overdose. In actual fact, Rowan administered the injection himself and would’ve stood by and allowed Vicky to die if Lou hadn’t interrupted (s8ep9).

Dumpy
The name of the character played by Tina in G-Wing’s production of Snow Black the inmates’ take on the pantomime Snow White (s7ep13).

Dunlop, Hannah
Rowan’s wife. He lied to Lou about the status of their marriage, claiming they were separated and in the midst of a divorce. Vicky later discovered that Hannah was pregnant and that Rowan had absolutely no intention of leaving her (s8ep8). Lou got her revenge by phoning Hannah and telling her exactly what type of man she was married to (s8ep9).

Dunlop, Rowan
Rowan had his own private psychiatry practise before joining the Prison Service and taking over as Larkhall’s SMO. Underneath his charm, relaxed front, and capable air, he’s ruthlessly ambitious, and only took the job at Larkhall in order to secretly research a television documentary about the inmates. Lou found Rowan hard to resist, and his lies about his disaster of a marriage easy to believe. However, when Rowan nearly allowed her sister, Vicky, to die of a drug overdose, he quickly found that hell really does hath no fury (s8ep9).

Read Rowan’s character profile.

Dunstan, Mrs
Robin’s mother, a complete cow.

Dunstan, Robbie
Zandra and Robin’s son.

Dunstan, Robin
Zandra’s posh git of a fiancé. Not content with allowing her to go down for a crime he committed, he also got her pregnant, dumper her for another woman (s1ep3), and then fought her for custody of their son shortly after he was born (s2ep1). No wonder he didn’t have the guts to show his face on G-Wing during her memorial service (s2ep9)!