-
the highlight of the event - a guest appearance by Val Lehman, who answered
fans' questions and signed autographs. Below is a review of the Weekend,
along with some of the more printable stories Val treated us to (!!!).
A big thank-you to Martin Chainey (pictured
right with Val) for providing most of this report. Thanks also to
Karen Hanson
and
Brad
for
their contributions.
To give you the general 'feeling'.. I had expected the venue 'Pavilion Theatre' to be something like a grand seaside theatre, but found out it was in fact a large shed-like structure just off the beach, with a vast wooden floor, a small stage at one end, a tiny bar at the other, and around the sides of the "dance floor" area were kind of trestle-tables with plastic chairs covered in mock plush velvet.. in truth, just like a working men's club, but without the class.
The Friday night event had a disappointingly
low turn out of people. The event was compered by two fat, sweaty
men from the local radio, I think, who told the same four jokes over and
over throughout the weekend:
(1) Viagra (whenever someone said
'get up' or 'hard')
(2) Crabs (unfunny seaside references)
(3) Screws (every time they mentioned
officers)
(4) Banged up
Anyway, onto La Lehman.. She did the same type of thing both nights, basically took a microphone and answered questions from fans about herself or Prisoner. Actually, there was quite a big difference between her two appearances, the second being more 'diplomatic' and courteous.. the first downright shocking! - She basically slagged off Prisoner and all the actresses she worked with, apart from Sheila Florance.
Why did she leave? She *hated* Grundys, and they hated her. She had stopped enjoying it, and the storyline she hated *most of all* was the Zara Moonbeam/Bea going mad storyline, because she felt it was so unbelievable. (Her word was actually "crap!".) Almost as ridiculous, she says, was her departure - When she finally leaves, she is transferred from Wentworth, a maximum security prison, to Barnhurst, a *minimum* security prison, just after her third murder!! No sense at all.
The actress she got on with the *least*.. Elspeth Ballantyne (Meg Morris). She declared that she hated her, that she was the Grundys 'snitch' and would tittle-tattle to them every time someone said anything they shouldn't. In a story remarkably reminiscent of several Prisoner storylines, Val said she staged a dodgy sounding phone call and deliberately let Elspeth overhear. Grundy later called Val into their office to talk to her about it upon which Val said the phone call had been completely innocent. This was proof that Elspeth had told Grundy.
Actress she got on with most.. Sheila
Florance.
Second most.. Carol Skinner
(Nola Mackenzie), she said.
She claims that the Nola character was brought in (as a *secret* plotline to the cast, originally) to replace Bea, and that while Bea was in solitary, there was to be an explosion, killing her. But word got out, followed by a fuss, and it was changed. In fact, when auditions were being held for the part of Nola (which nobody had heard of at the time, secret that it was) she discovered they were using old Bea scripts with the character name blanked out. She also said of Patsy King's departure, that Grundys were auditioning for _her_ replacement before she even knew about it...
Val was shop steward for 3.5 years, costing Grundys a "great deal of money" by threatening strike action, and actually going out on strike twice.
She revealed she'd had a romance with Wayne Jarrett (Steve Faulkner).
At the event, lots of 'fans' were walking around wearing tee-shirts with 'Prisoner the Musical' logos emblazoned all over them.. quite funny really, cos she slagged that off too. Tee hee. Did she go and see it? No! No interest! Nothing at all to do with Prisoner. Blah blah blah. By the Saturday the story was a little different, and she said she hadn't seen it cos she had been too busy.
She
mentioned that she was the highest-paid television actress in Australia
at the time. She said she figured out how many screen hours she was
on compared to the other actresses, and it was about 3 times more, so she
managed to get her salary upped in line with that.
She said Grundys had asked her three times to return to Prisoner after she left.. and how she didn't want to, so at one time she priced herself at a phenomenal amount, plus some other condition, and they "agreed" to the phenomenal amount, but not the condition. Grundys had told her they could replace her character 'just like that' but after she left, they found they "couldn't".
She has an antique market, so if her agent comes up with a part for her, and it's a two-line bit part, she can tell them where to stick it.
She also told an anecdote about two extras dressed as ambulance men who dropped the stretcher with her on it, and how they got sacked for it.. 'you don't drop the *star* of the show, dahling!' the producers were supposed to have said in the amusing punchline of the story.
Did she get on with Maggie Kirkpatrick (Joan Ferguson)? Yes, at the time very well. But, she said, after leaving Prisoner, while she got on with Maggie, Maggie didn't seem to want to get on with her. She said this could be because, when Bea left, Maggie thought she would become the star of the show.. but Val claimed that for "many" reasons this didn't happen and suggested that Maggie may have blamed this on her.
Even more shocking than the Friday outburst of venom, was the subdued, almost polite, Saturday offering! She didn't elaborate on her dislike for Elspeth Ballantyne, and had much less to say about the other actresses generally, other than limp mutterings like "she's sweet" or "good actress". It was a bit of a disappointment on that night, really, and was almost like a chat show compared to the previous night.
The only additional interesting titbit from the Saturday was when she said she *refused* to get involved in one storyline, as she felt it was so ridiculously unlikely - and that was the Alan/Ellen story. Originally they were to be in for drugs charges, which would have automatically meant a cavity search on arrival!!! So this was changed to shoplifting. But she would still not be involved in it, so they wrote in an escape for her, so that she could be out of the way for that time.
The rest of the gossip and anecdotes from the Saturday night were generally of a much tamer nature than the previous evening's party:
The first scene Val did when she started on Prisoner was the scene where Bea shot her husband. During rehearsals, the crew told her not to press the trigger on the gun until they actually shot the scene for real. When the time came, Val removed the gun from the box, pointed it at her 'husband', pulled the trigger - and out popped a flag with the word 'BANG!' on it.
The cast *are* being paid royalties for the episodes being broadcast on Channel Five as this is its third showing in (some regions of) the UK. From what Val said, it would appear that Channel Five/Pearson didn't realize the situation initially (and were probably quite put out when the cast wanted paying!) but the actresses are all being paid royalties now.
On the subject of the same actors appearing in Prisoner as more than one character, Val said that there was such a high turnover of casting agents at the TV station that they simply couldn't keep track of who had appeared in Prisoner before.
Val recalled shooting one scene where Bea is in hospital, is just about to be taken back to Wentworth and makes a last ditch attempt to escape. On the way out of the hospital they pass the ladies and Bea says 'I hear the call of nature' and goes into the loos hoping to find an escape route. Val said they actually filmed that scene, not in a hospital, but in some offices and the 'ladies' toilets' were actually just an office with a 'ladies' sign on the door. They were filming the scene, Val said her line 'I hear the call of nature', opened the door and a phone rang!
Val said there were a lot of 'bloopers'
during the series and they used to compile a tape of them for the Christmas
party. Val said that none of her 'bloopers' could be broadcast on
TV because she would always swear when she made a mistake. She did
this on purpose because otherwise the programme-makers would (as you've
probably
noticed...) just include minor
fluffs/errors in the broadcast programme rather than go to the expense
of re-shooting scenes until they were perfect. As Val didn't want
to look unprofessional on television she would go 'oh ****' whenever she
made a mistake so then they _had_ to re-shoot the scene. After she
started doing this other actresses started doing the same.
The Queen & I: photo of Val and myself at the Pavilion Theatre. One thing that puzzles me about this picture: if you look closely over Val's left shoulder you'll see several lipstick marks on the dressing room wall - as though someone has been kissing it. If anyone has any suggestions as to why this might be and what exactly Ms Lehman has been getting up to in the privacy of her dressing room, do let me know...