THE FRANKIE DOYLE STORY
The Frankie Doyle Story is a telemovie made by compiling episodes of the successful series Prisoner. These are early episodes in the life of the series. Prisoner was intended to be an authentic look inside a women's prison - it began very successfully and continued to good reviews, although, as with so many series, audiences got used to the themes and characters and the writers and series-makers tended to gear the material to the audience response.
Frankie Doyle was played by stage actress Carol Burns. She had a strength and toughness in her character which made an initial impact. Carol Burns did not stay long with the series. The episodes concerning Frankie Doyle are fairly self-contained and mesh together reasonably well - in terms of a telemovie. The editing was done by the Grundy Organisation for screening on American television -allegedly without the knowledge of the cast. There was some public negative reaction from Carole Burns and others. However, the telemovie is as good as any other about women's prisons and escapes. It is a tribute to the skill of the editor, insofar as disparate episodes are blended together to form a fairly satisfying popular story.
Frankie Doyle is a lesbian tough prisoner who tries to survive in prison, has a one-sided love affair with another prisoner. She escapes and tries to survive in the outside world - but is hampered in many ways by Doreen who tags along with her. The ending is tragic.
The cast of Prisoner was very strong in Australian actresses and many of them are seen to advantage here portraying strong character roles. Some of the material is fairly stereotyped but strikingly presented - the warden, the various guards, the variety of prisoners young and old with their attitudes towards the law, escape, survival. Themes of cruelty, friendships, hatred, oppression by authority are also to the fore. The film uses Melbourne locations to some advantage -and even the Channel 10 studios for the outside of Wentworth Detention Centre.
This telemovie is interesting as an example of the impact of popular television in the late '70s and its adaptation for local and overseas presentation as a movie.
