8.2/1020 votes#1 - Episode 166
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 2/4/1981
Judy and Mouse dig in the rubble with their bare hands, but they only turn up Irene's dead body . They shout for help and hear Bea's voice on the other side of the cave-in: Bea tells them that Doreen and Lizzie are still alive. Meanwhile, Anne is making a rockery on top of the tunnel, but Gillespie sees her and sends her back inside the marquee. Bea has to help Doreen free her leg , but she still isn't able to walk, so Bea goes back alone to try to get help. Margo and Hazel are worried that Bea and Lizzie haven't come back , especially when Vera notices that Bea isn't around, but Margo manages to cover for her. Bea reaches the entrance to the tunnel but can't get the lid up. Gillespie notices the ladder and raises the alarm: all the kids are sent home.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.6/1018 votes
#2 - Episode 167
Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 2/10/1981
Jim overhears Mouse and Margo discussing the escape and what might have happened to Doreen and Bea, and Irene's death in the cave-in. Anne is also listening as they pass her cell and she assumes that it's Bea who is dead. Mouse agrees to show the officers where the tunnel is, but Gillespie nevertheless orders that she loses remission. Lizzie uses a piece of her costume tied round a stick as a torch, but Bea grabs hold of it and rushes off down the tunnel. Chrissie asks Gillespie for permission to hold a first birthday party for Elizabeth: he refuses and says he will make sure that child welfare are informed and come to collect Elizabeth promptly when she is one year old. Mouse leads the officers to where Lizzie and Doreen are. Anne is told that Dr Weissman may want to see her again after he's interviewed her family. Bea is eventually found banging her hands on a security grille trying to get through.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.2/1016 votes
#3 - Episode 168
Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 2/11/1981
Wally tells Judy he saw her photo in the newspaper, but tells her he has no intention of telling the police where she is, inviting her to stay as long as he likes. He is surprised when she turns down the offer of "a smoke", so Judy offers to explain why she is so opposed to drugs by telling him her story. Lizzie and Doreen are allowed out of sickbay. The women are delighted by the TV news that Judy is still on the run: Gillespie is annoyed and wants to have TV and radio privileges taken away. Erica tells him she will only agree to have the newspapers censored. Bea regrets that Anne has been transferred to a psychiatric hospital before she had the chance to fix her. Gillespie tells Vera to censor the papers but cuts her down to size when she suggests his own idea about TV and radio. Judy is disappointed that the letter she left in her cell hasn't been mentioned in the newspapers and is inspired by Wally's' suggestion that she writes to the Ombudsman.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.6/1019 votes
#4 - Episode 169
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 2/17/1981
Vera gives Lizzie mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while the women wait for the ambulance to arrive. Meanwhile, Hazel removes the bucket of booze from the store room behind Vera's back. Ted Douglas tells Erica a teacher will be appointed to a new education facility in the prison. Vera feels guilty that she didn't believe Lizzie at first, but she recovers her usual character in time and remembers about the grog manufacture, which she rushes off to investigate. When she gets to the rec room, the buckets have vanished but Vera tells Bea she must have known what was going on and must see the Governor. In hospital, Lizzie describes her near-death experience to a doctor in the usual cliched terms involving bright lights at the end of a tunnel. Vera takes Bea to the Governor to explain what she knows about the home brew, and Bea is honest for once: she tells Erica the home brew has been flushed down the toilet.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.2/1016 votes
#5 - Episode 170
Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 2/18/1981
Wally tells Judy he's concerned that Micki is getting too involved in Judy's campaign to improve conditions, and Judy agrees to talk to Micki. Erica tells Meg that Lizzie won't be able to get a visa to enter the United States with a criminal record. Meg tells the women to humour Lizzie's plans to emigrate until she is fully recovered. Wally tries to warn Micki of the risks she's running, and when Judy sees she is not convinced, she tells Micki that she won't do the interview. Doreen gets two years for escaping and three months for the kidnapping. News of Lizzie being returned to Wentworth persuades Judy to do the interview after all, and Judy suggests that the tape could be posted to the TV station, but Micki wants to hand it to Graeme Hopkins in person. Erica visits Lizzie in hospital and asks the doctor the effect of telling her truth about America: he advises against it, and Erica thinks it best he just tells Lizzie she isn't strong enough to travel.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.8/1018 votes
#6 - Episode 171
Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 2/24/1981
Graeme Hopkins arrives at Wentworth threatening to expose the contents of Judy's tape if Erica won't agree to grant him an interview. Helen Smart comes home to find Judy waiting for her: after a bit of persuasion (and a wad of banknotes to cover her lost "business") she agrees to let Judy stay for a while, but she is slightly worried when Judy vows that she intends to avenge herself on Gillespie and Jock Stewart. Erica warns Graeme Hopkins that his campaign to free Lizzie could kill her, but she agrees to let him talk to her so she can hear it in Lizzie's own words. At first, Lizzie says she does want to get out of prison, but when Hopkins tells her he can't help her get a visa, she turns on him and says she doesn't want his help. Helen is sceptical about Judy's enthusiasm when she finds out her tape is to be shown on TV after all, saying the police won't act on the word of a criminal alone.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 9.1/1024 votes
#7 - Episode 172
Season 3 Episode 7 - Aired 2/25/1981
Jock tells Judy she's now going to work for him: he wants $300 every time he visits - if not, he'll bash her and turn both Judy and Helen over to the police. Doreen is noticeably more enthusiastic about the classes than the other women. After leaving the massage parlour after a hard night's work, Judy has to fend off a kerb crawler and ends up being chased by two patrolcar policemen. Helen suggests that Judy should go away somewhere quiet, but Judy says she wants to get Jock in her own way, no matter how many men she has to go with. Only Doreen turns up for David's classes. Jim tells Sid he ought to make a list of his tools so he knows if any of them go missing. Judy goes back to work at the massage parlour , and when Jock comes to collect his money he hits her across the face when she says she hasn't got it yet. He suggests that if business is slow she ought to offer something more than "a gentle rub-down".
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.2/1014 votes
#8 - Episode 173
Season 3 Episode 8 - Aired 3/3/1981
Doreen tries to take the blame as Jim returns her to her cell, but he obviously doesn't believe her. Bea and Lizzie are both in favour of letting David take the blame. Next morning, Jim reports what he saw to Erica, and says he doesn't think Doreen should be held entirely responsible. Erica orders David that he can no longer speak to Doreen if she's on her own, and suggests that he tries to interest more women in his classes. Bea tells Doreen not to waste time mooning over David, as she'll never get anywhere. Sid asks to drive Meg and Lizzie to hospital, but Meg agrees only if he will keep it quiet. Vera accuses David of seducing Doreen, and her tone carries more than a hint of the spite she feels because it wasn't her. Bea snaps and tells Doreen she's had enough of her always going on about David. David starts to approach the women individually about his classes, but Hazel tells him she isn't much interested after her bad experiences at school.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.3/1014 votes
#9 - Episode 174
Season 3 Episode 9 - Aired 3/4/1981
Bea orders the women to send Sandra to Coventry so she can't get any more information. Judy overhears Sandra ask Jim to be allowed to make a phone call and using considerable knowledge of regulations to get her own way. Doreen borrows Bea's torch so she can finish knitting the socks after light out. Doreen breaks the no talking to Sandra ban to ask her if she'll agree to go top classes with her, and she manages to give David his present. However, Erica comes in to the library to see how classes are going and David hides the socks on the bookshelves. Bea and Doreen try to cheer Judy up by saying she did the right thing for all of them while she was on the outside. David shows Vera the socks and she comments acidly that he ought to start knitting classes. When she next sees Doreen she can't resist making a snide comment which makes Doreen run back to her cell. Bea and Lizzie find her in tears and decide to attend the classes to settle the score.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.1/1014 votes
#10 - Episode 175
Season 3 Episode 10 - Aired 3/10/1981
Bea tells the women they can use Sandra to feed her information which supports their cause. Meg gives Lizzie the news that Sid has had a stroke, and promises to ask permission for her to visit him in hospital. Sandra says she's willing to pay the women for information, but only if it's what she thinks her editor will want. Three new prisoners are brought to Wentworth: when the van door is opened, one of them, Jenny Armstrong, has been given a bloody nose by one of the others, Georgie Baxter. Jenny is in prison for not paying a parking fine. Georgie is manhandled shrieking into reception and after wiping the fingerprint ink all over Jim's face , she is sent straight to solitary . When she is left alone there, she tears up the uniform she is supposed to put on. Meg introduces the third new inmate, Evelyn Randall, to the women in the rec room. Sandra complains the stuff the women are telling her is too boring to print.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.2/1015 votes
#11 - Episode 176
Season 3 Episode 11 - Aired 3/11/1981
Bea dashes off to make Evelyn reveal what was in the the mixture she gave Doreen. When Evelyn finds out that Doreen heated up the mixture, making it toxic, she says she can take no responsibility if people ignore her instructions - just as her unfortunate patient who died had done, by eating the preparation for skin cancer that was supposed to be an ointment. David offers to talk to Georgie when she is released from solitary later that day. Doreen is soon back to normal and both she and Lizzie apologise to Evelyn, much to Bea's disgust. Evelyn is worried when she finds out that Sandra is in isolation, and won't be able to write the article to help her case, but Judy suggests it would be just as good if she could cure some illness while inside prison, such as the rare tropical illness they've just heard about: Evelyn points out that none of them seem to be suffering from it.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.3/1015 votes
#12 - Episode 177
Season 3 Episode 12 - Aired 3/17/1981
A doctor arrives to carry out tests for tropical diseases: Evelyn scoffs at him from her bed in the infirmary. Dr Granger warns Erica that if Sally was the contact there could be an epidemic. No-one can explain how Lizzie became infected until Jim remembers that she'd brought Sally a meal when she was in sickbay. Georgie is forcibly removed from solitary for an examination and an injection of antibiotics. Dr Granger suspects typhoid and orders all food in the kitchen to be destroyed and that block H should be isolated from the rest of the prison. He also tells the officers they won't be allowed to go home. Judy reports back to Bea that she wasn't allowed to get out of the block to go to the library. Evelyn challenges the nurse, claiming that she could cure herself and refusing the injection. Sandra is moved out of isolation to make room for the female officers: when she finds out about the quarantine she begs Vera not to put her back with the other women. Georgie is put in Judy's cell.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.3/1014 votes
#13 - Episode 178
Season 3 Episode 13 - Aired 3/18/1981
Sandra is persuaded to come back inside. Evelyn seems worried that her medicine isn't working on Meg. Sandra is told she could be charged with attempting to escape: Erica tells her she will he sent to solitary (with an aside to Jim that the male officers will now have to bed down in the interview room) and warns her against an escalating cycle of ever more serious charges that could make her stay in Wentworth permanent. Doreen overhears that Meg is getting worse and recovers what's left of the medicine from Evelyn's cell and flushes it away in the shower block. Georgie checks up on Judy, but is told to look after Bea, who seems to be in a much worse condition. Erica suggests to Dr Granger that the epidemic may be non-bacterial as the antibiotics seem to be having little effect. Evelyn points out to Lizzie that Meg seems much better, and indeed she comes out of her coma.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.4/1015 votes
#14 - Episode 179
Season 3 Episode 14 - Aired 3/24/1981
Dr Granger says he wants to carry out further tests on the women to confirm his suspicions. Jim reports Georgie's attack on Judy, but Erica tells him to put Georgie in solitary for now and bring Evelyn to her office immediately. Erica tries to get an admission of guilt from Evelyn but she brazens it out, knowing that Erica has no proof. Sensing that she isn't going to get anywhere, Erica visits Georgie in solitary to ask her about the incident with Judy, and seems very unsympathetic to Georgie's side of the story. When Judy is questioned, she tries to put Georgie's case, but admits she told Georgie she was lesbian and thought she felt the same way. Dr Granger gets the test results: the women were poisoned by pollen from the pandanus candelabrum plant, but he tells Erica he can't see any way Evelyn could have got hold of it, as there was none in her cell or in the prison garden. Jim is relieved that the quarantine can be lifted.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.3/1014 votes
#15 - Episode 180
Season 3 Episode 15 - Aired 3/25/1981
Sandra protests to Meg when her breakfast is brought to solitary that she didn't cause the fire. In the dining room, the other women are speculating about where Evelyn is, and what is likely to happen to Sandra. Margo phones Wayne but finds that the line has been cut off: Meg offers to pass a message to him that Margo wants to be collected on her release next day. Jim deals with Sandra in Erica's absence, and agrees to allow her out of solitary for half a day if she will use her journalistic skills to try to find out who really caused the fire. Lizzie passes on to the others that Evelyn is in hospital. Vera drops a heavy hint when she brings Sandra back to the laundry and Bea has no trouble picking it up, realising that Jim has put her back among them deliberately to act as a stool pigeon. Meg visits Wayne and is appalled by the squalid living conditions.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.2/1014 votes
#16 - Episode 181
Season 3 Episode 16 - Aired 3/31/1981
Vera wants to censor a letter from Ken Pearce to Bea when she sees it contains praise for Bea for setting his daughter straight, but Meg persuades Vera to let Bea have the letter uncut. Meg also passes on to Bea the message from Margo, so Bea realises that Margo had come to get her money. After hearing about the latest scene with Georgie, Bea advises Judy to stick to her own age group in future. Judy asks Bea what she would do if her own daughter had been lesbian, and Bea answers honestly that she'd prefer any of her kids not to be gay, if only because of the unhappiness it seems to have brought Judy. Erica agrees to David's suggestion to encourage Bea to look after Georgie by putting Georgie in to share a cell. To make room, Doreen has to be moved out to share with Judy. Vera can't help herself and makes the obvious remark: that Judy might have more luck with Doreen in view of her past experience of "warped" relationships.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.4/1015 votes
#17 - Episode 182
Season 3 Episode 17 - Aired 4/1/1981
Hazel comes to Judy's cell to see if she's all right, and has to listen to a tirade against Georgie for her trouble. Bea cuts Georgie short for crowing over Judy's humiliation, but when Hazel stops by Bea's cell in an attempt to act as peacemaker, Bea is equally unrepentant and unwilling to apologise or stand down. The atmosphere in the laundry is fraught with tension and Judy asks to work in the garden to get away from the conflict. Mouse is given permission to go with her. Erica calls Doreen childish for bearing a grudge and takes away her privileges for a week. Mouse tells Judy that most of the women are on her side, but Judy doesn't want to be pushed forward to take over Bea's place as top dog. Doreen is refused permission to join Judy in the garden and has to work in the laundry: several times violence seems about to break out. Hazel warns Doreen that stirring up trouble will only backfire on her. Judy fills Doreen in about what happened while she's been away in solitary.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.2/1015 votes
#18 - Episode 183
Season 3 Episode 18 - Aired 4/7/1981
Meg is also injured and the women are locked in the dining room: Judy asks for the gate to be opened so that Bea can get medical attention. Erica wants Bea taken to hospital for X-rays. The women are locked in their cells, and Judy says she won't take any blame for the incident. Bea now has a nasty abrasion on her left temple and Sister Johnston wants her transferred to hospital, but the Department won't give permission for Bea to be moved in view of her past record of escapes. Bea comes round and refuses to go to hospital anyway, so Erica insists that she signs a statement that she has refused medical treatment. Meg finds out that the cleaner's job is still available. Jim suggests that Bea doesn't want to leave Wentworth in case anyone takes over while she's away. Wayne tells Margo the details of the payroll job. Erica addresses the women in the rec room and tells them they have all lost buyup for two weeks and a fine will be deducted from all their wages.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.4/1014 votes
#19 - Episode 184
Season 3 Episode 19 - Aired 4/8/1981
Det. Insp. Thorne arrives to control the handling of the siege, and snipers and gunmen take up position all around the building. Margo tells Wayne she's worried that Bazza will snap and open fire at the slightest provocation. Bea is returned to Wentworth, and Vera asks her if she isn't worried that someone might have taken over while she's away. Georgie is persuaded to carry on with David's classes. The two women react differently to being taken hostage: Mrs Dyson whimpers in a corner while Mrs Mitchell is excited that her shop will get free publicity by appearing on TV, and happily sets about making cups of tea for everyone. The women at Wentworth see the TV report on the siege, but Margo is not identified by name. The police phone the shop and Wayne demands a getaway car. Erica tells Meg that Margo has specifically asked for her as a go-between, and orders her not to take part - in vain. Meg goes into the shop to talk to Margo.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.3/1014 votes
#20 - Episode 185
Season 3 Episode 20 - Aired 4/14/1981
Georgie interrupts the TV news about the siege to tell the women her own news about David's decision on her parole. Bea won't accept Judy's defeatist attitude that there's nothing they can do about it. Margo is brought back to Wentworth. Vera's isn't very sympathetic to Sally's complaints about finding it hard to handle Bea. Vera confirms the story about Georgie's parole. Bea says they won't go to any more classes and leads the women in preparation for other protests. Jim is surprised by Bea's request for an extra exercise period for all the women. Meg objects to David's insistence on blocking Georgie's parole. Vera passes on a message to Meg to give to Margo, which she says she will want to pass on personally. The message turns out to be that Wayne is dead. Bea warns Margo not to do anything silly during the protest. The women stay in the grounds after their exercise period and refuse to go inside until David comes out to talk to them.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.3/1014 votes
#21 - Episode 186
Season 3 Episode 21 - Aired 4/15/1981
Erica tells Sally she's fallen for the oldest trick in the book and warns her that her work must improve. Vera sympathises with Sally, but only as a means of impressing on her once again the need to imitate her own methods. David tells Erica he will try talking to Bea directly. Lizzie asks permission to have a day on the outside to recover from her recent sickness. Erica refuses, but after Lizzie has left the office she tells David that she intends to find a prison visitor for Lizzie - someone of her own age. Meg has found Georgie a job in a supermarket, and Mike visits Georgie to tell her they could share a room when she's paroled. Bea reiterates that David must withdraw his objection to Georgie's parole if he wants the women to come back to his classes, so he is forced to agree. The parole board chairman allows David to change his recommendation, but points out that Georgie's record in prison will also have to be taken into account. Ivy Butcher arrives as Lizzie's prison visitor.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.4/1015 votes
#22 - Episode 187
Season 3 Episode 22 - Aired 4/21/1981
Vera thinks that Lizzie hasn't escaped at all and that the women are hiding her to play a joke on the officers. Jim says the same thing to Erica, and Erica throws a fit of pique and has the women confined to their cells until Lizzie turns up - or the women admit what they are doing. Lizzie selects some clothes and a hat from a charity shop then pretends to have left her bag on the bus: the woman running the shop not only says she can take the clothes and pay for them later, but also give Lizzie two dollars from her own purse. Lizzie makes the money go further by buying something in a chemist's and conning the assistant into giving her change from ten dollars instead of the two she really gives him. Doreen predicts Lizzie will be back by the next day at the latest. David goes to Bea's cell to find out what's going on, as he suspects it's another trick to have his classes cancelled. Vera finds him and tells him off for straying outside his allotted area.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.1/1014 votes
#23 - Episode 188
Season 3 Episode 23 - Aired 4/22/1981
Bob tries to apologise to Meg, but he still wants her to change her job. Lizzie is interviewed by the police about her escape and is warned she may face some serious charges. Meg tells Erica she wants to look for another job, but one where her existing qualifications will be sufficient. Erica agrees to make enquiries for her. Vera and Jim oppose the conjugal visits scheme, so Meg is given the job of organising the women to get the garden tool shed screened off and cleaned up for use as a visiting suite. Jim tells Vera it's pointless objecting to the scheme, and they can just rely on the women to ruin it without any help from them. Bea won't let anyone help clean out the shed, even though Hazel and Chrissie are keen. Chrissie's accuses Bea of being selfish and blocking the scheme just because she can't see Ken. David reports back to Erica and recommends that the visiting ban on Ken should be lifted.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.1/1015 votes
#24 - Episode 189
Season 3 Episode 24 - Aired 4/28/1981
Chrissie returns to the laundry sobbing and Bea makes veiled remarks to Vera to indicate that she holds her responsible. Doreen predicts Meg will be back soon as an officer, just like the last time she resigned. Meg finds Chrissie in her cell in tears, but can't do anything more for her than promise to speak to Erica about arranging another visit from Mick. Bea writes a letter to Ken to tell him he can visit again and seals it with sealing wax. Erica hopes the issue of the paternity of Chrissie's child won't be brought up again as she's due for parole in a few weeks. Meg convinces Erica that supervised visits from Mick can't do any harm. A reporter arrives to interview Erica about the visiting scheme: her optimistic description is heard over the reality - Vera inspecting a child's rag doll to check it for contraband. Ted Douglas phones Meg to make an appointment to discuss her application.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.3/1016 votes
#25 - Episode 190
Season 3 Episode 25 - Aired 4/29/1981
No-one will talk to Bea in the rec room, though Hazel and Chrissie pointedly talk about her as if she wasn't there, provoking Bea to speak up in her own defence, but this only leads to a shouting match. When Vera breaks it up, Chrissie demands to see the Governor immediately to ask for another unsupervised visit from Mick to make up for the one she lost. Erica refuses and points out she is being very short-sighted to create so much trouble with her parole coming up. After a promise of a visit the following week if she is still inside, Chrissie calms down, but while Vera is showing her back to her cell, she manages to turn her against Bea again by pointing out that Chrissie is very unlikely to get her parole, so why should she worry about jeopardising it? The argument between Chrissie and Bea duly resumes, this time developing into a real fight: Vera takes Chrissie off to solitary gloating that now she will certainly lose her parole.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of Prisoner: Cell Block H Season 3
Every episode of Prisoner: Cell Block H Season 3 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Prisoner: Cell Block H Season 3!
Prisoner is an Australian soap opera that is set in the Wentworth Detention Centre, a fictional women's prison.
Genres:SoapDrama
Network:Network Ten
Season 3 Ratings Summary
"Episode 166" is the best rated episode of "Prisoner: Cell Block H" season 3. It scored 8.2/10 based on 20 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 2/4/1981. This episode is rated 0.4 points higher than the second-best, "Episode 167".