Within These Walls

Within These Walls is a British television drama programme made by London Weekend Television for ITV and shown between 1974 and 1978. It portrayed life in HMP Stone Park, a fictional women’s prison. Unlike the later women-in-prison TV series Prisoner and Bad Girls, Within These Walls tended to centre its storylines around the prison staff rather than the inmates.

The lead character was the well-groomed, genteel governor Faye Boswell, and episodes revolved around her attempts to liberalise the prison regime while managing her personal life at home. Another prominent character was her Chief Officer, Mrs. Armitage. Googie Withers left after three series; in Series Four her character was replaced as governor by Helen Forrester, who in turn left to be replaced in the final Series Five by Susan Marshall.

The creator and writer of the programme, David Butler, played the prison chaplain, the Rev Henry Prentice, in some episodes.

As of November 2011 Network DVD have released all five series in the UK, with the exception of “Nowhere for the Kids”, an episode from Series Two which appears to have been wiped from the archives.