Elspeth Ballantyne played the character Meg Morris, in the Grundy's production "Prisoner". This is an interview with Bert Newton, from Good Morning Australia, recorded in 2000 - not long after the 21st Anniversary of Prisoner.
Love this women and her character in Prisoner. Really wish there was a recent interview with her. She doesn’t seem to go to any of the reunions. Shame, hope she is keeping well.
I thought it was Vera that had the fork to her throat and they thought Jim Fletcher would pass out because he suffered with haemophilia! Series one unless they repeated the same story again
I don’t recall her being on the roof with a fork against her neck, but I certainly remember Vera Bennet being up on the roof with mad Martha having a fork against her neck in one of the earliest episodes and Jim Fletcher coming to the rescue.
Ms Elspeth Ballantyne has the most beautiful name ,hasn't she ? I would not be surprised in the slightest if this lovely lady has deep Scottish blood coursing through her Australian veins ...a strong heritage in fact ? What a refreshingly decent and courteous soul she is . All the best from Scotland
Remembering seeing Prisoner cell block H and you instantly became addicted, Name a prisoner officer who believes in rehabilitation who the prisoners love respect like a saint and goes through events of prison life and takes each day name the prisoner officer Meg Morris and you have the wonderful very talented actress miss Elspeth Ballantyne who is very open and down to earth a wonderful interview. 😃
I've always liked Meg Jackson and Elspeth Ballentyne, Shame it ended but i bet tge cast didnt realise then how successful PCBH was going to be worldwide, i in uk🇬🇧 and MY5 are reshowing it and thats tv2 are showing it. HMV WON'T STOCK IN THE DVD'S AS TO EXPENSIVE. I would love if channel 10 or another aussie company started pcbh where it is now
@@utrapzab Not to people outside the UK, or perhaps even restricted to them also. Since Fremantle Media have the rights to it now and they put a block on all but a few episodes of Prisoner that were on RU-vid, to everyone besides people in the UK. Which sucks for Aussies mostly, considering the show was actually made in Australia. For those in Australia, all episodes are available to watch for free on the 10 Play website. But it included far too many repeated commercials all too often and gets really annoying trying to watch it with so many ads that repeat a lot. There are also dvds available in Australia, but they're certainly not cheap. I'd advise people to avoid buying any so-called "new" dvds of Prisoner box sets on eBay. Far too many people burning dvds nowadays and trying to palm them off on eBay and Amazon, claiming that they're brand new. Plus, there are some (whether they are legit copies or not) that are trying to sell the entire dvd collection of Prisoner for up to 2 grand and other similar ridiculous prices. Best to get them either from JB Hi-Fi, Sanity and other reputable businesses (I think they have like 2 years worth of episodes to each part of the set - or 2 seasons, as labeled on the dvd cover. Eg. Season 1 & 2, Season 3 & 4, etc. Or Collection 1, Collection 2 and so on). Or buy second hand ones people sell on eBay, the ones that were released about 10-15 years ago. Check online to see what the covers of those dvds look like and look out for them instead (I think they have just one year - or 1 season - per individual part of the box set). To buy brand new, you really shouldn't pay more than say around $700-$800 (depending if you can get them on sale or not) And second hand shouldn't be more than a few hundred dollars. Both Aussie dollars, that is. If the price is more than that, the person who is trying to sell them at those prices are just ripping people off.
I loved that show Prisoner Cell block H. I think in Australia it was Prisoner. In America where I am, it was called CELL BLOCK H. Wonderful show. The only thing I did not like was the cruel guard, Ferguson in the late middle. They kept her until the end, and it became about her too much. But wonderful ending. MEG as she was known as, was great.; really GREAT.. When me and my sister first watched this show, we thought it was British. We found out later it was Australian. I saw the police with guns, and at that time there were no guns for the cops in Britain either. So I did research and found out. The internet back then really was very very new and not a lot of information . But Meg was part of a GREAT SHOW
But Elspeth, the characters were all so well developed and cast, that the audience forgave the fork on the roof et al. The fact that you filmed on the roof of Channel 10 studios is incidental, really. For the audience, it’s the roof of the prison - which, ultimately, it ‘really’ was.
Thanks for sharing this. Got to admit, I'm a bit confused by Elspeth's anecdote about Meg being held on the roof by a prisoner with a kitchen fork (and the interviewer's claim to remember watching the scene)! If memory serves me correctly, that was Vera Bennett, not Meg. Vera was shepherded up onto the roof by inmate Martha, who kept pressing a kitchen fork into the side of her neck; Meg was involved in helping Jim to rescue Vera from being thrown off the roof, but that was it. Of course, in a later episode Meg would also get something of the same treatment (!) but that was in the governor's office during a protest - and involved a garden (not a kitchen) fork! 🤣
Compulsive and slightly addictive viewing and a popular tea break topic of conversation and speculation - it was late night viewing on UK's new Channel 4. Google said it was 1989 the series began here but I remember it being earlier (I could be wrong). Elspeth or Meg Morris was my favourite character and couldn't take my eyes away whenever she appeared...
It was ITV showed Prisoner not channel 4 (though they did show one episode as part of a one off soap weekend they did in the 90's). The date it started depended which ITV region you lived in as they all showed it at different paces.
@@col227t8 OK thanks; I stand corrected. I assumed it was ch4 because for a year or two I watched that new channel at the weekends until it closed down around midnight and used a black and white tv that later died from lightning strike. Another favourite around that time was an American programme called 60 Minutes. I rarely watched ITV and these days I actively avoid it.
@Vernon Taylor You are still likely right it may have been before 1989 you first saw it as each ITV region started and showed it at their own pace. I remember going to Blackpool in 1994 and watching an episode there. They were miles ahead of what my home region were showing. It was like a different show lol
I remember watching in the late 80s here in the UK. It was on around 11pm if I remember. I used to fall asleep in bed watching it and woke up for the closing credits!
How come Meg/Ellie never attend Prisoner events considering she was in the show from start to finish. Even Fletch The Letch shown up at a recent Prisoner reunion.
Maybe she sees it as just one acting job within a whole career? Maybe the others have dined out on just that one job for years. They've certainly all got their money's worth from that one job!
Some have said it was supposedly due to the backstage feud that had gone on between Elspeth and Val back in the day, and that they apparently still hold a grudge against each other. But I don't believe that to be entirely true, since there has been at least a couple of occasions in the last 10 years or so where they both attended the same Prisoner event or interview. One time they even arrived in the same stretch Hummer together. And I think Val got out immediately after Elspeth. So they can't dislike each other that badly, imo.
@@thedarkdefender7780 And? Doesn't mean that she doesn't, nor never has, as you implied. She has been to some. Perhaps she feels she doesn't need to attend every reunion. Just as most of the cast mates don't attend every reunion, too. Most reunions you're lucky to get 3, maybe even 4 that attend most of them. Otherwise, you get different ones almost every time.
@@mebeme007 I never implied that she 'never has'. I am saying she hasn't attended a reunion in many years. She was absent from the 40th anniversary one in 2019, because Val didn't invite her, that is why Maggie Kirkpatrick was also absent, as she was annoyed that her friend wasn't invited.
It was her character that was pregnant. However, even in reality, such things were treated as blase in the past. It wasn't something that one would dwell too much on, or it wasn't something that women were allowed to dwell too much on. They were just expected to pick up the pieces and move on. And it certainly wasn't always a discussion that was had often in social circles, either.
