Talking Prisoner Special Interview with Betty Bobbitt and Anne Phelan

Talking Prisoner

Interview with Betty Bobbitt and Anne Phelan
Welcome to this special episode of Talking Prisoner. This interview has never been made public, This episode is devoted to the memory of Betty Bobbitt and Anne Phelan. Betty played Judy Bryant between 1980 to 1985 in 429 episodes and Anne played Top Dog Myra Desmond. It was shot as a promo for the charity event on January 21, 2000, at The Forum theatre in Melbourne. Anne was on the organizing committee of the 21st Anniversary reunion party for Prisoner and fans had flown in from around the world and raised money for Aids charities. It was recorded in Betty's living room by the Director (and boom operator) Chris Adshead, you can even hear the trams going past in the background. The cameraman is Noel Penn and the interviewer is journalist Kim Wilson. Barrie Pullen who was the cameraman on Prisoner managed to get the Beta tapes from Chris and convert them to what you will see in this 37-minute interview. Betty and Anne discuss how they got their roles on Prisoner and why they think the show is so popular. Anne shares a very funny story about Elspeth Ballantyne and floor manager Ray Lindsay. Anne talks about her favourite scenes she filmed on Prisoner and what it was like to shoot her final scenes with Betty and how she felt when Betty left the show. Betty shares a very funny story about her son and both Betty and Anne talk about how fond they were of the cast and crew of Prisoner and the special comradery they all shared between them. Anne talks about why she left Prisoner and the special friendships they both had with the non-speaking extras on Prisoner. Anne talks about the preparations for putting together the 2000 Prisoner event and the cast Anne and Betty were looking forward to seeing again and the fans that flew in from around the world for this spectacular event. Lots of behind-the-scenes footage of this interview at the end. A big Thank you to Ken Mulholland and Barrie Pullen for allowing Talking Prisoner to present this amazing interview to all the fans and a big thank you to Chris Adshead, Noel Penn, and Kim Wilson as without you we would never have seen this interview.
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