Quickflix Escapes

Franky Doyle – over the Wentworth Detention Centre fence

Check out episode 20 on Prisoner (1979) - Volume 5: The Great Escapes (1979)

Doreen: She scares me at times does the old Franky.

Although AC/DC released the song “Jailbreak” three years earlier, it’s like they channeled the whole Franky Doyle story. By leaving the series after only twenty episodes, actress Carol Burns enshrines her character Doyle as Prisoner’s James Dean. Just like Dean, Franky loves her leather jacket, greased back hair and melodramatic fits. Franky loves destroying Wentworth Detention Centre’s Rec Room – initially when Doreen is moved out of their shared cell, and again when she’s belatedly informed of her brother Gary’s death in a farming accident. His death is the catalyst for Franky to devise an escape attempt with Doreen, Doreen’s teddy and Lizzie – although Lizzie doesn’t make it out due to her heart condition. The plan is to cut through the fence at a point just over from the prisoner’s veggie garden – the same patch of earth lovingly tended years later by Harold Bishop when Grundy’s and Network Ten decided to use the same location for Neighbours.

Jack Bauer – goes for the jugular... literally

Check out the episode “Day 6: 6:00 AM - 7:00 AM” on 24 - Season 6 - Disc 1 (2007)

America is reeling from bomb attacks in ten cities. In exchange for information on the whereabouts of the alleged mastermind of the latest attacks, CTU has been conned into releasing Jack Bauer from a Chinese prison. CTU hand him over to terrorist leader Abu Fayed. All fine for world peace apparently, except the real mastermind is actually Fayed himself! Fayed seeks revenge for the death of his brother, a victim of one of Bauer’s notorious interrogations. Fayed has Bauer chained to a chair and is plunging a knife into Bauer’s shoulders and back. When Fayed is called away, Bauer rips out the heart monitor. The guard, presuming Bauer dead, investigates. Bauer strikes, lunging for the guard’s throat, biting his neck, and spitting out flesh and presumably some of the vein! Kiefer Sutherland, who plays Jack Bauer, has form in this kind of thing. In the eighties teen-vamp flick, The Lost Boys, he is part of the vampire motorcycle gang terrorising the fictional town of Santa Carla, California. As he makes his latest escape in 24, you half expect him to sprout wings like a bat and fly away. Britcom aficionados should keep their eyes peeled for a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance from Stephen Merchant (Ricky Gervais’ collaborator on The Office and Extras) as a computer analyst.

The long distance duck – shot by Captain Bertorelli

Check out the episode “Watch the Birdie” on 'Allo 'Allo - Series 5 - Disc 2 (1988)

Michelle Dubois: Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once.

Between The Benny Hill Show and Little Britain, and in the face of attacks from Ben Elton (future dodgy West End musical impresario and song-writer for George W Bush), 'Allo 'Allo flew the flag for traditional English double entendre comedy. In this episode, Michelle, leader of the local French Resistance, reveals that German generals will be meeting at a Nouvion chateau to discuss plans for the invasion of England. The RAF has sent a long distance duck to fly photos of the plans back to England. Unfortunately the duck escapes before the plans are secured. Monsieurs LeClerc and Alfonse dress up as duck hunters to try to entice it back, but disaster strikes with the arrival of Captain Bertorelli in the guise of Elmer Fudd.

Reginald Iolanthe Perrin – escape from life

Check out the episode “The Speech to the British Fruit Association” on The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin - Series 1 (1976)

“Reginald Perrin, 46, behaving strangely, making plans for future. Crisis point approaching!"

In the 1960s Leonard Rossiter played the title character’s nemesis in the cinematic classic Billy Liar. As Emanuel Shadrack (Billy Fisher’s boss at Shadrack & Duxbury's funeral home), he constantly thwarts Billy’s attempts at daydreaming and escape from the drab life in a northern town. Fast forward to the seventies and it is Rossiter playing a character stuck in London suburbia on the verge of a mid-life crisis. Every day Reggie Perrin says the same goodbyes to his wife, and watches the same people do the same crosswords in the same train carriage. When he arrives at work, his only inspiration is discovering which of the letters spelling the company’s name outside the front of the Sunshine Desserts building has fallen down overnight. A megalomaniac boss and sycophantic underlings have got to him; it’s time for what has now entered the British vernacular as ‘doing a Reggie Perrin’ – where you are presumed dead after leaving your clothes on a beach, but are in fact starting a whole new life under a new identity.

Natasha – Russian gymnast on the run in Hazzard County

Check out the episode “Comrade Duke” on The Dukes of Hazzard - Season 5 - Disc 4 (1983)

It’s the 1980s and Ronnie Reagan’s anti-commie heroes include Rambo and the Red Dawn kids. Now it’s the Duke boys’ turn to take on the Kremlin - except it’s not the ‘real’ Duke boys Bo and Luke! Original stars John Schneider (Bo) and Tom Wopat (Luke) are in dispute with the producers of the show over wages and distribution of the shows’ merchandise royalties – so the producers explain away their absence by sending them off on the Nascar circuit! Enter Uncle Jesse’s other nephews Coy and Vance. The dispute is settled by the end of this season, and Coy and Vance are banished to the bedside of a sick relative – but not before they’ve helped shield Natasha the defecting gymnast from the clutches of Boss Hogg (who overnight seems to have turned into Boris Badenov from Rocky and Bullwinkle) and Atlanta’s Soviet consulate.

Maggie Simpson – modern day Captain Virgil Hilts

Check out the episode “A Streetcar Named Marge” on The Simpsons - Season 4 - Disc 1 (1992)

Ms. Sinclair: Mrs. Simpson... do you know what a child is saying when it's reaching for the bottle?

Marge: ...Baba?

When Marge scores the part of Blanche in Llewellyn Sinclair’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire, it’s off to the Ayn Rand School for Tots for daughter Maggie. The daycare centre is run by the strict sister of theatre director Llewellyn; Ms. Sinclair is no believer in the dummy as a pacifier for young kids and confiscates them. It’s up to Maggie to retrieve the stash of dummies in a series of manoeuvres inspired by the film The Great Escape. When Maggie’s first attempt fails, Ms Sinclair puts her in “The Box”, similar to in the film where Steve McQueen’s character keeps getting locked in the “cooler”. Listen for Elmer Bernstein’s iconic theme borrowed from the movie, and watch for Maggie bouncing a ball against the wall while incarcerated - just like McQueen does in the film.

Kate Austen – escape via a plane crash

Check out the episode “Pilot” on Lost - Season 1 - Disc 1 (2004)

Edward Mars/The Marshall: Listen to me. No matter what she does, no matter how she makes you feel, just don't... trust a word that she says. She will do anything to get away.

Two crashes help Kate escape justice for the crime of bombing her mother’s home. The blast killed her step-dad, while the insurance money was meant to set her mum up for life. The first crash came after her mother gave her up to the law, and The Marshall apprehended Kate boarding a bus in Tallahassee. Driving her to court, The Marshall hit a power pole swerving to hit a black horse. Kate managed to get the keys to her cuffs and escaped. The Marshall tracked her down to a farm in Australia. He is transporting her back to America on Oceanic Airlines flight 815 Sydney to Los Angeles when it crashes on a deserted island. Again The Marshall is knocked unconscious, this time when the turbulence brings a suitcase crashing down on him. Will he survive long enough to give away Kate’s criminal past to the rest of the survivors?

Norman Stanley Fletcher – nips out of HMP Slade for a beer

Check out the episode “A Day Out” on Porridge - Series 1 (1974)

Fletcher (Ronnie Barker), Godber (Richard Beckinsale) and other select inmates are afforded the privilege of working outside the prison grounds digging drains for the local council. When it starts raining the chain gang take advantage of Mr. Barrowclough’s good nature by taking shelter in the local church. Horrible Ives is injured, so Fletcher heads off to town to get a doctor. Fletch really has no intention of getting help for Ives. He’s more concerned with getting to the pub and necking a few pints. With the stricter warden Mr. Mackay also hitting the pub, does this mean Fletch will be up for a longer stretch?

Private Cooper – AWOL

Check out the episode “Rockslide” on Skippy - Season 2 - Disc 2 (1967)

Waratah National Park is a beacon for all manner of fugitives. Over the course of this series those passing by ranger headquarters on the run include a prison escapee, a thoroughbred mare and a rampaging bull. In this episode, an army deserter fleeing from National Service faces the moral dilemma of choosing his freedom or helping an unconscious Sonny - the casualty of a landslide. Sandy Harbutt, who plays the deserter, went on to direct the seminal Australian bikie film, Stone, a few years later. You might also recognise Alister (Smart) from Play School as the military policeman in pursuit.

Marie Winter – helicopter out of Wentworth Detention Centre

Check out episode 471 on Prisoner (1979) - Volume 5: The Great Escapes (1979)

Officer Joan ‘The Freak’ Ferguson: No more threats. You get out of here and you stay away from me and from Shane. Do you understand?
Marie Winter: Look, don’t worry, Fergo. Once I get out of this dump you won’t see my arse for dust.

One of Wentworth’s all-time great villains, Marie Winter made an enemy of Bea Smith for life earlier in the series. Bea had been transferred to ‘sister’ facility Barnhurst, and Marie had laced Bea’s soup with magic mushies. Marie’s now on to her second stint at Wentworth, but wants out. She blackmails The Freak into helping her escape, making veiled threats against Shane, the child The Freak was at one time trying to foster. The Freak sorts a chopper to drop into Wentworth, and Marie (or a cloth dummy) is away, clinging to the base of the helicopter for grim life! Look out for Officer Joyce Barry excitedly waving to what she thinks is a news helicopter, and try to work out if it is in fact the Network Ten News’ chopper and Grundy’s have just whited out the network’s logo from the side.