TELEVISION
COMING UP
FRANKY DOYLE (NICOLE DA SILVA
This season sees Franky on the run, frantically trying
to avoid recapture long enough to work towards
clearing her name. She’s hellbent on proving she
was not responsible for Mike Pennisi’s (Felix
Williamson) murder. Can she persuade Kaz (Tammy
MacIntosh) to help her do it?VERA BENNETT (KATE ATKINSON
Vera is now back as Governor. But with the jail on
the edge of a riot, and investigators poking around
trying to find the whereabouts of Ferguson and
Doyle, will she even have an opportunity to do her
job? This is a huge season for the character. “Vera is
a great example of people who absolutely get
crushed by their circumstances, but manage to rise
above them,” says Atkinson. “But she may well get
crushed again—that is the tragedy of Vera.”LIZ BIRDSWORTH (CELIA IRELAND
Poor old Liz. Last season saw her go to desperate
measures to avoid going down for Sonia’s (Sigrid
Thornton) evil game-playing. She poisoned the
inmate with liquid nicotine, but is Sonia really dead?
Or will she be back to wreak even greater revenge?
One thing’s for certain: Boomer (Katrina Milosevic)
isn’t happy. How will she feel when she finds out
Liz was responsible for her mentor’s fate?ALLIE NOVAK (KATE JENKINSON
Allie made the ultimate sacrifice last season,
swapping her place in the escape plan so Ferguson
could get out. But will her gamble pay off? Have Will
and Jake really gone ahead with their end of the
bargain to finish The Freak’s reign of terror? And can
she finally move on from Bea’s (Danielle Cormack)
death? “So much of Season 5 for Ali was trying to
bring The Freak down, and getting revenge,” says
Jenkinson. “This is certainly a new chapter for Ali.”WILL JACKSON (ROBBIE MAGASIVA
Will was last seen heaping earth onto the plywood
box containing Joan Ferguson. But the big question
is whether he succeeded in actually finishing her
off. And if so, how can he avoid detection by
investigators looking into her disappearance? Will’s
got one hell of an emotional journey ahead of
him. “What happens to Will this season is the
consequence of what he did at the end of last
season,” says Magasiva. “How will he cope with the
pressure; that weight of doing what he did?”JAKE STEWART (BERNARD CURRY
He’s long been Joan Ferguson’s puppet. Now she’s
no longer around, will Jake see the errors of his ways
and turn straight? Or continue on his path of
self-destruction and the downfall of his one-time
girlfriend, Vera? This season will see Jake
desperately trying to stay one step ahead of
police investigators, and try to reconcile his
part in the events of last season. Can he keep
his job? It’s not looking good.Wentworth to last as long as it has, but she’s
thrilled that, six seasons later (the show was
recently renewed for a seventh season), it has
retained its quality.
“This far down the track, you go, ‘This is such
a gift,’” she explains. “For me, it’s just a terrific
bunch of people to work with and we have a
crew that comes back consistently, so it’s a great
working environment.”
Even though, Atkinson concedes, the subject
matter is sometimes incredibly exhausting.
“We pride ourselves on doing a lot of physically
and emotionally challenging stuff,” Atkinson
explains. “But because it’s such a big ensemble
cast, the workload does get fairly evenly
distributed. The stakes are always so high,
so you have to commit fully—it’s very
psychological, so you’ve got to mine that
emotional stuff.”
“But when it comes to the day, it is smoke and
mirrors—we are pretending,” she adds. “That
said, maybe time will tell. Two years from now
I might be having some kind of breakdown!”SHOWCASE (8)■^ By Clare Rigden
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