Back inside for another stretch
She may have spent four years locked up with them in the 80s but Perth-born actress Val Lehman was "thrilled" to be back behind bars with her Prisoner co-stars on Wednesday night.
Lehman, who played "top dog" Bea Smith on four seasons of the long-running Aussie soap opera set in the fictional Wentworth Detention Centre, was joined by many familiar faces on Wednesday night at The Old Melbourne Gaol to celebrate the return of the cult show to Australian screens. It will be re-run weeknights from next Monday on Foxtel's 111Hits.
Guests at the event included The Circle co-host Chrissie Swan and funnyman Adam Richard, *who joined the actresses in the famous clink - where Ned Kelly was hanged - for canapes and dinner. They were also treated to a live performance of the show's original theme song, On the Inside, by former Killing Heidi rocker Ella Hooper and a special Q and A with the former co-stars.
Filming for the show in Melbourne wrapped in 1986 and Lehman says they all jumped at the opportunity for a reunion.
"It's great fun," she told Access All Areas, surveying the crowd proudly. "Earlier this afternoon we were all chatting and falling about laughing and I suddenly remembered how funny we all are - there's a couple of comediennes in this cast."
Born in Claremont, Lehman attended St Hilda's Anglican School for Girls in Mosman Park and went on to become an iconic star of the 80s.
"It (Prisoner) was the biggest exposure I ever had as an actress and it cemented my career," she said. "So it's very important to me and I'm also very proud of it because I think it was very worthwhile."
But, despite a long career in the entertainment industry, which has seen Lehman appear on The Flying Doctors, Blue Heelers and All Saints in Australia and a host of British stage productions, she still calls Perth home.
"I've lived in England twice, I've lived in Melbourne and Queensland and other places but when anyone asks me where I come from I say I'm Western Australian - a Sandgroper forever."
And next week, she will return home to celebrate her mother and her uncle's 90th birthdays.
