''Prisoners' Wives'' is a

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

drama series, created and written by Julie Gearey and starring Polly Walker,

Pippa Haywood Philippa Jane Haywood (born 6 May 1961) is an English actress. She won the 2005 Rose d'Or Award for Best Female Comedy Performance for '' Green Wing'' (2004–2006). Her other television credits include '' The Brittas Empire'' (1991–1997), ...

Emma Rigby Emma Rigby (born 26 September 1989) is an English actress and model. After rising to prominence for her role as Hannah Ashworth in ''Hollyoaks'' (2005–2010, 2024), she later played Gemma Roscoe in the BBC One drama series '' Prisoners' Wives ...

, Natalie Gavin,

Sally Carman Sally Carman-Duttine is an English actress born in Mexborough, Doncaster, South Yorkshire. She is known for portraying the roles of Kelly Maguire in the Channel 4 comedy-drama series '' Shameless'' (2005–2013), and Abi Franklin in the ITV ...

and Karla Crome, with supporting cast including

Iain Glen Iain Alan Sutherland Glen (born 24 June 1961) is a Scottish actor. He has appeared as Dr. Alexander Isaacs/Tyrant in three films of the Resident Evil (film series), ''Resident Evil'' film series (2004–2016) and as Ser Jorah Mormont, Jorah Morm ...

Adam Gillen Adam Gillen (born 11 September 1985) is a British actor, best known for his role as Liam Conroy in the ITV hit series ''Benidorm'', Brian in the Channel 4 comedy '' Fresh Meat'' and Gavin in BBC's '' Prisoners’ Wives''. In 2019, Gillen was n ...

Jonas Armstrong Jonas Armstrong (born 1 January 1981) is an Irish-English actor who rose to prominence playing the title character on the BBC's ''Robin Hood'' (2006–2009). He has since appeared in miniseries such as '' Dark Angel'' (2016), '' Troy: Fall of a ...

, Reuben Johnson, Enzo Cilenti and Owen Roe. The series centres on four very different women, each struggling to cope with a significant man in her life serving time in prison. The series is set in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

. Series one was six episodes long, and premiered on Tuesday 31 January 2012. Series two was a shorter run of four episodes, and began on Thursday 14 March 2013 on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

Main cast

Series 1

as Gemma Roscoe * Polly Walker as Francesca Miller *

as Harriet Allison * Natalie Gavin as Lou Bell

Series 2

*Polly Walker as Francesca Miller *Pippa Haywood as Harriet Allison *

as Kim Haines * Karla Crome as Aisling O'Connor

Supporting cast

Series 1

as Steve Roscoe *

as Paul Miller *

as Gavin Allison * Reuben Johnson as Sean Lowe * Andrew Tiernan as DS David Hunter * David Bradley as Frank * Harry McEntire as Matt Miller * Phoebe Dynevor as Lauren Miller *

Adrian Rawlins Adrian John Rawlins (born 27 March 1958) is an English actor best known for playing Arthur Kidd in '' The Woman in Black'' (1989) and James Potter in the ''Harry Potter'' films. In 2019, he starred in '' Chernobyl'' as Nikolai Fomin. Early ...

as Ian, the Prison Chaplain

Series 2

as Paul Miller *

as Gavin Allison * Enzo Cilenti as Mick Haines * Owen Roe as Brendan O'Connor * Nicola Walker as DCI Jo Fontaine * David Bradley as Frank * Harry McEntire as Matt Miller * Phoebe Dynevor as Lauren Miller *

Anne Reid Anne Reid (born 28 May 1935) is an English stage, film and television actress, known for her roles as Valerie Barlow in the soap opera ''Coronation Street'' (1961–1971); Jean in the sitcom '' dinnerladies'' (1998–2000); and her role as C ...

as Margaret *

as Ian, the Prison Chaplain

Episodes

Series 1

Series 2

Production

''Prisoners’ Wives'' is executive produced for Tiger Aspect by Roanna Benn, Rebecca de Souza and Greg Brenman (Tiger's Head of Drama) and for the BBC by Christopher Aird. Damon Thomas and Harry Bradbeer direct with Anna Ferguson as producer and Abi Bach as co-producer. The series was commissioned for BBC One by Ben Stephenson and Danny Cohen for airing in early 2012.

Ratings

The first series attracted an average consolidated audience of 5.26 million. The average consolidated audience for the second series was 4.86 million.

References

External links

* *{{IMDb title, id=2188249, title=Prisoners' Wives 2012 British television series debuts 2013 British television series endings 2010s British drama television series BBC television dramas 2010s British prison television series British English-language television shows Television series by Banijay Television shows set in Sheffield Television series by Tiger Aspect Productions