# Bad Girls (1999)

> A long-running British prison drama that follows the volatile women and staff of G Wing in the fictional Larkhall prison.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/2709

## Facts

- Seasons: 8
- Episodes: 107
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, crime
- Created by: Maureen Chadwick, Ann McManus
- Network: ITV1
- Cast: Victoria Alcock, Kika Mirylees, Helen Fraser, Jack Ellis, Eva Pope, Mandana Jones, Joe Shaw, Antonia Okonma
- TMDB rating: 7.9/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0203248/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: gritty, melodramatic, comic, camp, tense

## What critics say

Bad Girls is remembered as a gritty, soap-tinged women's prison drama whose early seasons drew strong audience praise, while its later seasons were rated markedly lower by viewers.

## Synopsis

Bad Girls (1999-2006) is a British prison drama series created by Maureen Chadwick and Ann McManus for ITV1, running eight seasons and 107 hour-long episodes. Set inside the fictional women's prison of Larkhall, it follows the prisoners and staff of G Wing, with Victoria Alcock as Julie Saunders, Helen Fraser as Sylvia Hollamby, Mandana Jones as Nikki Wade and Linda Henry as Yvonne Atkins, while Jack Ellis plays Jim Fenner. Each episode braids serious confrontations over power, loyalty and survival with lighter comic subplots, so the engine is simple: inmates and officers jockeying for position on the wing from one week to the next. The format is a continuing soap-style serial rather than a case of the week, with rivalries, alliances and personal crises carried across seasons. Produced by Shed Productions, it has the melodramatic warmth of British television, a gritty yet camp register, and a tendency to swing between grim and cheerful. Fans of Prisoner: Cell Block H, Oz and Orange Is the New Black will find resonance in its portrait of a close-knit, volatile community behind bars.

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