To give people the opportunity of meeting three legends of Prisoner Cell Block H, Val Lehman, Gerard Maguire and Fiona Spence  have agreed to appear at ‘Memorabilia’  which will be held at The National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham (M42, J6) on Saturday November 21st 2009.  The three stars will be there all day, so come and chat. They will also be appearing on stage to answer any questions you might have and there will be autographs and photos for sale.

If you are interested in attending, please contact :
E-mail:   admin@val-lehman.com

Website: www.val-lehman.com -  The Official Val Lehman Website
** CELEBRATING OVER FOUR YEARS ON LINE **

Due to unforeseen circumstances, two places have unexpectedly become available for this event. If you would like the opportunity to dine with Fiona Spence on 14th November, please email admin@val-lehman.com NOW!

An update from The Official Val Lehman Website:

“*~*~*~ AN AUDIENCE WITH FIONA SPENCE *~*~*~

(‘Vera Bennett’ in ‘Prisoner: Cell Block-H’, ‘Celia Stewart’ in ‘Home & Away’)

DATE: SATURDAY 14th NOVEMBER 2009

VENUE: THE OLD JOINT STOCK THEATRE
4 TEMPLE ROW WEST
BIRMINGHAM (CITY CENTRE)
B2 5NY
(Mins from New Street Railway Station)

COST: £100.00 per person

The Official Val Lehman Website is delighted to announce the first of our 2009 events, ‘An Audience with Fiona Spence’. As with previous similar occasions this will be a bespoke event offered to a LIMITED number of chosen guests in the company of a ‘Prisoner’ stalwart seldom seen on UK shores. The chance for you to dine and ask all those questions, perhaps not possible at a larger gathering. Fiona needs absolutely no introduction, and many of you will want to ask about her time in ‘Home & Away’ as well as ‘Prisoner’. It’s 16 years since this popular Actress was last in the UK, so no die-hard ‘Prisoner’/'Vera’/'Celia’ fan will want to miss her!

Over the years we’ve frequently been asked about the possibility of bringing Fiona to the UK, so you can’t say we didn’t listen!!

PLACES ARE NOW EXTREMELY LIMITED and booking fast! DO NOT MISS THIS CHANCE!

Below Fiona has written a lovely personal message to you all:
___________________________________________________

MESSAGE TO ‘PRISONER’ and ‘VERA BENNETT’ FANS

“Hi Guys

November can’t come quickly enough!

It has been 16 years since I was in the U.K. performing “Prisoner the Play” in some of the most wonderful theatres I have ever performed in. At that time I was astounded and delighted by the reception I received. I met some great people backstage – all fans of ‘Prisoner’ and I’m now looking forward to catching up with some of you again.

I will be hosting a Luncheon for ‘Vera’ fans in November and would like to invite you to join me. We should have lots of fun and some laughs at a time when the world can do with it!

I will also be bringing photos and merchandise from both ‘Prisoner’ and ‘Home & Away’. Not being of the website brigade this will be an opportunity for me to be able to thank you all for being such amazing supporters and followers of both myself and ‘Prisoner’.

I look forward to meeting you all in person and testing your memory which is probably better than mine!

Very warm wishes

Fiona Spence”
___________________________________________________

Booking enquiries for this unique occasion to be sent to:
admin@val-lehman.com

Please entitle your message ‘An Audience with Fiona Spence‘

Many thanks”

For more information and to book for this event, visit the bulletin board of the Val Lehman website.

Note: This event is run by The Official Val Lehman Website so please direct any enquiries about this event to The Official Val Lehman Website.

PLACES NOW EXTREMELY LIMITED

There was a silent auction for a number of signed prints. The event also included a quiz, fancy dress competition and the opportunity to have a mugshot taken in an original inmates jacket.

Here is a message from event organiser Steve:

“Hi all,

I’d like to thank everybody who attended Prisoner Recaptured and made it such an enjoyable day. The team and I had a fantastic time organising it. It was a pleasure to finally meet and chat with a number of you including John, Mark, Judith and Andrew. Everybody behaved immaculately and it was a pleasure to see fans enjoy the rare memorabilia, exclusive screenings and files full of original articles.

The fancy dress contestants went to a lot of effort and brightened up the day. The winner, ‘Zara Moonbeam’ bore an uncanny resemblance to the character, right down to the Northern accent and stubble …

The winner of the Pris Quiz got an impressive 24½ out of 25 questions correct. Some were quite tough, so well done to Jay, who also won 2nd prize in the fancy dress contest!

For those of you who had your mug shots taken in the original inmate’s jacket and would like JPEG files of your photo, please PM me [send message using the forum] and I will be happy to email it.

Most importantly, the generosity of the fans who bid in the silent auction helped to swell the donation for The Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal to over £500 which is being donated on behalf of Prisoner fans.

I’d like to publically thank ‘the team’ who generously gave up their weekend to manage the event. Particular thanks go to Greig and Ian who helped with lots of the preparatory work and donated contributions to the display. Also, Robert who put in a LOT of work in a ridiculously short amount of time to edit together the three videos, especially the incredibly polished Locations: Then and Now video which was produced specifically for the event. Watching it premiere on the large screen was one of the main highlights of an astonishing day and we would be interested to hear people’s feedback to it.

Hearing fans positive reactions to the event firsthand and reading the comments on this blog and the forum makes all the hard work worthwhile. There was a lot of memorabilia which we were unable to display due to space and time constraints and we hope it can be included in a similar event at some point in the future, but not within the next few months as I need time to put my collection back into order…

Cheers
Steve West (Network 10)”

Fan comments..

Zara Moonbeam: “I went and was pleased to win the competition for dressing up. I went as Zara Moonbeam but got mistaken for Rita Connors. There was a lot to see and the comparative footage shown at the beginning was very good. The venue wasn’t bad at all either. Thanks to N10 for organising and hope there was a good amount of dosh raised for the cause.”

jaydeeh28: “There must have been about 30-40 people there, I think a very good turn-out, including somebody who’d come over especially from Northern Ireland.

There were several major features of the day. We had dvd session, where first there was a message to us from Amanda Muggleton, reminiscing about being on Prisoner and what she has done since. We then saw a video about various locations used in the series and what has become of them now. A film of Val Lehman in Q & A session with fans when she was here in 1998 was also shown. Although I did see this at the last Prisoner convention I attended in London, it was worth seeing again.

There was a photo and prop exhibition on the stage which was open throughout the day including rare photos of the cast and things like scripts and prison bars, and the original name badge worn by Joan Ferguson and Pat Slattery’s actual uniform.

We also had a silent auction of various memorabilia, including posters signed by the cast, a tee-shirt and a program from the Musical Tour. I myself was very lucky to win a poster of Karen Travers and her QC that she had a relationship with, actually signed by Peta Toppano herself! The starting prices of the other items were, understandably, way beyond my budget, but I was delighted to come away with something!

A few fans turned up in costumes, so there was a small fancy-dress competition, with ‘Zara Moonbeam’, who won, ‘Kay White’, a male fan dressed in the Navy blue officer’s uniform and another lady wearing the light brown one. She told me that her mother had been up till the small hours of the morning getting it ready! Both uniforms could easily have passed off as the real thing.

Finally, there was also a quiz about the show; I was surprised at how many of the questions I didn’t know the answer to. There were also many people there who only became fans later on and haven’t yet seen the whole series, so don’t know the ending.

Thoroughout the day, you were able to look at a selection of files each containing a vast selection newspaper-cuttings about the show. There was a separate file for each year, so literally, if you did nothing else whilst there, you could have spent the whole time reading the files and really enjoyed yourself. Steve West, whose collection it was, told me that he’d collected so much Prisoner memorabilia over the years, that it eventually filled his entire loft!

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day, well worth the journey from London and the cost. I hope that we can have an event like this at least once a year. Now that the series is out on DVD, I’m sure those fans who watched it originally will show them to their children, so that this fantastic, timeless and unique show will be passed from generation to generation and never be forgotten.“

“It was a fantastic afternoon and it seemed everyone present was having a good time. It was well organised and must have been a nightmare for Val and her helpers to co-ordinate but I think they did a great job. The day began with everyone lining up outside and then around the inside of the front gate and then being ushered into the big marquee that contained seating for the 216+ guests and all the stars. There were plasma/lcd screens up all around the marquee showing the first run of episodes. There was a main stage where Margo was MC alongside Val.

Proceedings began with all stars being introduced one by one as they entered from one side of the tent up to the head tables reserved for them; this was a fun part of the day as all of them received a huge ovation and some played along with their characters (such as Fletch) by walking in with a scowl and saying a couple of well-known lines into the mic. They all looked thoroughly bewildered by the turnout and the response of the audience. I was impressed by the youthfulness of Patsy King as she wandered in; she’s clearly getting on but had a big smile on her face and made it to the stage without any help.

The only photos I got of inside the marquee aren’t great ones and since there were hundreds of others taking photos I won’t bother putting mine up as no doubt someone will put some rippers up soon. After the intro Val announced that you could go outside and start getting autographs. I took this as an opportunity to evade security and sneak down the road towards the Wentworth building. I was sorely disappointed that the marquee was set up nowhere near the actual building; it was kind of right outside the main Grundy entrance. The main reason I wanted to go was to get up close the building and get some pics as I’ve never had the opportunity, so I was going to do it no matter what!

So myself and my partner got close enough for the following shots”

We also wish to thank Amanda Muggleton, Peta Toppano, Fiona Spence and Val Lehman for giving their kind permission to upload their images.

Click on each photo then use the previous/next/close links below the enlarged photo to navigate through them.

Stewie’s Photos

Outside the main gates	Outside the main gates	Stewie outside the event
The Wentworth building	The Wentworth building	The Wentworth building
Jane Clifton (Margo Gaffney)	Patsy King (Erica Davidson)	Fiona Spence (Vera Bennett)
Colette Mann (Doreen Burns)	Amanda Muggelton (Chrissie Latham)	Margaret Laurence (Marilyn Mason)
Carol Burns (Franky Doyle)	Judith McGrath (Colleen Powell)	Peta Toppano (Karen Travers)
Lisa Aldenhoven (Sally Lee)	Barry Quin (Greg Miller)	Anne Phelan (Myra Desmond)
Barry Quin (Greg Miller)	Anne Phelan (Myra Desmond)	Val Lehman (Bea Smith) & Peta Toppano (Karen Travers)
Kirsty Child (Willie Beecham)	Val Lehman (Bea Smith)	Jentah Sobott (Mouse)
Anne Lucas (Faye Quinn)	Anne Phelan (Myra Desmond)	Carol Burns (Franky Doyle)
Lisa Aldenhoven (Sally Lee)	Jentah Sobott (Mouse)	Jentah Sobott (Mouse)
Fans	Jane Clifton (Margo Gaffney)	Fiona Spence (Vera Bennett), Patsy King (Erica Davidson) & Peta Toppano (Karen Travers)
Val Lehman (Bea Smith) & Judith McGrath (Colleen Powell)	Colette Mann (Doreen Burns)	Barry Quinn (Greg Miller) and Stewie
Patsy King (Erica Davidson) & Stewie	Colette Mann (Doreen Burns) & Stewie	Amanda Muggleton (Chrissie Latham)
Amanda Muggleton (Chrissie Latham)	Stewie & Val Lehman (Bea Smith)	Judith McGrath (Colleen Powell)
Judith McGrath (Colleen Powell) & Stewie	Patsy King (Erica Davidson)	Stewie & Carol Burns (Franky Doyle)
Stewie & Jentah Sobott (Mouse)	Anne Phelan (Myra Desmond) & Stewie	Gerard Maguire (Jim Fletcher) & Stewie
Stewie & Jane Clifton (Margo Gaffney)	Rob, Patsy King (Erica Davidson) & Stewie	Gate guard
The Wentworth building	Fans leaving	Stewie
The event marquee	The Wentworth building	Val Lehman (Bea Smith) autograph
Anne Phelan (Myra Desmond) autograph	Patsy King (Erica Davidson) autograph	Jentah Sobott (Mouse) autograph
Kirsty Child (Willie Beecham) autograph	Barry Quin (Greg Miller) autograph	Colette Mann (Doreen Burns) autograph
Judith McGrath (Colleen Powell) autograph	Carol Burns (Franky Doyle) autograph	Jane Clifton (Margo Gaffney) autograph

Read Stewie’s review here.