Actress Maggie Kirkpatrick might be a bully in Prisoner, but away from the set she's a sensitive, almost timid, person.

Playing evil wardress Joan Ferguson in the Network Ten series is draining on Maggie, because she's not like her atall. Maggie, a veteran theatre performer, has never worked in a long-running TV series before Prisoner, and admits to being terrified by the role at first.

"I was scared of doing Prisoner, because there's a certain amount of trepidation in going into a successful long-running TV series where actors have worked together so closely for so long." Maggie said.

"I'd never played an unlikeable person before. I've been used to nice, working-class mums.

"Joan really is an evil character, and she gets worse. I'm not at all like her, in fact, I'm a bog sook.

"Because I'm so tall, I give the impression I'm strong and capable, but I know there are situations that absolutely terrify me, like meeting new people.

"Deep down I'm shy, but I cover it up by being a bit of a show-off in front of some people. I guess that's why I'm an actress."

During the 20 years Maggie has been in showbusiness, she has played some wonderful roles on stage.

She's been in the productions of The Seagull, the Robyn Archer musical Songs From Side Show Alley, Irene, and One Day Of the Year.

One of the reasons Maggie says she has never been in a long-running TV series before is because she has never been asked!

"For a while now I've wanted to have a go at this mysterious thing called television," she said.

"I'm enjoying the work immensely, the cast and crew are wonderful to work with."

Already people are starting to recognise her in public, she says.

"I've never had to worry about being recognised before, because I've never played the pretty young actress." Maggie said.

"But from what I've seen of my colleagues with the recognition they've gained through TV, it sometimes seems like an awful intrusion."

Maggie treats her TV role as just "another job to be done".

"It's a great character part, and I hope I won't be typecast as another aggressive lesbian. 

We'll just see how imaginative casting people are after I've finished in prisoner.

"At this stage I'm in Prisoner until December. I don't know whether I'll continue after that. Joan might have outlived her usefulness by then, because you can only be a baddie for so long."

About the time Maggie signed for Prisoner she was asked to play the nanny in the Ted Hamilton film The Pirate Movie, her third movie.

"The film has a lot of appeal for the youngster, but it doesn't appeal to me as a movie-goer," she said.

"I play Ruth, and I'm the only woman Chris Atkins' character sees until he's 21."

Maggie has also appeared in the films Getting Of Wisdom and The Night Of The Prowler.

Her closest companion is her 16-year-old daughter Caitlin (Maggie is divorced and has no plans to get married).

"It's too early to tell whether Caitlin will become an actress, but if she does, she certainly knows all the pitfalls, like the unemployment, the heartache, frustration, boredom of TV studios and the tedium of learning lines.

"From the minute she could read, she was helping me learn my lines."

"I really think she's more interested in the production side of showbusiness than the performing side."

Maggie said she first started acting when she was 18 months old on the bar of her grandmother's hotel in Rutherglen.

"My family tells me I used to stand on the bar and sing. When I was 12, my mother sent me to elocution lessons and the teacher taught me some acting.

"And when I was 15 and all my friends were going to dances, I used to utterly confuse my mother by staying home and reading Shakespeare and listening to classical music.

When she turned 19 Maggie did some amateur acting but gave it away shortly after.

Jacqui Johnson
TV Week
September 25, 1989.
Thanks to Declan