Trivia for
"Bad Girls" (1999) More at IMDbPro »

• Tanya Turner (played by Zoe Lucker) previously appeared in "Footballers' Wives" (2002). This is only the second time that a character has moved from one English drama series to another (the first was Matt Musgrove (played by Christian Ealey), who moved from "Brookside" (1982) to "Hollyoaks" (1995) in 2000).
  
  
• The interior shots (prison) are shot in a studio and the exterior (prison gates) was a real prison.
  
  
• The working title for Series 1 of "Bad Girls" was "Jailbirds". The title of the show was changed after a successful BBC documentary series about women in prison used the title "Jailbirds" a few months before the first series was shown.
  
  
• Originally, episodes used to end with a scene known as the "nightcall", literally inmates calling out to each other from their cells at night. Whilst these scenes were popular with the fans, a large percentage of the viewing audience switched off when these scenes came on, damaging the overall ratings for the episodes. Consequently, for Series 2 [onwards], the nightcalls were dropped in favour of the immediate, dramatic cliff-hanger - the first of these saw Shell calling Jim Fenner's wife from a mobile 'phone.
  
  
• Tristan Sturrock (Colin Hedges) broke his back during the filming of the sixth series. Consequently, his character was temporarily written out of the series and was absent for the final four episodes except for a brief scene in the finale. Similarly, he only appeared in the first six episodes of Series 7 before again being written out temporarily. He did not return for the eight and final series.
  
  
• All episodes in Series 1 through to Series 4 (for example, the very first episode is called "Them and Us") have individual titles. However, Series 5 onwards dropped these individual titles in favour of episode numbers.
  
  
• "The Victim" (Series 1, Episode 4) is the only episode to-date where the theme music is replaced in the closing credits. The episode ends with Crystal singing Amazing Grace out of a cell window in tribute to an inmate who has died and the song continues over the closing credits. The closing credits for Series 5, Episode 16 do not feature the theme music, but instead run silently after the shock murder of an inmate.
  
  
• Jack Ellis originally left Bad Girls in the final episode of the sixth series when justice finally caught up with his character, Jim Fenner. However, Shed Productions persuaded Ellis to sign on for one further series and Fenner came back in the first episode of the following series.
  
  
• The location where all the interior and most the exterior shots are filmed is actually a converted Mill complex and is on a small island in North London. The water around the island can often be seen in background shots.
  
  
• During the climatic fight between Natalie Buxton and Pat Kerrigan, Liz May Brice and Dannielle Brent struggled so hard, Brice accidentally broke Brent's nose.
  
  
• Amanda Barrie (Bev Tull) and Maria Charles (Noreen Biggs) were both married to the same man, actor Robin Hunter. Though Barrie and Charles both appeared in series 5, they did not feature in any episodes together.
  
  

• SPOILER: The four-bed dorm on G-Wing has a curse on it - several inmates who have been allocated to the dorm have died while in prison, including Rachel (Series 1 - suicide), Zandra (Series 2 - brain tuma), Renee (Series 2 - murdered), Shaz (Series 4 - trapped in a fire) and Al (Series 5 - accidentally poisoned). Rachel, Zandra and Al actually died in the four-bed dorm itself whilst Rachel, Zandra, Reenee and Al have all slept in the same bed at one stage (Shaz chose another bed upon learning that Zandra had died, having been allocated a bed previously where the last occupant had died).
  
  

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