Franky Doyle
Frieda Joan "Franky" Doyle is a fictional character in the Australian prison cult soap opera, Prisoner (aka Prisoner: Cell Block H) (1979-1986) She was portrayed by Carol Burns, and she only appeared in the first 20 episodes of the soap opera during 1979. Frieda, also known as Franky, is a lesbian biker who was imprisoned for armed robbery and murder and sentenced to life imprisonment at Wentworth Detention Centre, the fictional prison set in Melbourne. She was also in a forced love relationship with Doreen Anderson. In Wentworth Prison Frankie's first name is Francessca although she is supposed to be the same character as the original. she is more feminine than the original but still the same hot headed lesbian.
Background
From the first episode, Franky looked like the top dog to many viewers as she was bossy, vicious and had a short temper and always had a hold over the girls. She was someone that you never wanted to cross because of her violent temper. Franky had the luxury of speaking the first word of dialogue in the show: "She bumped into me". This line was caused as she stopped fellow inmate Sally Lee from running around the prison. We also understood that she had a long-term feud with the real prison Top Dog Bea Smith.
Key Storylines
Though she was a main character who did not last long, during her short time she had many story lines in the space of 20 episodes.
- Franky Doyle Riot
- Harassing Karen Travers
- Brother, Gary, death
- Escape and death
Episode 1
After her altercation with Sally Lee, Franky then appeared to introduce herself to new inmate Karen Travers. Franky instantly let her affection clear to Karen but this disgusted Karen. who let Franky know exactly how to get on her nerves if she did not get what she wanted. Franky later allowed viewers to get their first sighting of solitary, when she was put there after trashing the Recreation Room (this was when Franky gave Vera Bennett the nickname made for her: Vinegar Tits). Doreen later ignored Franky while Bea was with her to protect Doreen, but Franky soon won Doreen over.
Riot
Franky had taken over as Top Dog from Bea Smith by force, as Bea had predicted before her release on parole. Franky took over which and began working the steam press in the laundry. Franky also staged a sit in and ordered that if anyone had moved that she would kill them. Her time as Top Dog was short lived as Bea returned to the prison in episode 3 (Vera Bennett had brought Franky to see Bea exit the 'paddy wagon'). With this, Franky staged another sit in. While Vera Bennett negotiated with prison governor, Erica Davidson to allow Bea Smith back with the women. Knowing this would cause trouble.
Sparking The Riot During the sit-in, Franky stayed put, hoping everyone would follow her, but Bea led another bunch of prisoners to work other than sit in with Franky, including Doreen. By this Franky was furious and when Vera began to add to problems Franky reacted by throwing food and crockery and Vera.
- Rosie Hudson was going into labour
- Meg Jackson was trapped with Franky and the others, held hostage.