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  #21  
Old 21st November 2012, 07:09 PM
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Originally Posted by arabiansergei View Post
sorry I thought this was a thread about meg Morris.

Obviously not and it's another Joan Fergusson thread...

It's a Meg thread...don't you see how much we are slagging her off? lol.
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  #22  
Old 21st November 2012, 07:19 PM
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You're quite right Arabiansergei, Joan has her own thread, but you can't highlight the good without the bad..

To be honest, it wasn't so much the actress, Elspeth, who was bad, she only worked with what she was given, it was just that the character of Meg was so overdone. possibly because she was persistent throughout the course of the show the writers thought she'd have to be in every storyline, i donno.

Jim and Coleen were in it for quite long stretches but aren't particularly remembered by the casual watcher. Joan and Vera were in it a lot less than Meg but remain a lot more memorable. the public usually just likes the darker side of humanity i guess. but Joyce was in the show almost as long as Meg, though she disappeared a lot for long stretches, and she was hardly given any storylines, my issue is why does one character have so many memorable moments, and the other almost none?

Back to Meg... She didn't particularly annoy me straight away, i thought she was quite a good character, but she used to bite Vera's head off all the time, then Jims, then Colleen's when she became more aggressive, then Joans, and it wasn't long before i lost patience with her. I'm not saying she was bad as such... just tricky... n you gotta watch her...

JL
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  #23  
Old 21st November 2012, 10:39 PM
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I agree, it wasn't the actress I hated...it was the character...same with Doreen...

However, I must also admit that anything else I have seen Elspeth in, the characters she played never really impressed me then either.
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  #24  
Old 6th January 2013, 09:50 AM
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Meg was my favorite officer. I first remember her as Cathy Allessi in Neighbours in the early 90's and always liked her.
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  #25  
Old 8th March 2013, 04:15 AM
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Meg was one of the few officers to see the woman as human beings, and not animals, like Joan, etc.

A bit part of that chunk of an officer, was a social worker, where I thought it when on far too long and her not even considering becoming an officer again when Vera left leaving the staff extremely short-staffed was bad, my favourite storyline (And somewhat unfinished storyline) as her in a social worker was when she was letting a young offender on probation live with her and Bob. And how he saw Meg differently and wanted more than friends. But an officer she was best at.

Meg seemed attractive from men of any age and nationaliy, yet she was always unlucky in love, Bob left her, that young amercian social-worker, Phillip gets shot, Dennis criuckshank becomes a cripple and leaves her.... (Just to name a few)
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  #26  
Old 15th March 2013, 11:41 PM
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LOL. Poor Meg! I must admit, she played the rape scene very well! That was some horrific stuff!!
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  #27  
Old 16th March 2013, 02:44 PM
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I thought her acting was great then as well, although never understood why one of the rapists wore a mask and one didn't!?!
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  #28  
Old 17th March 2013, 04:48 AM
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I suppose one was sick enough to enjoy being seen and the other was too much of a coward to be seen, lol.
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  #29  
Old 18th March 2013, 10:16 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jamie_leigh44 View Post
Jim and Coleen were in it for quite long stretches but aren't particularly remembered by the casual watcher. Joan and Vera were in it a lot less than Meg but remain a lot more memorable. the public usually just likes the darker side of humanity i guess. but Joyce was in the show almost as long as Meg, though she disappeared a lot for long stretches, and she was hardly given any storylines, my issue is why does one character have so many memorable moments, and the other almost none?
But that's because villains like Joan will always be better remembered by the casual viewer. But you can't really have the evil without the good and I'm sure Wentworth would have been a far less interesting place without Meg if the Freak hadn't had anyone to do battle with within her own ranks.

Also, I would have thought it's far more difficult for an actress to play a nice or inherently good character like Meg and make them interesting to the viewer than it is to play an out and out villain like Ferguson - I'm sure any actress would kill to play a role like the Freak.

To that extent, I think Elspeth did a reasonably good job and I quite liked the character. The other issue of course is that longevity breeds contempt and it's inevitable that after 4 or 5 years into a role that the writers will begin to run out of storylines or to recycle story arcs for a particular character. Even the Joan Ferguson character was starting to look a little washed out and tired after about 3 years in the show. I'm not sure she'd be as fondly remember by viewers if she'd been in Prisoner for its full duration.

As for the character of Joyce Barry, although she was in it on and off from episodes 29 to 692 I don't think we can really draw any comparisions with Meg as she was only a 50 worder when she first came into it and her appearances in the early years were very sporadic.

It was only around late 1983 / early 1984 that the writers built the character up into a principal role.
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