Foxtel’s Prisoner Remake Announces Cast

Foxtel's upcoming drama, Wentworth – a contemporary reimagining of the iconic Australian series Prisoner – has announced its cast, with production set to commence in Melbourne next week.

The ten-part series is set in a women's prison and will follow the stories of both inmates and corrections staff as they forge unlikely friendships and fight to survive inside.

Foxtel has announced an impressive list of actors from Australia and New Zealand who'll be taking on the roles behind the bars and recreating some of the iconic Prisoner characters as well as introducing some new faces to the cell block.

Underbelly Razor's Danielle Cormack will play suburban wife and mum Bea Smith, who is Wentworth's latest arrival, while Nicole Da Silva (Rush, East West 101) will play GenY lesbian Franky Doyle.

The series will also start All Saints' Celia Ireland as Liz Birdsworth, Kris McQuade (The Circuit, Killing Time) as crime matriarch Jacs Holt and Shareena Clanton as young Aboriginal woman Doreen Anderson.

The Governor and her deputy will be played by Water Rats' Catherine McClements and Offspiring's Kate Atkinson. Underbelly Badness stars Aaron Jeffrey and Leeanna Walsman will play corrections officer Fletch and lawyer Erica Davidson. The series will also star Robbie Magasiva as a corrections officer.

Wentworth is set to air on Foxtel's SoHo in 2013.