Claim: Prisoner is Australian.

Prisoner is an Australian soap opera set in the Wentworth Detention Centre , a fictional women 's prison . In the United States and United Kingdom it was known as Prisoner : Cell Block H , with the same title and Caged Women in Canada . The series , produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation , aired on Network Ten for 692 episodes between 27 February 1979 and 11 December 1986 . Originally , it was planned as a 16-part series .   The show was inspired by the British television drama Within These Walls , which was moderately successful in Australia . Due to an injunction requested by UK-based ATV , which considered the title too similar to their The Prisoner , overseas broadcasters had to change the series ' name . In March 2012 it was announced that Prisoner would be `` reimagined '' on Foxtel in a new version , Wentworth .