countries including the United States, Australia, Ireland and several European countries. Production Development Extensive research was covered prior to the production stage of the series on the lives of British female prisoners. Ann McManus and Maureen Chadwick, as well as several cast members, spent months visiting prisons during 1998 and 1999 in order to gather information and research on incarcerated women to inspire their roles for the series and how prisons had currently been run. McManus and Chadwick studied everything in detail on television series' set within women's prisons, including ITV's 1970s series Within These Walls, Network Ten's Australian soap opera Prisoner: Cell Block H, which was first broadcast on ITV in 1984 until the late 1990s, and several prison documentaries, in addition to three books which McManus had written and all of which were presented to the cast. In order to continue their research, in January 1999, McManus and Chadwick attended an AGM of Women in Prison, a support group for female prisoners, to address such issues within female prisons, consulting former prisoners, and organisations such as NACRO and the Prison Officer's Association. Filming The series was commissioned by ITV under the working title Jail Birds and commenced filming in February 1999. However the show's name was later changed after a BBC One documentary series about women in prison used the same title a few months before the first series was aired. The exact location of the fictional HMP Larkhall was never revealed, although in series 1, episode 4, character Shell Dockley mentioned it was 'not far' from Clapham. There were several other references through the series that alluded to it being in the South London region, but no specific location was given. Several districts of the London area were referenced throughout the series run, these include: Peckham, Clapham, Acton, Catford, Streatham, Sydenham, Tooting, Stratford, Balham, and Bethnal Green. HM Prison Oxford, located within Oxford Castle, was used for the exterior shots featured in Series 1 to 3. The interior scenes featured a replica set of the prison's wing and constructed within 3 Mills Studios. A reconstruction of the prison's exterior was also created for series 4 onwards, as HM Prison Oxford had by then been redeveloped into a hotel complex. After ITV decommissioned the series in October 2006, 3 Mills kept hold of a prison exterior and a single cell. Before it was largely dismantled, the exterior and