Joan Ferguson, Prisoner: Cell Block H

Joan “The Freak” Ferguson (Maggie Kirkpatrick)

Joan Ferguson came onto the show in 1982 as an officer at Wentworth Detention Center. Before her transfer to Wentworth she had fallen in love with Audrey Forbes, an inmate at her former job. Audrey was then murdered by her fellow prisoners when they learned of her relationship with an officer. Viewers get to find out more about Joan and Audrey’s relationship during flashbacks in the 445th episode of the show.

Ferguson was depicted as cold, calculating, corrupt, and sexually harassing the inmates. When the audience saw her wearing black gloves they knew she was about to conduct a ‘body search’ on an unsuspecting inmate, usually a new, young one. She was the main antagonist and villain for most of the series and the majority of her time in the show involved unsuccessful attempts to kill, expose or fire her.

Soon after arriving at Wentworth, Ferguson fell for inmate Hannah Simpson, and arranged for her to be attacked so she could appear to be rescuing her. Hannah later complained of sexual harassment from Ferguson, like many other prisoners, but Ferguson outsmarted her and Hannah was moved to a different prison.

During the middle months of the 1985 season Ferguson enjoyed a short relationship with fellow corrections officer Terri Malone. The two started scheming together after Terri was transferred to Wentworth and soon became lovers, eventually moving in together. The relationship was strained due to Terri’s parents, and got worse after the prison newspaper printed details of their affair, forcing Terri to resign. Terri began an affair with her new boss and Joan caught them in bed together, but agreed to give Terri another chance, and when Terri confessed she had feelings for both her and Barry, she agreed to Terri carrying on the affair.

Joan and Terri continued to argue and eventually they broke up and Terri moved out of the house. In the last episode of the show Joan was finally arrested and taken to Wentworth as a prisoner. The final scenes of the series showed the inmates celebrating as Joan was transferred to a different prison, where she was less known, for her safety.

Appearances:

• 389 episodes.

Female love interests:

• Audrey Forbes 💀 (Marianne Collopy, guest, 1 episode, flashback)
• Hannah Simpson (Julianne Newbould, straight, recurring, 15 episodes)
• Terri Malone (Margot Knight, bisexual, recurring, 36 episodes)

Relationship story arc with a woman: Yes

No male love interests

Relationship story arc with a man: No

Male love interest after being identified as a lesbian? No

Filter Relationship Arc:

• Female (Recurring)

Storyline during sweeps? No

[1] A relationship story arc is defined as explicit, developed on screen, and lasting more than 3 episodes. It is listed as questionable or subtext if romance is only implied, mentioned instead of shown on screen, part of a dream sequence, or otherwise not explicit for the viewer.
[2] Sweeps episodes air in February, May, July and November, the periods when advertising rates are set. A character is marked as "sweeps" when there is a very limited number of episodes that address their sexuality, all air during sweeps period, and the storyline is otherwise ignore/dropped.