She’s an icon of the Australian stage, but actress Maggie Kirkpatrick is still best remembered for portraying Joan ‘The Freak’ Ferguson in classic Australian TV drama Prisoner.
And it seems that the obsessive adoration of some extreme fans of the show is now wearing thin for the actress, who has revealed her true feelings in a brutally frank new interview.
WATCH: Maggie Kirkpatrick accuses Bert Newton of “inappropriate behaviour”
Speaking to Rob McKnight on the McKnight Tonight podcast, the actress 78, was asked about reports of feuds between the former cast of the show, and constant demands from fans for reunions. And she wasn’t mincing any words.
‘I have recently been back, yet again, to the UK, just last week,’ she said of appearing on the lucrative Prisoner fan circuit, with a tone of weariness and apparent resignation in her voice.
‘And you know, that’s fine, that’s fine…I just wonder sometimes about all that; those appearances and things.
‘I try to do it with as good grace as possible, but sometimes I want to say, get a life.’
When host McKnight attempted to advocate on behalf of very dedicated fans, Kirkpatrick indicated she couldn’t get on board with some fans’ intense interest in her and the show.
‘I can be a fan too,’ she conceded. ‘But I would no more approach somebody [famous] than fly over the moon.’
Discussing her relationship with the character that has defined her career, Maggie admitted she has no special affection for the role but said that it had proved useful over the years.
‘It’s not my favourite character… Sometimes she’s a cash cow.
‘I don’t have any fondness for the character – [but] I’m proud of what I did for four and a half years.’
On the matter of the public reaction, Maggie admits she doesn’t know why people are still banging on about the sadistic prison officer decades after the show was cancelled.
‘I’m astonished that people are still hooked on Joan Ferguson 40 years down the track,’ he told the podcast.
On the subject of alleged tensions between former Prisoner cast mates, Kirkpatrick admitted that there was more to her no-show at a recent high-profile cast reunion than was claimed at the time.
‘Rumour had it that I was unwell,’ she recalled. ‘That’s not the case.
‘A certain original member was not told of the event, and then when I saw where profits were going, I thought that’s not fair, it should go to the Actor’s Benevolent Fund.’
When asked directly if there was a fracture between cast members, the actress conceded, ‘There probably is’.
‘I don’t see too many. I’m in touch with Elspeth Ballantyne constantly, and Betty Bobbitt, and Anne Phelan [who has recently passed away] was very important in my life.’
Speaking on the subject of her fraught relationship with her former Wicked co-star Bert Newton, the actress revealed that she was so tired of the TV icon’s alleged stream of sexual jokes backstage that she gave him a dressing down and ultimately ignored him for the rest of the show’s run.
‘I was kind of disappointed that he was cast, only because his personality overshadowed any depth that the wizard might have had,’ she admitted.
‘His offstage behaviour, everything was sexual innuendo. I wasn’t offended, I found it tedious and childish.
‘It finally got to me in Adelaide and I just let him have it.
‘His response was, “Where’s your sense of humour?” and I just stormed off.
‘There’s a generational thing with some men… It’s silly and it’s puerile and it’s not funny anymore.’
Kirkpatrick is rebuilding her life and her career after she was wrongfully accused of the sexual assault of a teenage fan – and recently spoke to A Current Affair about her experience.
She was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault in August 2015, before the decision was quashed.
‘It was my worst nightmare,’ Maggie told the program. ‘That’s all I can say.’
The actress told McKnight that industry colleagues had mostly been loyal and supportive throughout the ordeal, and that she was looking forward to getting on with her life.
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