Channel 5 to screen series two of Wentworth Prison

(Image credit: BEN KING PHOTOGRAPHER)

Wentworth Prison is set to return to UK screens, after Channel 5 picked up the second series of the show.

Kris McQuade and Danielle Cormack star in the re-imagining of the Australian drama Prisoner: Cell Block H, which is set in Wentworth Correctional Centre, and has been a ratings hit.

New characters being introduced into the programme's second season includes the prison's menacing new officer, Joan 'The Freak' Ferguson, played by Pamela Rabe.

Channel 5's head of acquisitions Katie Keenan said: "The drama has proved a great success with our viewers. We're very proud to bring the women of Wentworth Prison back to Channel 5 later next year."

FremantleMedia International's Justin Hatfield added: "Following in the footsteps of the Australian premiere where it has become the most watched non-sports programme in subscription television history, Wentworth Prison has equally engaged and gripped UK audiences.

"In the light of the continuing success of the first season, I'm delighted that Channel 5 is rewarding its loyal audience with the second season - which threatens to be even more gritty than the first."

The first season, which continues on Channel 5, will leave viewers with a nail-biting cliff-hanger ending.

*VOTE NOW for your most-loved stars and shows in the TV Times 2013 Awards and enter a draw for 47in LED TVs, YouView boxes and John Lewis vouchers.

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.