"Then you take it one day at a time. And you find a reason to get up tomorrow, any reason Bea. Just find one."
Elizabeth 'Liz' Birdsworth was a former inmate of Wentworth Correctional Centre.
Liz before her time at Wentworth was a former housewife who couldn't get along with Celeste Donaldson, Oliver Donaldson's mother. One day whilst she was drunk at her birthday she ran down Celeste with a tractor. Liz was arrested and sent to Wentworth for 11 years.
Liz was the prisons peer worker while she worked under Meg Jackson and was replaced for drunken behaviour by governor Erica Davidson. Liz deals with her alcholism several times throughout the years and remains sober until her death.
Liz is sent back to Wentworth and placed into protection after she lagged Bea's location when Bea killed Brayden Holt, Liz blames Bea for this and says to her that she ruined any chance of her living on the outside.
Liz is asked by the police to get a confession out of Sonia Stevens for immediate freedom when she gives evidence. But Liz decides life on the outside seems pretty good, but perjury is committed at the trial Liz is sent back to Wentworth with the possibility of a 15 years sentence over her head.
Liz's stress from the trial and the fear of being ousted as Witness X, Liz is diagnosed with early onset dementia. The dementia progresses to the point where Liz asks Sue "Boomer" Jenkins to consider ending her suffering.
Liz is smothered by a pillow after suffering a stroke after the devastating Siege of Wentworth. Liz ultimately suffers Locked-In Syndrome following the stroke.
Time At Wentworth
Liz is a prisoner at Wentworth Prison. She struggles with alcoholism which adversely affected her relationship with her family. One day when she was under the influence and dancing around with her kids. She was drinking out of a lemonade bottle that she mixed herself. Her son drank some out of the bottle while she wasn't looking and passed out from alcohol poisoning. After the incident Liz made an attempt to be sober, but after the pressure and stress of organising her Mother-in-Law's birthday party, she relapsed. Her moment of weakness ended in her accidentally killing her Mother-In-Law.
She has an important role at Wentworth. She is the Peer Support person at the prison, a job she takes pride in. When Bea Smith arrives at Wentworth, Liz gives her a run-down on prison customs between the women. ("ask before taking anyone's things, but let Franky have any items she wants" for example) She also warns Bea to never push the emergency alarm button, ever. Despite of her key role, she suffers from crippling self doubt, and this trait led her to drink before she was in prison.
Liz is also a sort of social worker for her fellow prisoners. If someone had an issue, they were supposed to go to her, and she would offer advice, or even just a chat. Liz tried her best to keep things calm whenever trouble broke out at Wentworth, as it frequently did. She tried to be the voice of reason, during the riot by trying to get both Franky Doyle's gang and Jacs Holt's gang to back down, before being told by Jacs to "stay out of this one, Liz".
Her back story is shown in Episode 4 when the prisoners are asked to speak to the press about their experience in prison making them want to be better people. Liz is asked to organize the event and is disappointed when, on the day of the speech day, she finds Doreen and Boomer with a cache of home brew alcohol. After sending the girls away she opens the brew and nearly drinks some, but doesn't end up doing it. The speech event goes well but Liz is nervous about public speaking and the event brings back memories of how she sabotaged her Mother-In-Laws birthday party. She remembers her husband calling her "pathetic" and the feelings of inadequacy come up again. She runs out of the event and comes back drunk, obviously drinking from Doreen and Boomer's alcohol stash. This ruins any chance of parole, despite her good work as a Peer Support person.
Franky is being monitored by the governor, who knows Franky is responsible for the smuggling of contraband into the prison. Franky takes advantage of the garden project, organising a male inmate from Walford prison to import drugs in return for oral sex from Boomer. The inmate informs Franky of a new product called "Pink Dragon", which he adds will "cost her". Franky and the inmate meet in the garden shed, where the drugs are located. The male inmate implies she will have to perform sexual favours for him in order to earn the drugs. As he tries to rape her, Franky grabs a garden fork and stabs the man in the genitals. His screams alert the guards of the situation. Liz informs the governor of the whereabouts of the missing drugs, which results in Boomer being sentenced to seven additional years in Wentworth when the drugs are discovered in her cell.
The identity of the lagger is unknown to Franky, who becomes paranoid, originally accusing Doreen and later attempting to strangle Bea before Liz confesses. Franky and Liz have an emotional discussion, in which Franky admits that Liz is the only one to ever care about her. Before leaving H Block, Franky warns Liz not to come back to Wentworth. After her release, Liz tries to reunite with her estranged daughter Sophie Donaldson but is too ashamed to meet her family. Still, Liz saves her daughter from being assaulted by her boyfriend. Liz is sent back to prison after she helps Bea's plot to kill Brayden Holt by receiving the pistol used to kill Holt.
Season 3
In season 3, Liz is held in the protection unit after lagging on Bea when she hunted down Brayden. When Bea returns to prison, Governor Ferguson has her released into the general population where she is beaten up by Boomer. In response, Bea instigates a prison riot and forces Governor Ferguson to make concessions to the prisoners. Liz is initially angry at Bea for ruining her chances of reconciling with her family. Liz later receives a visit from Sophie but Sophie is still bitter towards her mother for leaving her. Later, Liz is present when Bea punishes Boomer for beating her up by burning her hands under an ironing machine.
Later, Liz's daughter Sophie arrives in Wentworth prison after a hit-and-run accident. During the biggest part of the season, the relationship between the two of them will be tense and negative but will calm down in the last episodes.
Season 4
In seasons 4 the main concern of Liz was to be her relationship with inmate Sonia Stevens, who involved her in many dangerous events.
Season 5
In Season 5 while Liz is trying to get Sonia to reveal more details on the murder of Helen, she lies under oath in court about the events. Liz is told she could serve an additional 15 years in prison for perjury. In the final episode of season 5, Birdsworth poisons Sonia with liquid nicotine.
Season 6
In Season 6 Sonia returns with a revenge motive but kills Sharon Gilmore by mistake. Liz confronts Sonia with a Shiv, it turns out Sonia was trying to set up Don for being corrupt. Sonia proves to Boomer and Liz, she'll get the Workshop reopened, and does by setting up Spike for Sharon's Murder with an informants note. Liz later in the season is diagnosed with early on-set dementia. Later Liz witnesses Cherry Li's bashing in the shower block. Marie gives Liz drugs but is saved just in time by Kaz.
Season 7
The start of season 7 shows Liz drawing a map alongside Boomer to help her remember her way around the prison, as her battle with early onset dementia is taking its course, Liz is seen wondering around multiple times and at one stage is helped back to the unit by Marie, as Boomer was told to go to the governor's office. Liz tells Rita that she knows Boomer is training Ruby and is later seen in the visitors centre at Rita's wedding. Liz continues to tick things off of her bucket list, including doing the tango, prisoners don't know how to tango, but at night time during night lock up Jake makes a dream come true and tangos with Liz.
Liz in episode 3 admits she'd love a good sex session, and Boomer at first laughs but then realises she is serious and talks with Linda to make it happen, at first refusing but then signing off on paperwork.
Liz in episode 4 ticks the sex session off of her bucket list but it comes with tragic circumstances with the hooker dying of a heart attack, and Liz being rushed back to her unit and becoming pretty unresponsive, she ends up in medical after having an episode and attacking Kaz, Kaz stays with Liz all night in medical.
Liz continues her new medication through episode 5 and due to her psychotic episode she believes she is the one who attacked and killed Kaz, but is cleared when evidence suggests she would've needed rational thoughts to move the camera and 6 and she appears to be responding well to her treatment and tells Boomer that she will get into contact with her son Artie. Liz also tells Marie that Drago did give her a note 3 months ago, and after Marie leaves Liz realises she messed up and tells Rita and Ruby, Liz then asks Linda Miles why Boomer hasn't returned and Linda tells her that Boomer is spending the night in the lockup at Frankston.
In episode 8 Liz is informed by Miller that he has to take her off her medication and is informed her symptoms could return in as little as a week, because someone had reported him to the board. Liz receives a letter from Artie who wants to visit so Liz talks to Jake again and says that she needs to see Miller, she tells Jake that the pills had helped her and that some arsehole reported him to the board, without knowing it was Jake who reported him., later on Liz finally meets Artie after a very long time of not seeing him, but she keeps quiet about her dementia. Liz later protects Boomer in the yard after May starts hitting Boomer with her shoe. She later tells May that she should get to know Boomer better.
In episode 9, Liz's condition has deteriorated rapidly and when she gets a surprise visit from Franky she doesn't recognise her at all, and tells Franky she preferred the old top dog and that Kaz was dead, something Franky already knew. After Liz has her meeting with Franky she seeks the help of Dr Miller and asks him to up her dose as she has another visit with her son Artie. Liz has one final heartbreaking meeting with her son and she tells him that she has dementia and not to visit her in the prison again. Liz is later taken to the strip search room and fails to do so, and Liz thinks Officer Deng wants to put her in the psych unit, Liz freaks out and at the same time Marie's attempted breakout is happening and Liz is taken into the same room with the officer who had been knocked out and the door closed.
In episode 10 Liz survives the siege, by helping Vera alongside Boomer deliver her baby. Liz is later found in her unit unresponsive and is taken to medical where she is diagnosed with Locked In Syndrome after suffering a severe stroke. Boomer sacrifices her chances of upcoming parole and freedom as she honours Liz's request and she smothers Liz with a pillow.
Liz's last lines are "Not now Booms."
Season 8
Is mentioned by Boomer during Vera's visit to the prison and she says "she wishes Lizzie could see this.." and is mentioned again by Lou during the dining room scene and a scene in the shower.
Liz is mentioned again in Episode 8 when Jake tells Joan that Miller is responsible for her death.
Trivia
- Anne Charleston, who plays Liz Birdsworth's mother-in-law, was also a reoccurring actress on Prisoner Cell Block H. She previously played Lorraine Watkins, a policewoman and Diedre Kean in the original series.
- Liz is quite different to the original character of Lizzie, most notably in her much younger age and not having a heart condition. She does share a trait as the original however, being an alcoholic.
- Boomer, Liz, Vera and Will are the only characters to appear in every episode until the end of Season 7. Starting Season 8, Boomer, Vera and Will are the only characters to appear in every episode, due to Liz' death.
Appearances
| Wentworth: Season 1 | |||||||||
| "No Place Like Home" Appears |
"Fly Me Away" Appears |
"The Girl Who Waited" Appears |
"The Things We Do" Appears |
"The Velvet Curtain" Appears |
"Captive" Appears |
"Something Dies" Appears |
"Mind Games " Appears |
"To the Moon" Appears |
"Checkmate" Appears |
| Wentworth: Season 2 | |||||||||||
| "Born Again" Appears |
"Whatever It Takes" Appears |
"Boys In The Yard" Appears |
"The Danger Within" Appears |
"Twist The Knife" Appears |
"The Pink Dragon" Appears |
"Metamorphosis" Appears |
"Sins of the Mother" Appears |
"The Fixer" Appears |
"Jail Birds" Appears |
"Into The Night" Appears |
"Fear Her" Appears |
| Wentworth: Season 3 | |||||||||||
| "The Governor's Pleasure" Appears |
"3x02 Failing Upwards" Appears |
"Knives Out" Appears |
"Righteous Acts" Appears |
"3x05 Mercy" Appears |
"Evidence" Appears |
"The Long Game" Appears |
"Goldfish" Appears |
"Freak Show" Appears |
"A Higher Court" Appears |
"The Living and the Dead" Appears |
"Blood and Fire" Appears |
| Wentworth: Season 4 | |||||||||||
| "First Blood" Appears |
"Poking Spiders" Appears |
"Prisoner" Appears |
"Screw Lover" Appears |
"Love and Hate" Appears |
"Divide and Conquer" Appears |
"Panic Button" Appears |
"Plan Bea" Appears |
"After Life" Appears |
"Smitten" Appears |
"The Eleventh Hour" Appears |
"Seeing Red" Appears |
| Wentworth: Season 5 | |||||||||||
| "Scars" Appears |
"The Bitch is Back" Appears |
"Nothing but the Truth" Appears |
"Loose Ends" Appears |
"Belly of the Beast" Appears |
"Happy Birthday, Vera" Appears |
"The Pact" Appears |
"Think Inside the Box" Appears |
"Snake Head" Appears |
"Mere Anarchy" Appears |
"Coup de Grace" Appears |
"Hell Bent" Appears |
| Wentworth: Season 6 | |||||||||||
| Clean Slate Appears |
The Boxer Appears |
Bleed Out Appears |
Winter Is Here Appears |
Bitter Pill Appears |
The Angel of Wentworth Appears |
The Edge Appears |
Lovers and Fighters Appears |
Shallow Grave Appears |
Fractured Appears |
Indelible Ink Appears |
Showdown Appears |
| Wentworth: Season 7 | |||||||||
| Blood Wedding Appears |
Payback Appears |
Atonement Appears |
Karen Appears |
Ascension Appears |
Mother Appears |
Bad Blood Appears |
Protection Appears |
Under Siege Part One Appears |
Under Siege Part Two Appears |
| Wentworth: Specials | ||
| "2x00 Look Back At Wentworth" Appears |
"Wentworth VS Prisoner: Family Feud" Appears |
"7x00 Behind the Bars" Appears |