Inmates fight, pair off, try suicide and attempt escape at a British reform school for girls.
Acting
Kathy Burke's debut—already a force of nature at 18.
Direction
Mai Zetterling's unflinching female gaze on trapped bodies.
Director
Mai Zetterling
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made for Channel 4's launch year, part of a brief UK boom in women's prison stories responding to Thatcher-era penal expansion. Zetterling fought to shoot in a real decommissioned borstal.
The 'scrubbers' title refers to the lowest class of inmate—those who clean. Kathy Burke later said she based Glennis on girls she'd known in care.
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