Shell Dockley

Michelle "Shell" Dockley is a fictional character from the award-winning prison drama series Bad Girls. She is portrayed by British actress Debra Stephenson. Shell was one of the lead characters in the series. Shell appeared from the first episode in Series 1 until the last episode of Series 3, and returned for the first four episodes of Series 5. Dockley is the most feared inmate of the prison's ‘G Wing’, and commits several crimes, including smuggling drugs into the prison, stabbing prison officer Jim Fenner, and planning for Denny to set Snowball Merriman's hair on fire. Personality and characterization Shell Dockley is sentenced to life imprisonment for torturing and murdering a girl named Lisa Simmonds, who had an affair with her boyfriend; she tied the girl up, tortured her and eventually set her on fire. Shell is violent and ruthless, and delights in acts of cruelty and torture; officers and prisoners alike call her a psychopath. She is a drug dealer and pusher, and has no real friends on the wing, except Daniella "Denny" Blood (Alicya Eyo), a relationship that is also sexual. Shell has an affair with corrupt principal officer Jim Fenner (Jack Ellis), a relationship which eventually goes sour in Series 2 after Jim discovered that Shell had telephoned his wife Marilyn (Kim Taylforth) to hear him and Shell having sex. Jim responds by beating up Shell. Jim and Shell's relationship ends for good after she stabs him with a broken bottle in the opening episode of Series 3. In Series 2, Shell states that the judge who sentenced her to life imprisonment had called her "evil personified". Storylines Series 1 Shell is seen as Top Dog among the prisoners of G-Wing. She is first seen rehearsing for the prison's annual fashion show, which is soon cancelled. She is best friends with Denny, who is also her occasional lover. She is involved in a relationship with married officer Jim Fenner, who is also having an affair with Rachel Hicks (Joanne Froggatt), a young prisoner whom Shell bullied. Eventually, Rachel commits suicide. When she discovers Zandra Plackett (Lara Cazalet) is blackmailing officer Lorna Rose (Luisa Bradshaw-White), she too begins blackmailing Lorna and forces her to smuggle in drugs for her. Shell also makes an enemy of religious prisoner Crystal Gordon (Sharon Duncan Brewster), but briefly becomes religious, and together she and Crystal report Lorna and get her sacked. Shell soon reverts to her old ways.