David de Lautour's double prison stint

"I don't know if it's a good thing that prison seems to be a running theme in my roles," says David de Lautour. Photo / Supplied.

David de Lautour will be straddling the network divide when he returns to our screens next week as Ted West on Three's Westside.

Keen-eyed viewers will have spotted him as the new shrink on TVNZ 2's Aussie prison drama Wentworth.

"I don't know if it's a good thing that prison seems to be a running theme in my roles," de Lautour told Spy.

"At least in Wentworth, Dr Greg gets to go home every night. Then again, Ted gets to tell the pigs to f*** off, so you know . . . depends what you're into."

Dr Greg is charming and personable and a compassionate, non-judgmental listener to his patients. Ted West is a family and gang patriarch who can also be charming to those he rips off and de Lautour is thrilled about both roles, especially Westside in which he also directs two of this season's episodes.

"It was a crazy time as I was directing Alibi in Auckland while shooting Wentworth in Melbourne. It was a lot of travel but on the upside, the workload made it a lot easier to sleep on the plane than normal," he says.

De Lautour, 36, has followed other New Zealanders in making a splash on Wentworth, including Robbie Magasiva, Danielle Cormack and Aaron Jeffery.

David de Lautour as Dr Greg in Wentworth. Photo / Supplied.

Magasiva, 47, has been nominated for the Most Outstanding Actor award at the Logies for his performance and he will find out if he gets the gong on June 30.

And yet another Kiwi is about to arrive on set. Former 800 Words actress Morgana O'Reilly, 33, plays Narelle Stang, who faces a rocky start to prison life, rubbing some of her fellow inmates up the wrong way.

"I was pregnant with my second child while shooting Wentworth, so I needed a stunt woman to take a fall on to her stomach for me," O'Reilly told Spy.

Morgana O'Reilly in Wentworth. Photo / Supplied.

"It felt weird to make someone do something so simple for me. She really helped a sister out."

O'Reilly is also straddling the network divide next month when her comedy Mean Mums screens on Three.

Morgana O'Reilly in Mean Mums. Photo / Supplied.

- Ricardo Simich.