Porridge

Fletcher and Mr. Mackay.

Most sitcoms have a structure that ties the characters to a place or relationship that is largely inescapable. The comedy of Steptoe & Son is largely in the son’s inability to escape his father. In Fawlty Towers it is Basil & Sybil’s inability to escape each other or the hotel that is at the heart of the comedy.

If the ‘inescapable’ part is a prison then you have the foundations for a great sitcom. Whilst there isn’t a ‘but’ or ‘yet’ after that part, a sitcom set in a prison doesn’t look on paper as though it is going to be a laugh a minute. The audience needs to like some part of the central character or at least sympathise with them, if your central character is an habitual criminal you have to write it well and get the right actor to play it for it to be a good show.

In Porridge, we see just that, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais write a great character that Ronnie Barker brings to life in a believable manner. There’s a balance between not feeling too much sympathy for his plight in prison and liking the character’s ability to fight the ‘system’.

Not only is there Barker as Norman Stanley Fletcher but also a great supporting cast: Richard Beckinsale as the young Lenny Godber, Fulton MacKay as the stern prison officer Mr. MacKay and Brian Wilde as the soft touch prison officer Mr. Barroclough. Then some guest spots, David Jason as the old lag Blanco and Peter Vaughan as the prison’s top dog “Genial” Harry Grout, both appeared in only 3 of the 20 episodes, yet they made a big impact on the series as a whole, especially Peter Vaughan, who despite a long and prestigious acting career says the part of “Grouty” is one he tends to get most remembered for.

The series started as an episode of a series of Ronnie Barker one off comedies, Seven of One, “Prisoner and Escort” was the second episode of the series, the first episode went on to be the other famous Barker sitcom, “Open All Hours”. In “Prisoner and Escort”, Fletcher was on his way to start his 5 year prison sentence at Slade prison, a sentence that begins  in episode one of “Porridge”.

Each episode begins with a voice over as judge saying “Norman Stanley Fletcher, you have pleaded guilty to the charges brought by this court, and it is now my duty to pass sentence. You are an habitual criminal, who accepts arrest as an occupational hazard, and presumably accepts imprisonment in the same casual manner. We therefore feel constrained to commit you to the maximum term allowed for these offences — you will go to prison for five years”. Barker is on record as saying that his doing the voice over himself was his only regret of the series. I had always assumed that the voice was Barker mimicking the judge to his fellow prisoners and actually set the tone of the episodes. Obviously I read too much into it!

Porridge’s 20 episodes were between 1974 and 1977, “Prisoner and Escort” first aired in 1973.

Rarely amongst British sitcoms, Porridge was given a sequel, “Going Straight”. This ran for 6 episodes in 1978 and won a BAFTA for best sitcom, it isn’t remembered as fondly as Porridge and the change in situation didn’t help the comedy. However it was potentially going to continue, the sad early death of Richard Beckinsale in 1979 brought an end to any plans for more.

Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais gave an uncredited aid to the script of the 1983 James Bond film, Never Say Never Again. In Sean Connery's Bond's medical in the film it isn't a coincidence that there are similarities to the scene in episode 1 of Porridge, Clement and La Frenais wrote them both.




As with a lot of 70s British sitcoms, there was a movie spin off released in 1979, unlike a lot of the sitcom movies, it was quite good!
Barker played Fletcher once more in a mock documentary broadcast in 2003.
I'll leave you with a bit of Fletcher and MacKay