Porridge is probably my all time favourite British comedy, actually scratch that, Pheonix Nights is number one this is number two. Porridge starred the brilliant Ronnie Barker as Norman Stanley Fletcher a small time criminal from Muswell Hill in north London who spent his whole life in and out of prison. The show has Barker in Slade Prison in the bleak Cumberland Moors doing a five stretch and the opening episode has him arriving and going through the processing with young naïve Lennie (Richard Beckinsale) who is destined to be Fletch cell mate and the old lag will tech him the ways of prison life and the fact that the screws are the enemy. The brilliance ...  Read the complete review

If ever a comedian richly deserved the title of "comic genius" then it would be the late Ronnie Barker. His CV since the time he first took up acting in 1948 at the age of 19, to the time of his death in 2005 at the age of 76, was rich and varied, but it is perhaps as one half of the comic due "The Two Ronnies" (with Scots comedian Ronnie Corbett) and for his varies sitcoms with the BBC that Barker will be best remembered and loved. One of his unique characters was as Norman Stanley Fletcher (Fletch) in the comedy series "Porridge", which ran form 1974 to 1977. There were three series of Porridge, plus two Christmas ...  Read the complete review

This is one of my all time favourite comedy shows and I still enjoy watching it today on either BBC2 or one of the cable channels when they show replays. It is a real shame that they only ever made a handful of episodes and one feature length film which was in effect a number of episodes strung together. The show is set in the bleak austere world of the fictional Slade Prison which is located near Carlisle. The main star of the show is Ronnie Barker who plays the character Norman Stanley Fletcher who is a habitual criminal from Muswell Hill who is serving another five year sentence for burglary. You know all of this because it form the basis of the ...  Read the complete review

In the spring of 1973, BBC2 commissioned a series called Seven of One which consisted of seven comedy pilot-shows starring Ronnie Barker. The aim was to find a new sit-com for Barker - they were successful. The first of those pilots was called Open All Hours, and the second, called Prisoner and Escort, was developed into the series Porridge. Too often TV companies produce gag-filled sit-coms with nice middle-class characters and settings which are about as funny as a dripping tap. They forget that there is no pearl without grit (or however the saying goes). The truly great sit-coms mix comedy and tragedy; pathos, bathos and, um, what was the name ...  Read the complete review

There about five sitcoms you can watch repeats over and over again that still raise the same laughs as the original run. Porridge is most definitely one of them as Fletch and Godper in Beckinsale and Ronnie Barker turn in a superb comedy performance. The strength of these laughs and formats that make them so endearing and timeless is the actors who play the roles. You laugh at them more than their mannerisms, as you become accustomed to the character they play like Del Boy and Rigsby. Fletcher’s character in the decent con is clever as we are allowed to raise a rye laugh at the prison guards expense in Mr Mackay. Its like we are being allow to mock ...  Read the complete review