Barker at his best (Porridge)

Member Name: mikeb

Product:	Porridge
Date:	06/03/01 (253 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Still funnier than most current sitcoms nearly 30 years on

Disadvantages: Slightly dated

Ronnie Barkers finest hour when it comes to sitcoms, Porridge is one of the few of the older comedy series that is as funny today as when it was originally screened. The piot episode was first shown back in 1973 and ran until 1977.

Set in Slade prison in Cumberland or Cumbria as it is now known, Barker played the likeable rogue Norman Stanley Fletcher who was sentenced to five years at the start of the series. Despite the fact that nearly the entire show was set within the confines of the prison, it was never restricted by this and the scripts by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais were always very well written.

Although there were various other characters, the action usually centred around Fletchers cellmate Lenny Godber (Richard Beckinsale) and prison officers Mackay (Fulton Mackay) and Barrowclough (Brian Wilde). Godber was serving his first prison sentence and because Fletcher had been in and out of prisons for most of his adult life, he took him under his wing and showed him how to get through his stretch. Godber was moved into Fletchers cell during the third episode of the first series and this show was almost entirely taken up by these two characters, with Fletch telling Godber that they could go out for the night but they settle for just having a quiet night in instead. A great episode.

Mackay and Barrowclough were like chalk and cheese in their approach to how they should behave as prison officers. Mackay tried to rule Slade by imposing strict rules and always believed the prisoners were up to something, which they usually were. Barrowclough, on the other hand, liked to see the good side of everyone and because of this was often manipulated by the inmates and particularly by Fletcher who he foolishly trusted to help with his marital problems.

The storyline usually found Fletcher getting himself into an awkward situation when setting up a scam or trying to help out “genial” Harry Grout, the prison godfather. Thi
s led to Fletcher having to use all the knowledge learned over years of captivity to get himself out of the problem. Grout was superbly played by Peter Vaughan who went on to star in many comedies and dramas and is still being seen on our screens today.

One of the best episodes was when Fletcher helped an elderly inmate called Blanco to get some things back from another prisoner, Norris, who had nicked them from him. It ends up with Fletcher conning Norris into unwittingly digging up part of Leeds United’s football ground looking for supposedly buried treasure. Blanco was played by the unrecognisable David Jason who’s make up added at least thirty years to his age.

There were also several other members of the Porridge cast that are now household names. Gordon Kaye (Rene from Hello Hello) played a bus driver in the spin-off feature film. David Jason’s partner in Only fools and horses Nicholas Lyndhurst played Fletchers son Raymond and there were also appearances by Karl Howman, Christopher Biggins and the late Brian Glover.

After Porridge ended Ronnie Barker went on to make a sequel called Going Straight which, although popular, did not meet with the same critical acclaim. This also featured Richard Beckinsale and it was very sad when this fine comedy actor died of a heart attack in March 1979 at only 31.

A top quality show which has certainly not lost anything in the years since it was first broadcast. Some of the banter with the only coloured inmate McLaren, who was also Scottish, might well struggle to make it to the screen if the show was being made today but it was not considered offensive in the less PC times of the early seventies.

Porridge occasionaly pops up on BBC1 as part of their comedy classic repeats or you can still catch it on UK Gold where it frequently graces the schedules.

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