Porridge (1973)

Directed by

Sydney Lotterby

Genre

sitcom

Country

United Kingdom

Length

3 seasons, 18 episodes

Rated

15

Rating

8.1 of 10 from 54 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Two inmates serve time in a British prison in the 1970s. The show follows their daily routines and schemes to make life easier. It is a classic sitcom about friendship behind bars.

comediclightheartedsnappyobservationalwrylow-stakescharacter-driven

What happens

Porridge is a British sitcom, starring Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale, written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, and broadcast on BBC1 from 1974 to 1977, after a pilot episode in 1973. The programme ran for three series and two Christmas specials. A feature film of the same name based on the series was released in 1979, after Beckinsale's death in March of that year. The sitcom focuses on two prison inmates, Norman Fletcher (played by Barker) and Lennie Godber (played by Beckinsale), who are serving time at the fictional HMP Slade in Cumberland. The show's title comes from a 1950s British slang term for a prison sentence, derived from the traditional breakfast that used to be served in British prisons. Porridge was critically acclaimed and is widely considered to be one of the greatest British sitcoms of all time. It is ranked No. 35 on the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes compiled by the British Film Institute in 2000. In 2004, Porridge placed seventh in a poll to find Britain's Best Sitcom. The series was followed by a 1978 sequel, Going Straight, which saw Barker reprise his character as he tries to avoid going back to prison. Porridge was revived in 2016 under the same name, with Fletcher's grandson beginning a prison sentence. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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