Summary
"Porridge" stars Ronnie Barker as habitual criminal Norman Stanley Fletcher in Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais's hugely popular British sitcom from the 1970s. The series revolves around Fletch as he serves his time at the fictional Slade Prison in rural Cumbria. He takes younger cellmate Lennie Godber (Richard Beckinsale) under his wing and tries to secure little victories against the prison officers, notably Mr Barrowclough (Brian Wilde), who Fletch is able to manipulate easily, and the militaristic no-nonsense Mr Mackay (Fulton Mackay). Fletch's world is populated by an ensemble of characters that includes Harry Grout (Peter Vaughn), Blanco Webb (David Jason), "Bunny" Warren (Sam Kelly), Jim McLaren (Tony Osoba), Lukewarm (Christopher Biggins), "Horrible" Ives (Ken Jones) and Harris (Ronald Lacey). Fletch's attractive daughter Ingrid (Patricia Blake) occasionally features on prison visits, much to the enjoyment of the other inmates. She eventually strikes up a relationship with Godber and the two become penfriends. "Porridge" originated in 1973 as a one-off episode in "Seven of One", a vehicle for Ronnie Barker that saw him starring in seven different sitcom pilots. The series proper premiered on BBC One in 1974 and ran for three series. Barker later reprised his role of Fletcher in the spin-off "Going Straight" and the feature-length film version of "Porridge". Barker appears as Fletch in the last few minutes of "Life Beyond the Box: Norman Stanley Fletcher," a docudrama shown in 2003 that reveals how Fletcher's later life panned out. "Porridge" is repeated regularly on the main BBC channels and Gold.
