Porridge at 50: How the BBC sitcom overcame a rocky start and became a beloved classic | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV

It's half a century since the doors of Slade Prison slammed shut on Norman Stanley Fletcher, Lennie Godber and their fellow inmates in Dick Clement and Ian La Frenai's brilliant sitcom. Yet even today the show, which ran for three seasons between 1974 and 1977 and attracted 20 million viewers, remains an oft-repeated staple of British daytime television.

This beloved gem grew out of “Seven of One,” a pilot season that aired in 1973 and aimed to find a comedy vehicle for Ronnie Barker. One of these, “Prisoner and Escort,” written by Clement and La Frenais, was given the green light and a full series with a new title referring to “being in prison” was born.

The only problem was that they had no intention of turning the single episode into a series.

“When we were asked to do this, it suddenly became discouraging. We visited various prisons to find inspiration, but became completely depressed,” admits 87-year-old La Frenais.

“Then we spoke to Jonathan Marshall, an ex-convict, about daily life in prison – that meeting was valuable,” adds his 86-year-old writing partner Clement. “He coined the phrase 'It's all about small victories', by which he means serving your sentence day by day and winning 'small victories' against the system. With that one little sentence we found Fletcher's character – it gave us an entry point.”

There is no sign of this bumpy start today.

Porridge was a beautifully polished comedy where every aspect was spot on. Twenty brilliantly written scripts were brought to life by Barker et al under the supervision of experienced BBC director Sydney Lotterby.

The California-based writers have nothing but admiration for the actors.

“We had more fun writing for Ronnie than ever before, just because of the feedback. He had the brain of a writer and an actor and would occasionally suggest a strange line or a little improvisation,” Clement enthuses.

“We wanted to make it clear that prison is a serious place and Ronnie fully recognized that and was happy to play both serious and funny moments. It was a perfect collaboration and an incredibly beautiful experience.”

As for Richard Beckinsale, who died in 1979 at the age of just 31, Ian La Frenais wonders how he even got his first job.

“He was a terrible reader and if he had had to audition for the part he wouldn't have got it, but he was the first to admit how bad he was,” he admits. “When he would give a long speech reading through the script, the rest of the cast would groan and say, 'Oh God!' But he took it in his stride.”

But the authors didn’t have to worry.

“Even at the first rehearsal he was still bad and often read the lines slightly wrong – it was as if he had just gotten out of bed,” laughs La Frenais. “But by the time we did the show he had transformed his performance and was wonderful.”

When casting the prison governors, the writers chose a modernist and a traditionalist. “Fulton Mackay as the old hardliner and Brian Wilde as the new, relatively liberal Barrowclough created conflict, and that was the heart of our comedy,” explains Clement.

“I worshiped him [Fulton]he was a joy to work with. He was very versatile and sophisticated. He loved acting and I remember Syd Lotterby, the director, saying that Fulton always wanted to do one more rehearsal; he would never stop.

“But he was a perfectionist, and in some ways that suited his role perfectly. The subtleties of his performance were great.”

La Frenais says the contribution of all four main characters should not be underestimated, including Wilde, who played the nervous Mr. Barrowclough and later starred in “Last of the Summer Wine.”

“Brian's role was one of the most difficult, but he pulled it off beautifully. He was sometimes overlooked in terms of dialogue, but he was still great.

“Brian was one of those character actors whose work, understated and subtle, was consistently excellent and unheralded. He ennobled Mr. Barrowclough with compassion and good-natured persistence that never allowed him to seem pathetic or ridiculous.”

As for the other inmates, the writers created a wide range of characters, including the friendly Harry Grout, aka Grouty, played by Peter Vaughan, and Lukewarm, starring the young Christopher Biggins.

“We wanted a gay character [Lukewarm] in Slade Prison because it reflected reality,” Clement explains. “I heard one or two people not long ago think that some of the comments were no longer appropriate now, in a more politically sensitive time.

“But I contest that because we wanted to cover up the fact that there were homosexuals in prison. Fletcher's attitude towards them was one of total tolerance, and that was more important to me – to show that he completely accepted them.”

Fortunately, porridge comes from a time that was not plagued by the wokeism that seems to influence every aspect of society these days, including entertainment.

Political correctness and the limitations it can impose on writers, especially those specializing in comedy, have not influenced Clement and La Frenais.

“We don't just write comedies, we cover other genres too,” says Clement, who – along with La Frenais – is currently writing Betrayal, which looks at the fall of the Ottoman Empire. “It's supposed to run for eight hours on TV. We haven't secured a channel yet because we're still researching and writing.”

“That's not to say there aren't topics you have to tread carefully with – there always are – but when writing Porridge we didn't feel those limitations.

“Today we are very aware of cultural diversity and we make sure that we take it into account when we write something. But sometimes I am bothered by the way writers and broadcasters deal with it. Sometimes I feel like people get confused.”

Although Clement and La Frenais are capable of creating any class of character, they are particularly good at creating working-class examples.

I wonder if the writers had working-class heroes.

“Not necessarily, but when we started writing, Ian and I were very influenced by the British films of the time that portrayed the working class, like Saturday Night Till Sunday Morning and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner,” explains Clement. “And of course the first thing we wrote, The Likely Lads, was about two working-class lads. I think we felt more comfortable writing about people battling against all the odds rather than big shots who had already made it.”

In 1977, the Slade Prison finally closed its bars, but a sequel, Going Straight, followed Fletcher's life after his release.

While the series was entertaining, it lacked the punch and depth of its predecessor.

In 2017, the BBC aired a remake of Porridge, this time focusing on Fletcher's grandson Nigel and starring Kevin Bishop. Much to the writers' disappointment, the film was never re-commissioned.

“I thought it worked well and the reaction from the studio audience in Manchester was warm and genuine,” recalls Clement, who does not believe the idea will be revisited. “It's time to move on.”

But the appeal of Porridge remains and explains why the series is rightly considered a true classic. Dick Clement adds of the sitcom's success: “It's hard to say what made the series so successful, although having Ronnie Barker in the lead role was a major factor. When something works, you don't want to rip the petals off the rose.”

“But perhaps the best sitcoms on TV are a captivity situation, and Porridge was an obvious captivity situation, both literally and figuratively. Then add to that a great cast and wonderful direction from Syd Lotterby and Bingo!”

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