Porridge and Motherland earn full series on BBC". BBC News. 6 October 2016 . Retrieved 6 October 2016. When Fletcher and Godber are discovered selling their own special home brew, they're dragged up before the governor. Unfortunately for them, it happens that the governor is trying out a new “trustee” at the very same time. Urwin, played by Dudley Sutton (best known as Tinker in Lovejoy in the eighties and nineties) has been on his best behaviour so that he can arrive in this trusted position – where he can take the governor hostage and hold him to ransom for his freedom. Norman Stanley Fletcher, you have pleaded guilty to the charges brought by this court, and it is now my duty to pass sentence. You are an habitual criminal, who accepts arrest as an occupational hazard, and presumably accepts imprisonment in the same casual manner. We therefore feel constrained to commit you to the maximum term allowed for these offences; you will go to prison for five years. The BBC was forced to look around for locations because the Home Office refused permission for any production filming inside or outside a real prison. Instead the main gatehouse of the disused St Albans prison (in the town's Victoria Street) was used in the opening credits. Exteriors were first filmed at a psychiatric hospital near Watford. However, after the completion of the second series, the hospital withdrew permission for more filming following complaints from patients' families. Another institution near Ealing was then used for the third series. [6] Scenes within cells and offices were filmed at the BBC's London studios, but for shots of the wider prison interior, series production designer Tim Gleeson converted an old water tank, used at Ealing Studios for underwater filming, into a multi-storey set. [7]

Christmas has come to Slade Prison. Godber, with his innocent nature, likes the idea of Christmas, but Fletcher tells him that Christmas in prison is little different to any other day. Godber points out that there are carol singers, but Fletcher remarks that they are there to drown out the sound of Tommy Slocombe's tunnelling. During it’s three year run there were two Porridge Christmas specials. Today we’re looking at the first screened after series two, in 1975 – No Way Out. Production [ edit ] Development [ edit ] The frontage of the former St Albans Prison was used as the fictitious H.M. Prison Slade in Cumberland. The building is now a register office. Unfortunately he finds himself putting his own plans on hold as Harry Grout enlists his help. However sometimes things don’t always turn out so bad. of an unfortunate Fletch who has plans of his own for Christmas, namely getting himself a stay in the prison hospital for Christmas. Webber, Richard (2005). Porridge: The Complete Scripts and Series Guide. London: Headline Book Publishing. ISBN 0-7553-1535-9

BBC Comedy: Porridge

Harry Grout is planning an escape for a fellow prisoner Tommy Slocombe. Everybody has a part to play in Grouty’s masterplan as members of the prison choir. Novelisations of the three series of Porridge and the film were issued by BBC Books, as well as an adaptation of Going Straight. BBC Enterprises released an LP record featuring two Porridge episodes, "A Night In" and "Heartbreak Hotel" in 1977.(REB 270) Two volumes of audio cassette releases ('Porridge' and 'More Porridge') comprising four episodes each, including the two episodes from the vinyl release, were issued in the mid-1990s, and later re-released on CD. A third volume of four episodes ('A Third Helping') was released on cassette in 2002. Mr Barrowclough is given the job of escorting Fletcher to hospital, although he finds the very edgy Fletcher's grumbling a dampener on his day. At the hospital, a young nurse gives Fletcher a "Christmas card", which turns out to be a fake passport for Tommy Slocombe. Grouty also asks that Fletcher and Godber help with the choir, but also insists that Fletcher provides him with a bicycle.

No Way Out" is the first Christmas special of the BBC sitcom Porridge. It first aired on 24 December 1975. [1] In this episode, prisoner Tommy Slocombe makes an escape attempt in the lead-up to Christmas. The Desperate Hours” is a less festively-themed, more seriously-styled but still extremely funny episode. It turns out that Urwin has been up for psychiatric evaluation several times, but each time refused. Sutton – still dark-haired and relatively young here – gives a very sympathetic performance, portraying a man at his last ebb and clearly out of his depth, but still potentially very dangerous. Because it's Porridge, there's never any sense that anyone's in any real danger, but the tension still ratchets up at times. The jokes are never very far away, though, most of it at Barraclough's expense. Before this he was always characterised as well-meaning and a bit naïve, but here that pushes over into incompetence, particularly when he botches the hostage protocols by drugging the wrong coffee. Subsequently, Barker is reported to have said that he regretted recording himself as the judge, [ citation needed] a role subsequently played by Maurice Denham in two episodes of the third series. Watts, Halina (29 August 2016). "Porridge fans ask for more servings". Daily Mirror . Retrieved 6 October 2016. Ronnie Barker was the author of Fletcher's Book of Rhyming Slang (Pan, 1979), which includes an introduction by 'Fletch'.

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A genuine neologism was "nerk", which was used in place of the more offensive " berk". "Berk" has changed meaning since its inception and is generally used now to mean "fool" while the original rhyming slang meaning refers to female genitalia (via 'Berkeley Hunt'). Another term was "scrote" (presumably derived from scrotum), meaning a nasty, unpleasant person. The Desperate Hours" is the second Christmas special of the BBC sitcom Porridge. It first aired on 24 December 1976. [1] In this episode, Fletcher and Godber are in trouble for brewing liquor in the lead-up to Christmas, but are caught up in a hostage situation in the Governor's office. It was the only episode of Porridge to air in 1976. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christmas_television_episodes_and_specials_in_the_United_Kingdom

Following the example of other sitcom crossovers, such as Dad's Army, Steptoe and Son and The Likely Lads, a feature-length version of Porridge was made in 1979. Barker again starred as Fletcher, and most of the supporting cast also returned. Unlike the television series, it was actually filmed at a real prison as HMP Chelmsford was temporarily vacant following a fire.Upstart Crow-incredibly clever and there is perhaps a surprising warmth about the two Christmas specials. Porridge was immensely popular with British prisoners. Erwin James, an ex-prisoner who writes a bi-weekly column for The Guardian newspaper, stated that: ITV's Victoria reigns over BBC's Are You Being Served? and Porridge revivals". BBC News. 5 September 2016 . Retrieved 6 October 2016. Meanwhile Fletch, has plans of his own for Christmas, namely getting himself a stay in the prison hospital for Christmas.