Porridge

I was more than pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. I absolutely love the original and know it inside out - I often quote from the original Porridge with friends and family (e.g. " I read a book one, Green it was"; "When I think of me going home to my wife...................Sometimes I wish I was in here with you lot"; the list goes on and on. So having read poor reviews from the luvies at the Guardian and Telegraph along the lines of it was a very poor replica, my expectations were set low. Perhaps that explains why I enjoyed it: low expectations. Bishop is excellent ; OK he is doing a bit of an impression of Fletch, but it is an excellent and convincing one and I got drawn into his character in a similar way I did with Barker's Fletch. The ensemble cast is very strong: some brilliant performances. The scene with the lad on the phone to his girlfriend with Fletch telling him what to say had me in stitches. You can never get near the original. That was absolute perfection. Consign that to history. But I felt privileged to be able to watch such a strong cast perform a script from the original writers. The indelible DNA of those two writers is evident in the dialogue and the construct of the jokes and situations, which is a bit like getting into a warm bath. Lovely to see all of this working and being brought back to life in this sitcom. More please. I will be watching it. As for the luvies, I will give them 2 fingers from Fletch through the keyhole.

Firstly, this is not a remake, as this is set now and Fletch is the grandson of Norman Stanley Fletcher. Obviously it draws inspiration from the 70s sitcom, and Kevin Bishop does a fantastic impression of Ronnie Barker, which works as the similarities running in the family would be plausible. Also Mark Bonnar is brilliant too I think and looks like he revels in the role of the modern day Mackay.

It's far too easy to quickly judge this and dismiss it, as I almost did, but glad I didn't as considering the giant shadows that were cast before them and footsteps they had to fill, I think the 2 leads were an inspired choice of casting, and couldn't imagine anyone else pulling it off nearly as well.

I notice Dick Clement and Ian Le Frenais are credited with writing these new episodes as well, so the humour is obviously similar, but the scripts we know are nothing without the perfect delivery and I think everyone in this series delivered.

Really impressed, and grateful that the wonderful world of Norman Stanley Fletcher and Fulton Mackay lives on.

While looking for an alternative TV Comedy, I decided to check out TV Gold and saw Porridge.

Mistakenly I assumed it was the original TV series, which is one of my absolute all time favourite shows.

But it turned out to be the latest programme, so I thought I'd give it a go.

I don't know how this excruciating garbage ever got a Pilot Episode, let alone commissioned into a regular show.

At the very least Auntie finally called time after just 1 Series, a heartfelt relief for all us fans of the original show.

And the dear departed Ronnie Barker, can finally have peace, and stop spinning in his grave.

The original was superb, a classic, a perfect example of good writing And great acting by perfectly cast actors. This is the polar opposite.

I need to be honest I didn't make it to the end, is was so bad it was unwatchable if you have seen the original. Even if you had not seen the original I don't think it works as a comedy, it's lame and dated.

I've seen 2 minutes of this pathetic remake. Why oh why would anybody want to make a remake of the wonderful Porridge with the late great Ronnie Barker. His comedy timing was impeccable. As for this rubbish, you certainly can't call it comedy, the timings were late and it certainly was not impeccable. I've just wasted 2 minutes of my life and BBC I'll forgive you!!!!!!