Porridge

When talking about the US version of Porridge, writers Clement & La Frenais talked about what was lacking was that their central character was not Norman Stanley Fletcher. The actor cast played some other variation of the written character after it had gone thorough the hands of various network executives.

In this updated reworking the writers know they need Fletcher. Kevin Bishop plays the grandson of Ronnie Barker's character. Nigel Norman Fletcher a younger cyber criminal doing five years porridge at Wakely Prison. He still has some mannerisms of his grandfather, eking out little victories. His new cell mate is an old lag who did time at Slade prison four decades ago with his grandfather and uncle Godber. The only disappointing note for me was Nicholas Lyndhurst (Fletcher's son in the spin off, Going Straight) did not play Nigel's dad.

After that the ingredients are very much like the original series. In this one off, Nigel has to do a favour in cleansing the online records of the prison hardman while staying one step ahead of Prison Officer Meekie.

Officers Meekie and Braithwaite are just thinly disguised versions of MacKay and Barrowclough as the writers know that they were an important part of Porridge hence why the spin off Going Straight did not work as these characters were missing.

There were several laughs here and the one off episode showed promise although I noted the writers themselves pilfered a bit from their original show.

If you want to see a tale of the state of British comedy, this would be the ideal thing to show visiting aliens.

Totally completely and utterly unnecessary, totally completely and utterly weak writing, weak cast, no spark, no zip, trying to hard not to offend and single person in the universe whilst trying to be funny isn't possible.

A waste of screen time. Fletch, Lenny and MacKay must be sitting with their heads in their hands wondering why on earth they bothered.

Bearing the name of a classic 70s comedy, with the same.writers, a great show this does not make. You only need to look at the appallingly bad Rock and Chips and that other Fools and Horses spin off.

The difference between porridge in the 1970's and now is the fact that Ronnie Barker was a proper funny comedy actor, with the odd exception most actors now are products of talent shows. The other problem is that back in the 70's all you had to do was concentrate on the comedy, now, the first thing is making sure the programme is politically correct and the humour is non funny and non offensive.

The BBC made these 'one off's' knowing full well that they'd commission a series of the one that did the best. And despite all that they've still opted to make a series of Porridge, despite it being a weak attempt to bring the once beloved show into the 21st Century.

Still Open All Hours I can live with, it's got the connection to Ronnie Barker through Sir David Jason. It's not great, but it's alright. This on the other hand was poor. I know it's got the same writers as before and that Kevin Bishop isn't without charm, but come on, can't the people who like this just buy the DVD's of the original instead.

I despair at the state of British comedy, I really do.

Unlike the Are you being served return, they opted for present day, with a host of new characters, albeit a set of characters that mirror those from the original run very closely.

I've always liked Kevin Bishop, he's a very funny actor who seems to have been around a good while, he made a good job of bringing the new 'Fletch' to us.

The show was definitely stolen by Mark Bonnar who played Mr Meekie brilliantly, very reminiscent of Mr Mr Mackay, not just in name, but delivery, he was fantastic.

One thing I've learned watching this and AYBS is the format of the show is that successful, that somehow it just works. For it to work it has to have good characters, funny moments and stand the test of time.

This was funny, and I can see this working well as a series.

More Fletch please. 7/10