Porridge

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

This rehash certainly didn't hit the spot for me, there was nothing in it that made me laugh, and that is sad for a comedy. When I saw the listing for it I thought they were showing one of the original series, I was left disappointed by this.

The gags in it were recycled from the original, the characters didn't have the presence of the originals, and they were trying to hard to be Norman Stanley Fletcher. Just seemed to be a poor copy and paste, and not something that was worth watching.

Whatever next by the BBC? A rehash of Only Fools and Horses? I hope they don't actually make any more of these rehash of old series, there have been a number of them, and they have all failed miserably. I had hoped by now they would spend my licence fee money on things more productive and new.

As a fan of the original series this is remarkable in being a 'modern mirroring' of the original characters and just as amusing! All the characters are played excellently - it's just a pity there was only one series... As a fan of the original series this is remarkable in being a 'modern mirroring' of the original characters and just as amusing! All the characters are played excellently - it's just a pity there was only one series... As a fan of the original series this is remarkable in being a 'modern mirroring' of the original characters and just as amusing! All the characters are played excellently - it's just a pity there was only one series...

Same old Equity faces wheeled out... similar plot lines and characters... annoying laughter track to cover up the lack of actual laughs... The original writers have been wheeled out and it shows... still trapped in the 70s but with new trendy terminology added for the kids.

If you have never seen the original this may pass as watchable if you can get past the torturous interference of the laugh track. (Although, not quite as annoying as the show-killing laugh track on Blackadder Goes Forth.)

If you have seen the original series then you may enjoy the novelty of the references to the original. But you'll probably be disappointed with this thin copy of a classic and timeless favorite.

Times have changed and while this episode would have slotted in quite nicely with the original 40 years ago, today it looks a bit... well, naff!

The BBC will probably commission a series out of this pilot because it no longer has a clue what comedy is. Auntie Beeb is now a toothless and irrelevant temple of political correctness and left- wing ideology... famous for not finding humor in anything... so this remake will fit well into their brief.

In the end this re-boot needs kicking into touch.

I'm not a huge fan of the original but I do enjoy it, so I was prepared not to like this resurrected version. But I was pleasantly surprised: a good story-line and likable characters. Yes, many of them seemed to be updated versions of those from the original but that just added to the fun. I could easily picture Mackay and Barraclough in place of Meekie and Braithwaite, and Harry Grout instead of Richie Weeks. However the one character we had seen before was recast. Fletch's dad (the original Fletcher's son) was seen in the sequel, 'Going Straight', where he was played by a young unknown actor called Nicholas Lyndhurst. Whatever happened to him?