Porridge (1979)

Director:

Dick Clement

Writers:

Dick Clement (written by)
Ian La Frenais (written by)

Release Date:

12 August 1979 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Fletcher's inside story - even funnier as a film.

Plot:

This prison comedy is based on the popular British televison series of the same name. Long time Slade...

Plot Keywords:

Prison | Sequel | Based On TV Series | Independent Film | Title Spoken By Character

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Ronnie Barker	...	Norman Stanley Fletcher
Richard Beckinsale	...	Lennie Godber
Fulton Mackay	...	Mackay
Brian Wilde	...	Barrowclough
Peter Vaughan	...	Grouty
Julian Holloway	...	Bainbridge
Geoffrey Bayldon	...	Governor
Christopher Godwin	...	Beal
Barrie Rutter	...	Oakes
Daniel Peacock	...	Rudge
Sam Kelly	...	Bunny Warren
Ken Jones	...	Ives
Philip Locke	...	Banyard
Gorden Kaye	...	Dines
Oliver Smith	...	McMillan

Also Known As:

Doing Time (USA)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Australia:G | Finland:S | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Chelmsford Prison, Chelmsford, Essex, England, UK

Company:

Witzend Productions

Trivia:

This is the last film appearance by Richard Beckinsale.

Quotes:

Fletcher: You're not doing yourself any favours, are you Banyard? All you're doing is getting up other people's noses.
Banyard: We have certain rights.
Fletcher: No we don't, we're in the nick.
Ives: I suppose you think you're entitled to something better just because you went to a public school, is that it?
Banyard: On the contrary, Ives, I'm well used to this kind of food, I went to Harrow.
Fletcher: Oh that's a good advert for the public school system, prepares you for the nick. Course it's harder in here for him than for most of us, 'cause he has had further to drop. Professional man, you see. Dentist. Tragic.
Ives: What do you mean, Fletcher, 'tragic'? It's no laughing matter for that woman he had under the laughing gas.
Banyard: There's no need for that, Ives. We don't have to keep unearthing each other's past, I'm paying for my peccadilloes.
Fletcher: Oh that's good. If you're paying I'll have a large one.
Bunny Warren: What's a peccadillo?
[...]

Movie Connections:

References "Starsky and Hutch" (1975)

Soundtrack:

HIT ME WITH YOUR RHYTHM STICK

Worth doing time for!

Finally got this on disk the other month. And it was worth the wait. As an avid Porridge and Ronnie Barker fan, I thought the film done justice to a really funny series. Other movie spin offs have been mundane(On the Buses, for example), but this one was well written and well acted. Starring the original cast from the series (apart from Christopher Biggins), it continued Norman Stanley Fletcher's fight against the system. Even though it did contain a couple of jokes from the program, its a mere overlook to a really funny film. Even Fletcher with his little scams (McKays teeth bein gone example) have trasferred well to the big screen version. This is one film you wouldn't want to do time!