First appearance of Banyard, the former dentist turned prisoner.
Last appearance of Ives in the series, due to Ken Jones also appearing in The Squirrels (1974), though he did appear in Porridge (1979).
"Banyard" ('the defrocked dentist') is in prison for an unspecified sexual crime and is therefore a sex offender or "nonce" (in prisoner's slang). If the series had been completely accurate, the other prisoners would have had nothing to do with him or more likely have attacked him. He would almost certainly have been kept under segregation (known as Rule 43,) with other sex offenders, informers and 'vulnerable' inmates away from the general population, for his own protection and safety.
This opening episode was the highest charting of the second series (albeit not the highest rated), reaching 12th place with an audience of 7.1 million under the JICTAR ratings system.
This was the first appearance of Richard Beckinsale in the series since A Day Out (1974), though it's notable that he no longer has a Birmingham accent from this point onwards.
In his 1988 autobiography "It's Hello from Him!", Ronnie Barker recalled: "In early Porridges, Richard tried to do a Birmingham accent, but he gave up about three weeks in. [...] while Richard was working on his Birmingham and failing to get it right, dear old Fulton [Mackay], Scottish as whisky, was fondly imagining that he was talking Cockney like me."
In his 1988 autobiography "It's Hello from Him!", Ronnie Barker recalled: "In early Porridges, Richard tried to do a Birmingham accent, but he gave up about three weeks in. [...] while Richard was working on his Birmingham and failing to get it right, dear old Fulton [Mackay], Scottish as whisky, was fondly imagining that he was talking Cockney like me."