Porridge

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.

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.

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.

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.