Porridge contains all the essential ingredients needed
to make a classic comedy.
Take a lovable rogue, pair him with a naive new inmate,
then add a hard-nosed prison officer. The result?
A sitcom, which dared to go where no other sitcom had gone before -
prison.
I said to her the other day, "You know, Isabel, I shall never get over you.
"I'll have to get up and go around."
It's 40 years since we tasted our first spoonful of Porridge.
Set in the fictional Slade Prison,
it brought together two of our greatest comic actors -
Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale.
A sitcom stands or falls by its writing
and what sets apart Porridge writers Dick Clement
and Ian La Frenais, is the essence of truth in their dialogue.
What have you men got there?
Balls, Mr MacKay.
Why the different sizes?
That's life, sir.
It is one of the funniest things ever written.
They're real people, they're real characters.
They're not just comedy characters.
People felt that they really knew those characters
and felt very, very affectionate towards them.
If you want the system to do something for us blokes in here,
give us more freedom, better grub, conjugal visits.
Give you what?
Conjugals. From the Latin "conjugari" meaning "to have it away".
Every line counts. It's immaculately written.
There's not a wasted line or syllable.
You never really see a joke coming.
It's always really cleverly embedded in the way people talk.
You mean the wives just visit and spend the whole weekend?
Conjugating, yeah.
That's more than I'm allowed at home.
From the actors' point of view, their scripts were a gift.
The great thing about Dick
and Ian's writing was just the simple truthfulness of it.
Put them with Ronnie Barker and history is made
and is made to this day.
Dad, look. I'm wearing a bra!
Ronnie said to me one day, "You're only as good as your material,"
and of course it's absolutely true.
Although Fletch, Godber and their fellow inmates were
stuck inside the prison walls, the story of Porridge stretches
from Newcastle to west London, from Chelmsford to the Hollywood Hills.
In this definitive series,
we get the inside story from the men who created it.
Well, the sun's out. You can say something funny now.
No, too late.
Tonight we continue the story of Porridge.
We find out why the TV series had to end.
It came as a shock to me, because it was so successful.
We take a look at the rarely seen Going Straight,
that follows Fletch and Godber on the outside.
Oi, never mind all that.
Take your hand off my daughter's left cheek, please.
We go behind the scenes of the Porridge movie.
I mean, this place gets on your nerves after a bit.
And we reveal Gold viewers' choice for their favourite Porridge moment.
Oh, sorry, son.
Set within the prison walls with few opportunities to write
wildly comic situations, Porridge relied heavily on brilliant
characters rather than complex plots.
Come on, Warren. Follow me.
Where to? Back to your cell.
I'm going to conduct a thorough search and if I find anything
resembling a bicycle pump in your trousers you're for it.
Porridge isn't one of those sitcoms where they say,
"Oh, this week we're all putting on a panto in the prison
"and we've all got to dress up as women" or whatever.
That is not...that would be imposing something that's a funny situation on it.
Whereas the situations are quite real
and the jokes come out of characters.
All of their writing doesn't feel like joke, joke, joke.
It feels like characters talking.
Perhaps he's a celebrity.
He might be a rock star on a drug bust.
Perhaps he's gone up for a... for a press conference, like?
No. He's not a rock star.
He was short and bald and flatfooted.
Oh. Could be Elton John?
They're writing like Dickens.
They're writing true characters which were
found on the streets or recognisable and putting them on television.
And that's just fabulous.
The plots are um...are usually quite gentle.
And you know, particularly within
the situation of the prison you know, the very mundane things
become the kind of main thrust of, you know, of the plot.
I don't know quite how to put this, gentlemen
but there is a thief among us.
Someone has crept into my cell
and lifted a two-pound tin of pineapple chunks.
Pineapple chunks!
We asked Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais to choose their
favourite moment that sums up the simplistic plot lines of Porridge.
'On Saturday afternoon when you were all watching the football match,'
Mr Malone and me were detailed by Mr MacKay to do an RSC.
A what?
A random security check.
'A despicable infringement of civil liberties.'
Yes, well, the practice is justified, Fletcher,
when one finds stolen tins of pineapple chunks.
It's great to see Fletcher on the back foot.
Really on the back foot at the beginning of the ep.
It's a rare moment to see Fletcher that discombobulated.
If I had reported that find, Fletcher,
you would have lost this job, you would have had
loss of privileges and very likely solitary confinement.
What can I say, Mr Barraclough?
You can promise me to keep your nose clean.
Fletcher shoots this look, meaning, "I dodged a bullet. Got away with that one".
I love the dynamic of it.
The morality of the right or the wrong twists completely.
Fletcher's very much in the wrong
and Barraclough wants to take advantage of that.
What is happening to this prison?
There's a strong criminal element in here, sir.
And then it's that lovely moment
when he suddenly sees that he can turn the whole situation to
his advantage and that's what again gives the scene a lovely shape.
Now, by the way, the tin of pineapple,
did you manage to return it to the food store, sir?
Not exactly, no. See I...
Well, I took it home and the wife did a gammon steak Hawaii.
'Oh, very nice. Oh, gammon steak Hawaii, very nice.'
Oh. So it's been consumed, has it?
Well, I didn't intend to, you see, but the wife found it
and insisted that we ate it.
There was very little I could do about it.
Yeah, only eat it. Under protest.
Under protest and on top of gammon. Yeah, very nice.
We were really immensely pleased that we'd actually made
a really compelling story about a can of pineapples.
And it's beautifully, beautifully played by the two of them.
It's just immaculate.
I would suggest that we purchase another tin of pineapple
and put it back in the food store.
We? What, is that the royal "we" you mean?
I can't just go trolling down to the village store at will, you know.
I'm aware of that, Fletcher. No, I shall get it.
Ah, well. You pay for it.
Coming up - we head to LA to discover the US version of Porridge
that has rarely been broadcast in the UK before.
We never found a Ronnie Barker.
See those flasks? I want you to fill one for me.
From here?
And find out if Norman Stanley Fletcher
could cut it in the outside world.
Must be your first legitimate job in...how long is it?
Ever.
and Ian La Frenais, have been based in Los Angeles since 1975.
With two series of Porridge reaching audiences
of up to 17 million viewers in the UK, they were hot property.
It's very seductive to be in a place where you see snow-capped
mountains and you can ski within two hours and within 45 minutes...
Not that I ever have.
No and 45 minutes from our houses we can surf.
Not that we've done that either.
No, haven't done that either but it's nice to know you can.
Yeah, and an hour's drive, there's a big hang gliding centre. We don't intend to do that.
No, no, it's a bit late for that.
Back in the mid-seventies,
the young writers grabbed at the chance to pen a pilot for
US network ABC and they sought all the usual Hollywood-style trappings.
When I first came here,
like a lot of Brits, I bought an enormous American car.
When we went to London once,
you parked that bloody thing in the car park of our office in Hollywood.
And... I did. And a homeless person moved into it.
The pilot was a version of Porridge, renamed On The Rocks.
Rarely seen in the UK, it's barely recognisable with its jaunty
theme tune and a brand-new Fletcher.
I'm only here due to tragic circumstances.
What happened?
I got caught.
We were quite uncomfortable in some ways,
because we never found a Ronnie Barker.
And various people were considered and we ended up with a guy
who was a Puerto Rican actor called Jose Perez.
I guess there was some thinking there somewhere that
Puerto Rican was the equivalent of Cockney.
Wasn't that limp on the other leg last time?
It spread, Doc.
He's like a Puerto Rican guy with a bit of an attitude and cheeky
and buck-the-system. And he had that, I mean he just had that.
He wasn't naturally a comic actor.
See those flasks? I want you to fill one for me.
From here?
But the series was commissioned and Dick and Ian transplanted
some of their most successful Porridge scripts word for word.
Suffer from any illness?
Bad feet.
Paid a recent visit to a doctor or hospital?
Only with me bad feet.
Are you now or have you ever been a practising homosexual?
With these feet?
We were the only people I think to this day who actually
adapted our own show.
So that you know,
we had nobody else to blame.
Huh, really?
Writing a US series was a huge undertaking.
Writing 25 shows.
The pressure of writing that is really incredible.
In an American sitcom there would be 48 writers.
And each week they'd do another different episode
and the words all start to sound the same.
Everybody does a one-liner.
It saddens me to see you back.
Well, to tell you the truth, I'm not so thrilled to be here myself.
American sitcoms are just awful. I've been there, I know.
The process is dreadful.
The punishing US sitcom filming schedule was exhausting.
Oh, shoot!
Taping the shows was a hard slog. Two audiences. Retakes, retakes.
We're used to being in the BBC club bar at nine after
a taping of Porridge.
And after here we rarely left before one in the morning.
Good thing you weren't carrying any contraband.
Good thing he didn't look under my hat.
I think we're the only people in the history of American
television who have turned down a series, a second series.
So... But I don't regret it,
because I really...I'd got to the point where it wasn't fun.
Still in LA, Dick and Ian turned their hand to writing the third series of Porridge
and took it back to more familiar surroundings and faces.
Walking into that rehearsal room in Acton and
sitting down with a British cast and drinking the horrible coffee -
it was just, it was like going back to your favourite pub.
It was such a lovely feeling.
It was a joy revisiting the original characters. Couldn't wait.
Here, look. What are they?
Dunno. Could be amphetamines or bennies.
Whose?
Benzedrine. How'd they get in your tea?
Well, they must have dropped in from above.
Oh, bennies from heaven.
Fletch, Godber and the crew were arguably on their best-ever comic form.
Oh!
It was a great relief to be writing English dialogue again.
The second series was better than the first series of Porridge.
And I think then the third series - we were better.
We felt that our craft was better.
Not content to rest on their comedy laurels, Dick and Ian
didn't hesitate to bring new characters into Slade Prison.
All right, you men.
This is Rawley, who will be sharing a cell with Fletcher and Godber.
In a terrific twist of sitcom poetic justice...
God preserve us.
..Fletch found himself sharing a cell with the very judge
who'd sentenced him.
Your streets are full of rich kids riding bicycles, ain't they -
waving tennis racquets about.
Lovely hand-carved privet hedges and big tall elm trees.
No problems in your streets, are there?
Oh, yes, there are.
I had to spend £1,500 last year on Dutch elm disease.
Yeah, I bet you went to a private doctor with it, though, didn't you?
The third series was to be the last
and although Porridge was still riding high in the ratings,
the final episode reached our TV screens on March 25th 1977.
So me and Barbara...well, you don't know Barbara -
she's my friend at work.
We fancy going to Rimini, that's on the Adriatic.
It's either Rimini or Porto Fino,
which is supposed to be rather smart.
I gathered that Ronnie called time on the series.
For him, of course, it probably was the right decision.
Sad for the rest of us.
It came as a shock to me because it was so successful
and so different from everything and frankly I was a bit disappointed.
But you know, I understand Ronnie. He didn't want to be
thought of as just Fletcher.
What was it you told young Lennie?
"If you can't do the time, don't do the crime."
How do you know I told Godber that?
Well, he told me in one of his letters.
Oh, I see. Ha-ha ha, hello.
We wanted to bring Porridge to a conclusion
and we thought Godber being released was the right way to go.
First thing you do, when you get up to Birmingham New Street there.
You get off the train and you go into the nearest bar, you order
yourself a pint of best bitter and you drink to your old mate, right?
I don't think I'm going to Birmingham. Oh?
Was thinking of going to Rimini with a friend.
We thought May, cos it's less touristy then.
The series has run for a few years, it's like, you know, you've
been in that cell with them and that relationship's coming to an end.
And they're going to miss each other.
Chocolate?
Fruit and nut.
Plain.
Plain chocolate.
It was important to show that it... that Fletcher was affected by it.
That was an extra dimension that we weren't afraid of playing.
So yes, there was a lot of sentiment in the last one.
I'd have never made the distance without you, Fletch.
Look, don't make me out to be no hero, son.
I wasn't. Father figure, maybe.
Well, I ain't been no great shakes as a dad.
Been no great shakes at anything, really.
Well, you have to me, Fletch.
But you can count on me. I'm not coming back.
It's what we all say, innit - but you better mean it, Godber.
Cos you've got your whole life in front of you, you know.
There were some laughs as well but it is quite a poignant episode.
It's always sad when a source of income finishes.
But Porridge didn't quite end there.
This was not to be the last of Godber and Fletch on our televisions.
Going Straight was Porridge on the outside.
Rarely repeated on TV, the six-part series explored how Fletch
and Godber moved on with their lives to varying levels of success.
We always tried to keep a touchstone with reality, particularly
for a middle-aged prisoner, to come into the outside world.
What was the episode title? Fingers on buzzers. Come on.
Going To Be All Right? No, that was the later one.
Going Home, thank you.
We must have racked our brains for weeks over that title.
Going Home?
Oi! Never mind all that.
Take your hand off my daughter's left cheek, please.
We had Godber, we had Patricia Brake and we had Nicholas Lyndhurst
playing his son, which...who was very funny, actually. Terrific.
What time is it? Ten to.
I'm late, then.
I think the character of Fletcher is not
quite as smooth in Going Straight.
He has... He's not quite as in command as he is in Porridge.
A long time ago, I put aside a little nest egg.
You mean like post office savings, building society,
something like that?
No, no, not exactly like that, no.
Uh...my particular nest egg is,
well, it's buried in a turnip field in Essex.
Well, wouldn't it have been safer in a bank?
No. It was a bank it come out of.
On the outside, he's a small-time petty crook.
It's all he knows, really.
He doesn't have a trade, doesn't quite know how to get by.
Godber, of course, is getting on with it.
He's got a job, he's got his lorry and he's got a relationship with me.
So yes, they become the kind of parents in the house
and that must have been quite hard.
Keeping in mind the reality of life after prison, Dick and Ian waited
until episode four before Fletch finally got a job as a hotel night-watchman.
Must be your first legitimate job in...how long is it?
Ever.
There is Fletcher learning the ropes from Godber,
who has got a job and is established.
There is a role reversal there. I'm not taken in, you know. What?
All this, storming out the house in your carpet slippers cos
Ingrid upset you. The real reason is cos you've lost your nerve.
Just a minute... The first honest job you've ever had and you just can't face it.
But it didn't take long for Fletch to get into his stride.
If you want a room here, you've got to put cash on the nail.
Oh, come on, Fletch, you know me.
Yeah, exactly. That's why I want cash on the nail.
Earning very little and with an expensive wedding on the cards,
Fletch was tempted back into crime on the very day of Godber
and Ingrid's nuptials.
There's that wonderful moment, isn't there, when towards the end,
when he's doing it and he's in a pet shop and he looks at caged birds.
'You hear the slam of the doors.'
'You think, "I'm going back there if I do this" and he doesn't do it.'
Can I help you, sir?
Mmm?
Can I help you, sir?
Oh, no, no. Only I can do that.
Despite strong ratings and reprising Fletch and Godber, Going Straight
didn't seem to have the impact of its predecessor.
Writing Going Straight, you knew that the audience
and the critics would prefer him inside.
People just said, "Yeah, not quite there."
But it still got nominated, didn't it, for a BAFTA. Yeah.
People tend to forget how many figures,
how many people actually watched Going Straight.
I mean, it was still a hit.
Sitcoms are sometimes through luck,
sometimes through judgment based on a brilliantly fine
balance of how these characters relate to each other.
And the moment you change that, in a lot of sitcoms it changes
the dynamic and I think Going Straight, while funny,
doesn't have the magic of Porridge.
So it's like the second Stone Roses album.
They had an impossible job - you can't follow this up.
Hey, what you going to do with that bird? Seeing as you left the house,
I'm going to ask her back to my place. No, no, no... Oh, I see...
Coming up - Fletch and Godber are on the big screen and back inside.
This place gets on your nerves after a bit.
It was the toughest film I got to make.
And we see their final scenes together.
Where are we? Who is it?
Don't worry, Len. Our ordeal is over.
Yeah, it was quite an unusual position, I suppose, in 1979, being
somebody who had lost a parent, but had this kind of massive archive.
Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais had been writing successful comedies
together for ten years when they created Porridge in 1974.
Here, here, here, here, here.
He does bird impressions.
With three hugely successful TV series, On The Rocks, stateside,
and the spin-off of Going Straight...
Where you been? Work.
Work? Pull the other one.
I heard you haven't got another one.
..Porridge was an integral part of our comedy heritage.
The only front left unconquered was the big screen and in 1979,
Porridge became a movie.
Jab, jab. It's the big one next week, sir.
Who was that?
Couple of escaped convicts.
Oh.
To make the leap to the big screen
and to give it a more edgy feel than the TV series, Dick and Ian wanted
an authentic location and a prison was found that ticked all the boxes.
We sent a huge fan to Chelmsford in Essex
to see for himself where the film was made.
He has a very personal connection with Porridge.
He's the only other actor who has ever played Fletch,
taking the role onto the stage.
Unsurprisingly, it's very difficult to get permission to film inside
a prison, but back in 1979 the film had two things going for it.
One, the assistant governor was a massive fan of the series, and
two, the building was empty due to some very unforeseen circumstances.
Chelmsford Jail in Essex had recently hit the headlines
when it burnt down in a terrifying fire.
Prison staff managed to rescue all 217 prisoners.
Now housing inmates again rather than a film crew,
two of Chelmsford's prison officers have become
custodians of the jail's history.
March 1978, the fire started in the chapel.
There was some speculation that it might have been foul play.
Foul play, yeah. Disgruntled prisoner. Disgruntled prisoners.
But more likely it was a heating pipe that was too close to the wood.
It was also good to say that the er...the prisoner officers,
there was no-one killed. No-one at all?
Officers and prisoners were classed as heroes.
And here we have some of the devastation that you can see afterwards.
Looks like the Blitz, doesn't it? Amazing, yeah.
And it's amazing to think that they managed to rebuild it. Yeah.
Prison officers were used as extras on the movie,
bringing them into close contact with the stars.
Now that is a great picture.
There is Ronnie Barker himself as Fletch, serving
porridge in Porridge the movie, to a large amount of prison officers,
one of who is Fulton MacKay
and you can see Brian Wilde there at the back as Mr Barraclough,
but the rest to me look like genuine prison officers.
The warders enjoyed the experience and...
Absolutely. They still talk about it today.
Being such a massive fan of the Porridge series and the film, it's
incredible to come to places like this is where it was actually filmed.
You really get that sense that these comedy greats were actually here,
making history.
It was a massive thing, Porridge. It was a national institution.
With the location secured, the cast and crew were assembled
and Porridge the movie sprung into life.
The film was set in the year before the TV series finished, with
Fletch and Godber still inside, but nearing the end of their sentences.
The movie stands in its own right
as an hour and a half of Porridge that we've never seen before.
We haven't used any material again. It's all completely new plot.
Dick and Ian wrote the script, Ian produced
and Dick directed in what was left of Chelmsford Prison.
I'm the first one here today.
7.30, I was here before the cleaners.
A film's the big screen, so you need that real texture in production.
You need a real prison.
You can't... You can't do it with sets.
And so...it was really tough for Dick.
It reminded us all the time of the reality of prison.
I mean, so it was wonderful to have the real thing,
but you know, you did feel those walls closing in around you.
This place gets on your nerves after a bit.
First day, it was quite exciting.
Never been in a prison before and had a look around
but it does get at you.
All this lot, barbed wire and stuff.
To go in in the morning, at eight o'clock in the morning and have that
clang behind you and be searched
and work there all day and then go out.
It was quite a relief to get out in the fresh air again.
You really got the feel of what it was like to be in prison,
cos I've never actually been in prison, strangely enough.
In the dead of winter and with a very low budget of £250,000,
the schedule was punishing.
I shot 13 days straight.
Right through one weekend and into another.
It was pretty gruelling.
It was probably the toughest film I got to make in that respect.
We'll just try it on this first rehearsal,
but I'd like you to sort of get past him, you know. Yeah, get past him.
We're on the move and I stop for a moment and take a letter.
And I think you'll have to duck into the cell that's nearest to the camera.
37 take one.
Ooh, Fletch. I'm late.
I've got a letter from the wife. Can you read it for me?
Look, if you can't read, Warren, how'd you know it's from the wife?
It's got Elaine's scent.
Oh, dear. Where does Elaine work?
A tarpaulin factory? It was cold.
It was so hard to be funny in that weather.
In that place.
Somehow we managed it.
She's retiled the lav.
The canary's got haemorrhoids.
She met a welder at the Fiesta Club
and she's thinking of moving in with him. All right? Must be off. Can't hang about.
We haven't got a canary.
Alongside the Porridge regulars,
Dick and Ian introduced characters unique to the film.
My character was called Rudge.
I was a young 19-year-old convict going into prison
for the first time and very frightened, obviously.
Who was that fella on the landing?
Who, him? Harry Grout.
He runs this nick. Thought that was the governor's job.
No, only officially, sonny.
Cut!
I was I think 19 - 18 or 19 at the time and I was genuinely very
frightened to be there because here were some of my heroes -
in particular Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale
and the character of Fletcher and the character of Godber
take my character under their wing and look after him and they're
nice to him and help him through those awkward few weeks, if you like.
And Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale,
the actors did the same with me personally.
So I thought that was very sweet of them.
Shovel it. Shovel what? Shovel that.
Shovel it where? From here to there.
Afternoon Mr MacKay, Mr Beale.
How'd you know my name?
Oh, gets around, sir. Doesn't take long.
I expect you're already a legend on some bog walls.
A new prison warder was always a treat for Fletch and the gang.
What you in for? Got caught.
'He'd have loved to have been Fulton MacKay, you know,'
trying to look hard and look good.
And he didn't look hard and he didn't look good.
He looked like a complete beanpole geek.
It was a group ensemble of very, very good character actors.
So there was no competition whatsoever.
I mean, everyone just enjoyed having a good time.
Bill Oakes.
I know your form, Oaksey.
The movie gave Dick and Ian a chance to write a more complex plot,
with one new prisoner determined not to stay in jail for long.
I hope the money's safely tucked away.
Someone's been investing it for me.
Oh, safe as prefabs then.
That's why I want out.
I wish to unfreeze my assets and take off to the sun.
Well, Oakes is a villain.
I mean a real villain, who wants...who gets in prison
and of course, goes to Grouty and Grouty organises the football match.
The game was a diversion, to distract the staff
while Oakes broke out of jail on the away team's coach.
Is there a garage nearby? I've got to top the bus up, you see.
The lads won't want to stop on the way back.
Half a mile down the road, in the village.
Therefore it's the great escape on the bus.
Fletch and Godber soon found themselves inadvertently on the run.
I'll get some water, bathe your face.
No, you won't, Fletcher.
Oh, my God. Look, we haven't seen nothing, have we, Len?
Seen what? It's your caper, son. I don't want nothing to do with this, right?
You'll have to take them with you. You what?
Well, you've got no choice, have you? Otherwise I'll be in it and all.
Now listen, Oaksey, I'm not going anywhere, mate.
You'll do as you're told, son.
Having accidentally escaped, Fletch and Godber moved heaven
and earth to break back into jail.
What is it?
Cops.
Copse? You mean like a wooded glade?
Yeah, a wooden glade crawling with bleeding cops.
The idea that you have to break back into a prison
is one of the best ideas for anything ever.
Sorry, but the day you come up with that plotline you should give
yourself the week off.
In a perfect Porridge plot, they managed to sneak back
into prison via the officers' club, down the beer delivery hatch.
Gimme the keys, lad. HELP!
Oh, thank God, Mr MacKay. Saved at last.
Where are we? Who is it?
Don't worry, Len, our ordeal is over.
I thought it was a very successful film.
I don't really think you can compare film and television
and say one is better than the other. They're different.
This was to be the final time Fletch and Godber appeared onscreen.
I got the terrible news literally halfway through editing that
Richard Beckinsale had died, which was just absolutely
a bolt from the blue and we were knocked for six.
Just staggering. I mean, we were all completely sideswiped by that.
Still am. That's the trouble with thinking about the Porridge movie,
cos you can't disassociate it from Richard's death.
The phone rang and it was a newspaper and they told me.
And it was the most terrible shock.
I mean, I can remember the feeling. Even today.
He was so young and he had a lovely wife and child
and a whole career, a wonderful career ahead of him, I think.
Richard was married to actress Judy Lowe.
Their daughter Kate was only five years old.
The day before Richard's death,
Judy was in hospital recovering from a major operation.
Last time I saw him, when he came into the hospital with Kate
and he was feeling really tired and sort of sat on the bed with me
and he said, "Oh, I think you know, I think I'm more tired than you are."
And I remember just sort of watching him go.
And the winner is Sydney Lotterby for Going Straight.
That year, Ronnie Barker
and Sydney Lotterby were both due to receive prestigious BAFTA awards.
The ceremony took place just three days after Richard's death.
I was asked. Asked?
I was told that I would have to say something about Richard.
And I couldn't. I said, "I can't do it, it's no good."
And Ronnie had to do it as he received his award
and Ronnie cracked up, as I know I would, too.
Ladies and gentlemen.
Um...the tragic and untimely death of my good friend and colleague
Richard Beckinsale three days ago
has robbed me of the joy of this award.
But the pride in winning it still remains.
The premiere of the film, you're going to see it in London
and there's Richard on the screen, not at the premiere. It's awful.
I was five when he died, so once I got to sort of six or seven
I did find myself watching his stuff a lot.
You know, sort of looking for the person and they're
so tantalisingly almost there and so kind of lively and real.
It was extremely comforting.
It was a really nice sort of bridge for me in terms of having lost him.
Good evening, sir. And what will it be?
The usual.
Oh, care for a drink first? Why not.
Large one, sir? Mind your own business. Very good.
I do really love going back home and being proud of the fact that
he managed to become this kind of beloved, iconic, dear figure.
You know, in a really short time.
That's from me. Bit mundane after cigars but I knitted them myself.
Ah, did you? Knit them yourself? Oh, aren't they nice?
Ha, lovely, ain't they? Eh?
I'll have to wear the other one when I get the bandage off, see,
cos I...Oh, God! They're mittens. Eh?
Oh, yeah, look at that. Oh, yeah.
Next - we find out why 40 years on, Porridge is still as loved as ever.
Oh. Oooh!
Porridge is the perfect British sitcom.
Perfect characters, perfect situation, perfect writing.
What its writers Dick and Ian are up to now,
and we reveal your favourite Porridge moment.
You won't want to miss it.
Well, depends, don't it? Depends on the breaks, don't it?
Well, did you have any difficulty, you know, when you got out? No, no. I never have any trouble.
No testimonials or references or anything like that, no.
Cos I always go straight, you see. Straight back into crime.
40 years after Porridge, Dick Clement
and Ian La Frenais are as busy as ever.
From writing musicals with the likes of Dave Stewart...
It's not well-known, but I tune Dave's guitars,
before any of his gigs.
Do you want me to do this one?
..to scripting for feature films and developing new ideas for TV.
Here's a shot of me taking tranquillisers
having worked with Dick all the morning.
They've taken time out of their busy schedule to come back to
Newcastle for an Auf Wiedersehen Pet charity gala called
Sunday For Sammy, which is held to support creative talent on Tyneside.
One, two, three...
Save that car!
It's a Geordie mafia concert. We never know who's going to be here.
Ian and Dick, Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement always write an
Auf Wiedersehen Pet sketch for the boys, whichever boys are available.
One of their biggest TV hits since Porridge,
Dick and Ian set Auf Wiedersehen Pet in Germany with
a group of Newcastle builders working on a building site.
It put Geordies on the map.
It's a darts match, right, it's not the World Cup,
or a replay of World War II.
Dick and Ian's scripts - it's all there on the page.
All you've got to do is learn your lines. Nothing else.
Mind you, it might only be a darts match but us
British have still got to try and hammer these Germans.
What for? Cos they're the bastards that bombed me granny.
Your heart started to race when a script came through the letter box,
cos you knew you were in for an hour and a half of real fun reading it.
Well, you know what they say.
Pelicans, penguins and Inland Revenue all got one thing in common.
What's that? They can all shove their bills up their arse.
Despite all their successes,
Dick and Ian's passion for writing has never diminished.
Do you think we should cut all that?
They still, even now, get up at the crack of sparrows
and Ian goes over to Dick's house.
If you can't get Ian on the phone, he'll be at Dick's from eight o'clock on the morning.
They work like crazy. They're tremendously disciplined.
It has worked for so long that I just assume they've got this
formula and nobody should mess with it.
Is this man sick?
You sick, Fletcher?
I'm sick of bleedin' interruptions.
40 years on, Porridge is still viewed as one of the
greatest-ever British sitcoms.
And it's as loved today as it was back in the 1970s.
I am in charge here.
And now we've had our say and looked at Porridge inside and out,
it's your turn.
We asked Gold viewers to choose their favourite-ever Porridge moment.
And over the last few months, your votes have been
coming in thick and fast.
What have you men got there?
Balls, Mr MacKay.
With so many brilliant and classic comedy moments...
Wait for it, wait for it, two, three, knickers down!
..choosing your Porridge favourite was really tough.
You see those flasks over there - I want you to fill one for me. What, from here?
I sometimes wish I was in here with you lot.
And now, the moment you've been waiting for.
We can reveal your favourite Porridge scene
came in the 1975 Christmas Special, No Way Out.
First here's the plot. It's Christmas.
Look, Mr MacKay, I'm only trying to explain my position.
And a botched escape plan allows a hospitalised Fletch
to get one over on MacKay.
So here it is - your favourite Porridge moment.
I just want to know how they disposed of the soil.
I can't help you.
Scotland's finest.
With a couple of nips out of it, I see.
Well, still a rare treat.
Bribes, is it?
Christmas present.
LAUGHTER
Come along, Fletcher. Just between you and me.
Is that door closed?
Oh, yes and there's no-one outside.
Christmas present?
Christmas present.
You want to know how they disposed of the soil? Simple as that. I'll tell you. I thought you might.
They dug another tunnel and put the earth down there.
LAUGHTER
You awake, Fletch?
No.
Now we really know everything about Porridge,
courtesy of Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.
For me, it's funnier now than ever and it's as good as comedy gets.
We're very proud of Porridge. We knew we'd written something really good,
but it's the public reaction that told us.
And now, 40 years later, it's STILL the public reaction that keeps telling you.
You know, we must have done something really special there.
Well...
It still feels completely modern.
The writing, the acting and the situation just hasn't dated.
Anybody we know?
Porridge is just sort of completely endearing in almost every way.
And it's always going to be incredibly relevant to me
and it is endlessly consoling
and surprising and extraordinary
that it seems to stay so relevant for other people as well.
It is one of the funniest things ever written.
Mind how you go.
It just makes me happy to watch them again.
Oh! Ooh!
Porridge is the perfect British sitcom.
Perfect characters, perfect situation, perfect writing,
perfect actors.
Get into bed, will you, son. I haven't undressed yet. Just get into bed until I get into bed.
You can get out and get undressed to get back into bed, can't you?
It is the bar to which every other sitcom is trying to reach
and failing.
Two choc ices, please.
This was a great break for me to be involved in something like this
and I used to sit there really in awe.
You trusted the people you were working with.
You just felt it was a privilege to be part of.
I'm so proud to have been part of it.
I mean, you know, one of the greatest sitcoms that's ever
been produced in this country and I was there.
"Oh, well, I must close now and get on my lover."
"I must close now and get on, my lover." See?
Oh, it was a great experience.
I'd like to be going to that read-through tomorrow morning.
Although I'd have to get on a flight tonight to get to Acton.
Be worth it. Yeah, it would. It would be well worth it.
All right, then. I owe you one.
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd