History Series / Porridge

Set in the fictional Slade Prison, ''Porridge'' starred [[Series/TheTwoRonnies Ronnie Barker]] as Fletcher, a cynical and streetwise career criminal, and Richard Beckinsale as Godber, a naive first-time inmate. The plot centred around the prisoners' attempts to negotiate everyday life in prison and make it more bearable with "little victories" over the guards (primarily [[GoodCopBadCop the stern Mr Mackay and the soft Mr Barrowclough]]), avoid trouble with the Prison Governor (who thinks he runs the place) and avoid the wrath of Harry Grout (an East End gang boss who really does).

* PrisonersWork: In "A Day Out", Fletcher and Godber are part of a small work party digging ditches outside the prison (though to Mr Mackay's chagrin, it's not actually a [[WorkingOnTheChainGang chain gang]]. In another episode, they have to make fishing nets.

* GoodCopBadCop: Barrowclough and Mackay, respectively. The former is more sympathetic to the prisoners whilst the latter is far stricter.

* GoodCopBadCop: Barrowclough and Mackay, respectively.

Set in the fictional Slade Prison, ''Porridge'' starred [[Series/TheTwoRonnies Ronnie Barker]] as Fletcher, a cynical and streetwise career criminal, and Richard Beckinsale as Godber, a naive first-time inmate. The plot centred around the prisoners' attempts to negotiate everyday life in prison and make it more bearable with "little victories" over the guards (primarily the stern Mr Mackay and the soft Mr Barrowclough), avoid trouble with the Prison Governor (who thinks he runs the place) and avoid the wrath of Harry Grout (an East End gang boss who really does).

* MoralDissonance: Blanco, a kindly older prisoner who has insisted for years that he's innocent of murdering his wife, later tells Fletcher it was his wife's lover who actually did it. As he's now [[strike:paroled]] [[InsistentTerminology pardoned]], Fletcher tells him not to go looking for revenge, but Blanco replies that the lover is long dead, and he should know.
--> "It were me that killed him."

* ManipulativeBastard: Fletcher is something of a master at manipulation, adapting his tactics depending on his target. He plays on Mr Barrowclough's gentle nature and sympathy towards the inmates to get him to agree to things he shouldn't, such as letting him run off to town while out on a workday on a supposed mercy mission, when instead he sneaks off to the pub, or getting him extra blankets for his cell. With the Governor, he uses charm, and carefully pays attention to every piece of information he finds out about him. He finds him the perfect sized book to fix his wobbly cabinet, distracting him long enough to steal several items off his desk. When it comes to the other inmates, Fletcher just convincingly lies, knowing most of them are too stupid to realize until it's too late. For example, he convinces Ives that ''[[Literature/LittleWomen Little Women]]'' is an erotic classic about a tribe of sex-starved female pygmies in the south Pacific, so Ives eagerly pays to borrow the book.

** Fletcher is also outraged when he discovers why he can't bribe Godber to lose his upcoming boxing match (he has already been bribed by someone else).

* ManipulativeBastard: Fletcher is something of a master at manipulation, adapting his tactics depending on his target. He plays on Mr Barrowclough's gentle nature and sympathy towards the inmates to get him to agree to things he shouldn't, such as letting him run off to town while out on a workday on a supposed mercy mission, when instead he sneaks off to the pub, or getting him extra blankets for his cell. With the Governor, he uses charm, and carefully pays attention to every piece of information he finds out about him. He finds him the perfect sized book to fix his wobbly cabinet, distracting him long enough to steal several items off his desk. When it comes to the other inmates, Fletcher just convincingly lies, knowing most of them are too stupid to realize until it's too late. For example, he gets Ives to believe that "Little Women" is about a tribe of sex starved female Pygmy's in South America, so that Ives will pay Fletcher to reserve the book for him.

* AbsenteeActor: Godber doesn't appear in "Ways and Means", "Men Without Women" and "No Peace for the Wicked". "A Night In" only focuses on Fletcher and Godber.

* ItTastesLikeFeet: In "The Desperate Hours", Fletch tastes the brew made by the local moonshiner which comes served in a disinfectant bottle. Fletch remarks that they're supposed to take the disinfectant out first.

-->'''Barrowclough''': Buck, sir.

** Fletcher steals [=McLaren=]'s orange in "Ways and Means", then is outraged when he thinks a fellow prisoner has stolen his pineapple chunks in "Just Desserts" (there is also the fact that Fletcher himself stole the pineapple chunks from the prison kitchen - however, prisoners regard stealing from the prison establishment as fair game but consider stealing from each other to be a breach of their code of honour).

* CoolOldGuy: Blanco is a friendly, cheerful and in many ways a cunning man. He used his prison allotment to secretly make alcohol and he is quite well liked by most of the inmates.

** Heslop. Warren too, to a lesser extent.
-->'''Warren''': "Objection!"
-->'''Rawley''': "... Well go on, Warren. What is your objection?"
-->'''Warren''': "... I don't know."

-->'''Mackay''': Twelve o'clock - midday [[SexualEuphemism bang up]]. (''[[ReactionShot Godber looks startled]]'') Not what you think, laddie.

** Harry Grout is feared throughout the prison, simply because everyone knows displeasing him will end with him sending one of his many heavies after you, or worse. Even Fletcher is terrified of him
* DrillSergeantNasty: Mackay, he even was a sergeant in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders regiment, before he was a prison officer. He likewise still acts like he is.

-->'''Mackay''': "Alright Fletcher, just don't let me catch you thieving!"
-->'''Fletcher''': "I won't."
-->'''Mackay''': "You won't what?"
-->'''Fletcher''': "I won't let you catch me Mr Mackay!"
* {{Expy}}: Harry Grout something of a resemblance to a certain [[Creator/NoelCoward Mr. Bridger]], is apparently doing time for some sort of [[Film/TheItalianJob1969 job in Italy]]...
* ExtremeOmnivore: Evans, one of Fletcher's early cellmates, liked to eat light bulbs and even ate Fletcher's shaving mirror.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Genial Harry Grout, a high up London Crime boss. He is always charming, polite and never even raises his voice. If you do a job especially well for him, he'll pay back the favour and he's in a good mood, he might even be willing to bribe others. But fail him, anger him or just simply annoy him and he'll have one of his many heavies break your arms or beat you to blood.

* FreudianExcuse: [=McLaren=] is aggressive and resorts to violence far too quickly. However, his life hasn’t been a happy one, growing up in Scotland as a mixed race illegitimate orphan. Fletcher even acknowledges he’s had it “harder than most”.

* GambitRoulette: Fletcher's plan to get moved to a single cell involves: 1. Ives betting him that he won't be able to set up an illegal betting game without being caught. 2. Ives informing on him to the guards. 3. The guards catching them while the game is in progress. 4. The prison governor deciding that Fletcher is a bad influence on his cellmates and moving him to a single cell. It works.

* HairTriggerTemper: [=McLaren=] will get aggressive at the slightest provocation. It’s especially bad in his first appearance, where he even grabs Fletcher by the collar for simply knocking into him. Deconstructed, as this trait effectively ruined his life, and is the reason he’s in prison in the first place. Fletcher outright spells out to him how if he turned the other cheek a few more times he wouldn’t be in his present situation, and it isn’t worth sacrificing so much just for his pride. [[CharacterDevelopment As such he mellows out in later appearances]], but it never completely goes away.
* HatesEveryoneEqually: Mackay

-->[Godber bangs his head on a goalpost]
-->'''Mackay:''' [holds up one finger] How many fingers am I holding up?

* HypocriticalHumor: Fletcher lectures Godber for making personal remarks about other people:
-->'''Fletcher:''' I was saying to Jackie, too many youngsters poke fun at people cos they've got short legs or long legs.

* InsaneTrollLogic: One of Fletcher’s skills acquired over his years in prison, how to give an answer that is seemingly satisfactory but on later examination is either nonsensical or raises more [[FridgeLogic fridge logic]] than it settles...

'''A:''' [[spoiler:We dug another tunnel and put it all down there.]]

* {{Jerkass}}: Ives is a lazy, cowardly, snivelling cheat and snitch; as such, he is despised by most of the prison. Even Mackay calls him "Horrible Ives."

-->My youngest has just got into grammar school... It's nice, but it costs a lot - you know, books, equipment, all that sort of thing. When my son started there, he didn't want for nothing - rugby boots, blazer, the lot. He wouldn't have had them if his dad was just a clerk. He had them because his father had just robbed a school outfitter's.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: 'Genial' Harry Grout dishes this out to unpleasant inmate Harris.
* TheKillerInMe: Blanco is in prison for murdering his wife years ago and repeatedly protests his innocence. After eventually being granted a full pardon, he reveals he knows exactly what happened to the actual murderer: He killed him before being arrested for the wrong murder.

* LondonGangster: Genial Harry Grout, an East London crime boss, serving time for an unspecified big job that required him being extradited from Italy. Grouty pretty much runs the whole prison: rigging sports matches, organising escapes of other high up criminals who can afford to get out and being completely in control of the entire prison drug trade. Likewise you really don't want to get on his bad side. His only rival in the prison, is another London crime boss, the two compete through betting on prison sports matches then rigging them in their favour.
* LovableCoward: Mr. Barrowclough is much more timid than Mr. Mackay, and lets his fear slip out during situations he believes to be tense. He is noticeably worried when Mackay leaves him alone to supervise the prison work party, and he spends his entire encounter with the unstable Reg Urwin trembling. However, he is such a nice and friendly guy it’s hard to dislike him.
* LoveableRogue: Fletcher has been in prison for much of his life, is described as a habitual criminal and is quite immoral. However, he is constantly supportive to the other newer inmates: he helps Godber adapt to his incarceration, made [=McLaren=] realise that his temper was causing him most of his problems, and wrote several of their letters to their lovers (including Lukewarm's boyfriend) due to the others were worrying that their imprisonment would wreck their relationships. Likewise, his quick wit provides a lot of the show's humour.

* ManipulativeBastard: Fletcher is something of a master at manipulation, adapting his tactics depending on his target. He plays on Mr Barrowclough’s gentle nature and sympathy towards the inmates to get him to agree to things he shouldn't, such as letting him run off to town while out on a workday on a supposed mercy mission, when instead he sneaks off to the pub, or getting him extra blankets for his cell. With the Governor, he uses charm, and carefully pays attention to every piece of information he finds out about him. He finds him the perfect sized book to fix his wobbly cabinet distracting him long enough to steal several items off his desk. When it comes to the other inmates, Fletcher just convincingly lies, knowing most of them are too stupid to realize till it’s too late. For example, he gets Ives to believe that "Little Women" was about a tribe of sex starved female Pygmy's in South America, so that Ives would pay Fletcher to reserve the book for him.
* MasterForger: Whilst never seen, "Inky" Stevens, described by [[LondonGangster Harry Grout]] as "the finest forger in the country", is [[BoxedCrook serving a term in Slade prison]]. He's so good that, when Grouty needs to arrange an inmate's escape, he has a blank passport smuggled into Slade for Stevens to forge, rather than trust his contacts on the outside.

* MightAsWellNotBeInPrisonAtAll: "Genial" Harry Grout wasn't necessarily shown to be running any business outside the prison, but he certainly was more in control of the prison itself than the governor was.

* MiscarriageOfJustice: {{Subverted}}. Lifer Blanco Webb was wrongly convicted in 1957 for killing his wife. Fletch manages to get him pardoned and he was released, but it turns out he is guilty of murder, just not the murder he was convicted of.

* MoralDissonance: Blanco, a kindly older prisoner who insisted for years that he was innocent of murdering his wife, later telling Fletcher it was his wife's lover who had actually done it. As he's now [[strike:paroled]] [[InsistentTerminology pardoned]], Fletcher tells him not to go looking for revenge, but Blanco replies that the lover is long dead, and he should know.
--> "It were me that killed him".
* TheMovie: aka ''Doing Time'' in the U.S. Made in 1979, featuring the same cast and writers but with no BBC involvement. Not as well-received as the series, though not as bad as some TV spin-offs. This was Richard Beckinsale's last performance before his untimely death.

* NeverLearnedToRead: "Bunny" Warren claims to be in prison because he could not read the sign: "Warning, Burglar Alarm". He also gets Fletcher to read him letters from his wife. In 'Rough Justice' Bunny says he is actually dyslexic.

* NoThemeTune: The opening is the top-of-the-page quote (voiced by Barker as the judge) over a locking-the-prisoners-up montage. There is a closing theme tune.

** Despite claiming to hate all inmates, Mackay is shown to be softer on more well behaved inmates. He for instance was encouraging toward Kegan, even making him a trustee and giving him the job of serving the Governors coffee, despite him murdering his wife.

* {{Prison}}: The setting, though unlike most examples its a comedy, there is very little violence or focus on the more dangerous inmates. Instead the focus is on more average people dealing with being imprisoned, and winning the occasional little victory.

* ProperlyParanoid: Mackay's suspicions about the inmates are so extreme, that he can’t watch a man tie his shoes without suspecting he’s hiding something in his sock. However, when it comes to Fletcher, he’s nearly always right.
* QueerPeopleAreFunny: Done occasionally with Lukewarm. For example, when Fletcher composed letters to a number of prisoners' wives, he handed them back to the men, "To Mary, my Dear Sharon, (handing letter to Lukewarm) My darling Trevor..."-> Huge audience laugh. Later in the same episode, the wives are seen on the bus comparing their suspiciously identical letters and there is another huge laugh when the camera shows a man reading another such letter.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Barrowclough is a fair and reasonable man, he even tells a new Prison guard not to ask what a new inmate is in for, as that would lead to you judging them for they have done instead of as a person.
* RuleNumberOne: According to Mr. Mackay, there are only two rules in Slade Prison. Rule number 1: Do not write on the walls. And rule number 2: Obey all the rules. Though strangely in the same scene he also mentions a rule against more than three prisoners congregating in a cell.

* SecondEpisodeIntroduction: Godber, and all other prisoners except Fletcher himself, does not appear in the pilot.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Harry Grout only appeared in three episodes (and the movie), but became one of the show's most memorable characters.

* StatusQuoIsGod: Averted. Fletch is sentenced to five years; as the original series had run for four, the sequel ''Going Straight'' focused on Fletch's release back into society.

* TragicVillain: Reg Urwin from the Christmas Special "Desperate Hours". He takes Fletcher, Godber, Mr Barrowclough and the Governor's secretary hostage and threatens to kill them. However, he turns out to be quite a pathetic figure with psychiatric issues, for which he never received treatment despite being recommended. After Fletcher disarms Reg, he and Godber even decide to ThrowTheDogABone and let him surrender on his own terms rather than take credit for stopping him.

* TreasureMap: Blanco has a map showing where his ill-gotten gains are buried, [[spoiler:though it turns out to be a fake]]. Another inmate, Norris, gets caught trying to dig it up under a football pitch.

* VetinariJobSecurity: When Mr Mackay is promoted, a stricter and crueler screw from a prison Fletcher had been in earlier in his life replaces him and bullies both the criminals and [[KickTheDog Mr Barrowclough]]. The prisoners get rid of him by orchestrating an achievement for Mr Barrowclough and [[WeWantOurJerkBack welcome back Mackay with a rendition of "For he's a jolly good fellow".]]

* WardensAreEvil: Averted. Barrowclaugh is a all around genial, cheerful and friendly man, who firmly believes in treating the prisoners correctly and rehabilitation. While the inmates aren't above taking advantage of his occasional naivete he never the less even strikes up a reasonably friendly relationship with Fletcher.

* WeWantOurJerkBack: As mentioned under VetinariJobSecurity, Mr Mackay's overly-cruel replacement had the prisoners getting nostalgic.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Heslop, Fletcher's original cellmate, disappeared after the first series. Evans, another of Fletcher's early cellmates, also disappeared after a few episodes.

* WorthyOpponent: Fletcher and Mackay, make no mistake both of them will never miss a chance to get one over or humiliate the other, but there is a clear unspoken level of respect between the two. It says something that when they meet up after Fletcher is released, while starting off hostile they are soon cheerfully drinking together and reminiscing about their past. They even part on mostly friendly terms.

* JustGotOutOfJail: Fletcher is released from Slade in the first episode. He spends the rest of the series trying to adjust to life on the outside and avoiding going back to prison.

* RememberTheNewGuy: Mr Kirby, only seen in the first episode but Fletcher speaks as if he's known him throughout his stay.

* ContinuityNod: Ingrid and Godber are still married, and he had made the arrangements for Fletcher to run a "real pub, you know for geezers".

* GenerationXerox: Nigel Norman Fletcher, or Fletch, as he preferred to be called, has similarly savvy gifts as his grandfather for gaming the prison system to make life a little easier for him and his fellow inmates. He even manages to [[FlippingTheBird give the V-sign]] to Meekie, just like his granddad did with Mackay.
* HollywoodHacking: Fletch is a gifted computer hacker convicted of cyberfraud. Naturally, his reputation precedes him and he's forced into employing his valuable skills into cleaning up Weeksy's record so he can be paroled early. Officer Braithwaite regularly asks him for computer advice and even ''the prison governor'' comes to him when the prison's systems go berserk courtesy of Fletch accessing Meekie's computer and triggering the fire alarms through it because the system was still being run in Windows XP.

* LuxuryPrisonSuite: Wakeley Prison is a high tech 21st century minimum security prison, with a Foosball and pool table in the common area, a clean gym, and televisions in the cells. The cells slightly resemble dorm rooms with a bunk bed, table, some shelves and a bulletin board.
** Officer Meekie is suspicious how Fletch managed to get himself a single cell within a month of arriving at Wakeley.

* PlayfulHacker: What Fletch sees himself as, arguing (unconvincingly) that everything he has done amounts to a series of victimless crimes and that he’s donated a lot of money to charity (just not his own money). The law however sees him as a dangerous TheCracker.

** Mr Meekie to Mr [=MacKay=], both being overly suspicious, harsh Scottish prison officers who have their eyes fixed upon Fletcher. Although Meekie isn’t as sharp or as experienced as [=MacKay=].
** Mr Braithwaite to Mr Barraclough, fitting the softer, more caring prison officer dynamic in contrast to [=MacKay=] and Meekie’s harsher one. Although Braithwaite is noticeably less naive and more cunning than Barraclough ever was.

** Shel is convicted of drug possession, despite him claiming that he bought the drugs for his wife. He did sleep through the fire alarms because he had smoked some very strong weed.

-->'''Fletch''': "Fiddled the VAT on his sausages."

** Fletcher had a habit of looking to the ceiling when someone entered his cell.
** Mr Mackay's neck twitch.

Came seventh in ''Series/BritainsBestSitcom''. The sequel, ''Going Straight'', depicting Fletcher's life after his release, was also popular (though less so) and won a BAFTA but was limited to one series by [[AuthorExistenceFailure actor Richard Beckinsale's very untimely death]]. In 2003, a {{Mockumentary}}, ''Norman Stanley Fletcher: Life Beyond The Box'', gave a complete history of Fletch's life before and after the series, ending with him running a pub in Muswell Hill. This was Ronnie Barker's final TV appearance.

* Blanco - Wrongly convicted of murdering his wife, although in the episode "Pardon Me" he claimed he did kill his wife's lover, a crime for which he was not convicted (sentence unknown, had served 17 years by the time he was released).

** Fletcher steals [=McLaren=]'s orange in "Ways and Means", then is outraged when he thinks a fellow prisoner has stolen his pineapple chunks in "Just Desserts" (there is also the fact that Fletcher himself stole the pineapple chunks from the prison kitchen).