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UK pursuing revival of Porridge

BBC is exploring whether 1970s comedy series can be brought up to date in a modern prison.

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If it worked for Prisoner, it could work for Porridge.

The BBC is developing a remake of 1970s prison comedy Porridge, which starred Ronnie Barker as Norman Fletcher.

Writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais have said that the BBC has commissioned them to write a single episode, that centres around Fletcher’s grandson, who will be serving time for computer hacking.

“We were asked by the BBC to do a revival and decided to set it right up to date. It will be set in a modern prison while Slade was of course Victorian,” explained La Frenais.

The original series ran between 1974 and 1977 and also starred the late Richard Beckinsale as Fletch’s naive cellmate Lennie Godber and Fulton Mackay as prison officer Mr. Mackay.

Source: Digital Spy

5 Responses

  1. I hope it works better than Still Open All Hours. They’re going to need to come up with some clever double-entendre writing and a new Ronnie Barker if they hope to gain from the success of the original. It’s been a long time – is there anything funny about today’s petty criminals and modern incarceration? Chookas.

      1. I have the same feelings about the new Dad’s Army film. It seems almost disrespectful to try to remake these wonderful old comedies. It’s like asking Damien Hirst to repaint the Mona Lisa. But at least this project has Clement and La Frenais on board, two of the most brilliant writers of their generation, so maybe it could work.

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