UK revives sitcom Porridge as series

The BBC has confirmed a 6 part series of Porridge, following the reboot special last year as part of the broadcaster’s 60 years of celebrating BBC comedies.

The new version sees Kevin Bishop return as Nigel ‘Fletch’ Fletcher, the grandson of Ronnie Barker’s iconic character Norman Stanley Fletcher.

‘Fletch’ is behind bars a Wakeley prison for a series of cybercrimes who spends his days trying to escape the attentions of authoritarian Officer Meekie (Mark Bonnar) and the much softer Officer Braithwaite (Dominic Coleman).

Helping Fletch get through his stretch are his cellmate and prison elder statesman, Joe Lotterby (Dave Hill) and fellow inmates Aziz (Harman Singh), Shell (Jason Barnett) and prison tough guy Scudds (Ricky Grover).

Porridge is written by original series writers, the legendary Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, whose original series ran from 1974 to 1977.