Ronnie Barker same year, determined not to be remembered only as Fletcher, Barker opted to end "Porridge" after three series and instead focused on the second pilot "Open All Hours", alongside David Jason. Barker starred as Arkwright, a money-grabbing, stuttering shopkeeper. Arkwright's stutter was not in the script; Barker was inspired to use it by Melvyn's performance and use of a stutter in a 1955 play the two performed at the Palace Theatre called "Hot Water". "Open All Hours" aired one series in 1976 on BBC Two but was not renewed due to low ratings. As a result, Barker backtracked on his
Still Open All Hours thirty-three episodes of "Still Open All Hours", all written by Roy Clarke, have been produced for the BBC. The show began airing on 26 December 2013 with an anniversary special of original series, "Open All Hours". All episodes have a running time of 30 minutes. Between "Open All Hours" and "Still Open All Hours", there has been a total of 59 episodes and nine series broadcast between 1973 and 2018. "Still Open All Hours" was broadcast on 26 December 2013, with Jason reprising his role of Granville from "Open All Hours". The new one-off episode written by Clarke showed Granville