Porridge (TV series) Porridge (TV series) Porridge is a British sitcom, starring Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale, written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, and broadcast on BBC One from 1974 to 1977. The programme ran for three series, and included two Christmas specials and a feature film of the same name (in the United States, the film was released under the title "Doing Time"). The sitcom focuses on two prison inmates, Norman Fletcher (played by Barker) and Lennie Godber (played by Beckinsale), who are serving time at the fictional HMP Slade in Cumberland. The show's title is a reference to both
Porridge (TV series) September 2009 to positive reviews. "Porridge" was immensely popular with British prisoners. Erwin James, an ex-prisoner who writes a bi-weekly column for "The Guardian" newspaper, stated that: He also noted: The script allowed the prisoners to swear without offending viewers by using the word "naff" in place of ruder words ("Naff off!", "Darn your own naffing socks", "Doing next to naff all"), thereby popularising a word that had been recorded at least as early as 1966. Ronnie Barker did not claim to have invented it and in a television interview in 2003 it was explained to him on camera what