Porridge (TV series) himself as the judge, a character role subsequently played by Maurice Denham in two episodes of the third series. The theme music for the closing credits was written by Max Harris, who had also written the theme music for numerous other TV shows, including "The Strange World of Gurney Slade" and "Doomwatch", and would go on to write the theme for "Open All Hours", another of the Seven of One pilots. The cheery theme was "deliberately at variance with the dour comedy" and given a music hall feel by Harris because of the lead character's Cockney origins. Following the pilot
Porridge (TV series) the word meant, as he hadn't a clue. A genuine neologism was "nerk", which was used in place of the more offensive "berk". "Berk" has changed meaning since its inception and is generally used now to mean "fool" while the original rhyming slang meaning refers to female genitalia. Another term was "scrote" (presumably derived from scrotum), meaning a nasty, unpleasant person. 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