"Porridge" originated with a 1973 project commissioned by the BBC "Seven of One", which would see Ronnie Barker star in seven different situation comedy pilot episodes. The most successful would then be made into a full series. One of the episodes was "Prisoner and Escort", written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais about a newly sentenced habitual criminal, Norman Stanley Fletcher (Barker), being escorted to prison by two warders: the timid Barrowclough (Brian Wilde) and the stern Mackay (Fulton Mackay). It was broadcast on 1 April 1973 on BBC2. Despite Barker's initial preference for another of the pilots, a sitcom about a Welsh gambling addict, "Prisoner and Escort" was selected. It was renamed "Porridge", a British slang term for a prison sentence from the 1950s; Barker, Clement and La Frenais actually came up with the same title independently of each other.