Porridge - The Christmas Specials [1975] [1976] [DVD]

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Later, Barrowclough visits Fletcher and informs him that Urwin is now receiving psychiatric treatment like he requested. Also, the charges against Fletcher and Godber of brewing the illegal alcohol have been dropped. Barrowclough asks Fletcher to forget about the affair between him and Mrs Jamieson. Fletcher points out that he was asleep during this revelation, but then calls Barrowclough "Henry", revealing that he was not entirely unconscious and had heard the conversation. When Fletcher and Godber are discovered selling their own special home brew, they're dragged up before the governor. Unfortunately for them, it happens that the governor is trying out a new “trustee” at the very same time. Urwin, played by Dudley Sutton (best known as Tinker in Lovejoy in the eighties and nineties) has been on his best behaviour so that he can arrive in this trusted position – where he can take the governor hostage and hold him to ransom for his freedom. During the 1970’s festive editions of popular sitcoms were very popular, with both BBC and ITV running festive editions of their most popular sitcoms. Porridge was no exception. 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 (via 'Berkeley Hunt'). Another term was "scrote" (presumably derived from scrotum), meaning a nasty, unpleasant person. The main storylines of the sitcom focus on its central character, Norman Stanley Fletcher, a man from Muswell Hill, London. Fletcher, described as "an habitual criminal" by the judge who sentences him (and whose words, voiced by Barker, are repeated in the show's opening titles), is sent to HMP Slade, a fictional Category C prison in Cumberland, to serve a prison sentence for his latest crime. The sitcom also follows his cellmate Lennie Godber, a naïve inmate from Birmingham serving his first sentence, whom Fletcher takes under his wing. Each episode's story focuses on their time in prison and the various issues they endure while serving their prison sentences.

Christmas has come to Slade Prison. Godber, with his innocent nature, likes the idea of Christmas, but Fletcher tells him that Christmas in prison is little different to any other day. Godber points out that there are carol singers, but Fletcher remarks that they are there to drown out the sound of Tommy Slocombe's tunnelling. Id add votes for OFAH-Jolly Boys Outing is a peak memory for many I think simply because it features the whole cast going full on for the laughs. Didn't matter at all that it was set in summer. Obviously a number of other contenders-the Batman clip was an instant legend.

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One Foot in the Grave-perhaps the Algarve one but another show that developed into a must see Christmas tradition. Subsequently, Barker is reported to have said that he regretted recording himself as the judge, [ citation needed] a role subsequently played by Maurice Denham in two episodes of the third series.

Porridge was immensely popular with British prisoners. Erwin James, an ex-prisoner who writes a bi-weekly column for The Guardian newspaper, stated that:Harry Grout is planning an escape for a fellow prisoner Tommy Slocombe. Everybody has a part to play in Grouty’s masterplan as members of the prison choir. Ronnie Barker was the author of Fletcher's Book of Rhyming Slang (Pan, 1979), which includes an introduction by 'Fletch'. Upstart Crow-incredibly clever and there is perhaps a surprising warmth about the two Christmas specials.