ianlouisiana Review of Porridge

Porridge (2016 TV Movie)

"Porridge" went down a bit like cold cement for me....

[3/10 · 13 October 2016]

And now I read that the BBC have commissioned a new series with the hapless Kevin Bishop not even a pale shadow of the late Ronnie Barker. Their remade comedy shows were all pretty dreadful,"Keeping up appearances" was a totally laugh - free zone for a start. The beauty of the original "Porridge" was that Mr Barker played Fletcher with an almost Dickensian aspect.Yes,we all know he was a crook,but he was very human with all the attendant strengths and weakneses we're all heir to. Mr Bishop in this latest reincarnation played merely for laughs and failed dismally to generate any.Sometimes "Porridge" wasn't funny,but it was real and compassionate towards the prisoners and Mr Barker was able to portray much more than a comic's standpoint. At the end of the transmission I turned to my wife and said,"Well,thank goodness that's the end of that;it'll sink without trace". Well,the BBC know well enough that nobody ever went broke underestimating public taste.The new series of "Porridge" is further proof of that dictum's relevance to our national broadcaster.