Ian La Frenais
- 88 years old
- English
- Writer
Press clippings Page 3
Porridge review - send for the sitcom police!
The original Porridge creators return with a weak, watery throwback to the Ronnie Barker classic. This isn't a sequel, it's a forgery ... bang 'em up this instant.
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian, 7th October 2017Preview - Porridge
If this show has one thing going for it, it's that the original writers, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, are still writing it, but they will never been able to fill the gap left by the late Ronnie Barker.
Ian Wolf, On The Box, 6th October 2017After last year's special, the reboot from Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais gets a full series. Kevin Bishop, eerily channelling Ronnie Barker's mannerisms, stars as hacker Nigel Fletcher, Norman Stanley's grandson. In an episode that makes you cautiously optimistic this may just work, we find Fletch, for a price, dispensing legal advice and writing letters on behalf of fellow inmates - which gets complicated when Fletch agrees to mediate in person with naive Barry's girlfriend.
Jonathan Wright, The Guardian, 6th October 2017Porridge: The Go-Between preview
The new Porridge certainly feels comfortable and familiar, but also does enough not to be a shameless counterfeit, even if it clearly exists in the shadow of its forebear.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 6th October 2017Porridge reboot has none of the original's flavour
I barely broke into a titter through the whole thirty minutes.
Jeff Robson, i Newspaper, 6th October 2017Porridge reboot shows that past is best left alone
Watching the new Porridge is like visiting a favourite old café only to find that its best bits have been jettisoned: the tomato-shaped ketchup bottles have been replaced by sachets, the Formica tables by stripped pine. Sometimes the past is best left alone.
Ben Lawrence, The Telegraph, 6th October 2017TV review: Porridge, BBC1
Over the weekend I posted a small preview of this new series on Facebook and very quickly got an unusually large number of comments. Let's put it this way. The only person who said something nice about the reboot of the regularly repeated classic prison sitcom was a mate of one of the cast.
Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 2nd October 2017Porridge - an interview with Clement & La Frenais
Porridge is back with a new series - commissioned off the back of last year's sitcom season special - and sees Kevin Bishop return as Nigel 'Fletch' Fletcher.
BBC, 2nd October 2017Henry IX preview
Gold's new three-part comedy Henry XI doesn't quite seem like the 'must-watch' its pedigree suggests, although it's a gently enjoyable half-hour with a handful of strong gags.
Steve Bennett, Chortle, 5th April 2017Henry IX, UK Gold, review - 'return of sitcom classics'
Clement and La Frenais' latest sitcom is stuffed with gags.
Veronica Lee, The Arts Desk, 5th April 2017