Ian La Frenais

Preview - Henry IX

Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, the duo behind classic sitcoms Porridge and The Likely Lads, are back with a new three-part series on Gold.

Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais interview

Clement and La Frenais have been part of the television landscape for more than five decades.

'Porridge' (BBC1) review

Where was the originality? Where was the charm that made the series so popular in the 70s, and continually so to this day? It all just seemed to be badly pitched and not thought-through well enough at all.

At the risk of romanticising the past, Ronnie Barker's Porridge really was a thing of beauty. This isn't, though: scripted by original writers Clement and La Frenais, with Kevin Bishop as Fletcher's "cyber-criminal" grandson, it's a shockingly unfunny reboot full of crowbarred modern references and hoary jokes about Millwall FC. Hey, BBC comedy commissioners: experiencing symptoms of ennui? Why not greenlight some fresh writing from talented newcomers?

Porridge review: Kevin Bishop can't sustain the wit

It's difficult to know why this new serving of Porridge was ever cooked up.

Landmark comedy season: Porridge gets an update

The depth of the night-time conversations between Old Fletch and Godber, in particular, to a great extent laid in what was not said. When Richard Beckinsale's Godber asks: 'Fletch, are you awake?' Barker - after a beat - replies 'No'. A whole world of pain existed within that silence, and this was missing.

Porridge feature

With a remake in the pipeline as part of the BBC's tribute season to classic sitcoms, we look at Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais' brilliant 1970s comedy about the inmates of Slade Prison.