Porridge (2016)

TV Review: Porridge, Episode 3

It's easy to knock this Porridge 2.0 with a stream of Ronnie-rolling-in-his-grave tweets. I know, I've probably posted a few myself. But - and I know it's a big but - if you can erase the memory of Ronnie Barker and judge this on its own merits as a populist prison comedy, this is not too bad.

Porridge revival is as thin as cold greul

Kevin Bishop does a good job as Nigel Fletcher, grandson of the original Fletch, immortalised by Ronnie Barker. He makes the Fletch trademarks -- the eye-roll, the sideways grimace -- look like family traits. But the whole production feels as fake as a glass diamond. One look tells you this isn't the real thing.

Porridge might get a laugh but prison is far from funny

To anyone who has served time inside, it's obvious that the designers have done their homework reasonably well.

Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais have opted to replicate the gentle humour of their original comedy rather than update it, but they're sailing perilously close to the fluffy and cliched here. Tonight's story involves the switching of cakes, one belonging to Fletch (Kevin Bishop), the other - baked with magic mushrooms - to the jail's cartoon heavy. When an officious new staff member helps herself to the latter, zero hilarity ensues. Viewing through rose-tinted glasses may be wise.

TV review: Porridge, Episode 2, The Cake, BBC1

You know what? I still think it's an odd decision to reboot this classic, but this second episode isn't too bad at all.

Porridge, revived, is sadly thin gruel. Oh, it's fine enough, and a good cast, and Kevin Bishop is great as Norman Stanley Fletcher's cheeky-chappie grandson Nigel. But sainted writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais are eightysomething, surely, and it shows. As soon as Cyrano de Bergerac was mentioned (by Mark Bonnar, nicely channelling Fulton Mackay), I could just hear something like "doesn't he play for Spurs?" Sure enough... "Didn't he used to play for Watford?" Cue orgasmic studio audience laughter, and the non-joys of being 15 all over again.

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.

Forget Porridge, it's Goodnight Sweetheart viewers want

The return of the prison sitcom left many viewers cold - but there's another classic BBC comedy they definitely want back.

Preview - 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.