New series of Porridge

W

wstol

Dedicated Member
Following last year's successful one-off Porridge revival, we are now on Episode 2 of a new series.

This is another example of 'do not mess about with the classics'.

The one-off episode last year was a very brave attempt to continue the original series this time following Fletcher's grandson. It was surprisingly good, despite some very obvious similarities - notably a clone of Chief Officer MacKay, and a watered-down version of Barrowclough.

But this new series has gone one step further into unoriginality - by so far recycling two original episodes, and nicking some of the best jokes from the feature film.

The modern audience is not stupid. All the original Porridge shows are so widely available, and have been for many years, so we know when we are being taken for a ride.

After some 40 years, I think the original writers could have thought of some newer, fresher ideas.

It has been bad enough with Still Open All Hours recycling some ideas, but this is far more blatant.

Another old programme that was given an update last year was Goodnight Sweetheart, which despite not making it to a new series, did show a lot of promise.
 
Here I thought it was mostly the American Hollywood that had gone complacent and just attempted to recycle classics. Simply because they had lost the art of how to be creative to write something fresh and new. Sorry to find that this is happening on your side of the pond as well. :(
 
I have just finished watching the whole series and while it is no Emmy or Bafta winning performance I found it pleasant enough. I even got some genuine laughs at some scenes in the last couple of episodes.
YES it is a clone of the original, YES some of the jokes are repeats, but I actually found it quite watchable. Which is rare for me with "new" comedy, especially remakes of old classics.

One of the striking things that I found in the original Porridge, and I wasn't a big fan, even though I loved Ronnie Barker, was also present in the original Open All Hours, was a dark, bleak undertone to the
whole thing, counterpointing the humour. The two new remakes are missing that undertone. Both are "surface only" with nothing behind them. (If you understand what I mean???)

Still.... they are much better than a lot of other stuff masquerading as "sit-coms" today.
 
The days of TV companies like the BBC and others making shows are long gone, you could have to have the best new comedy in the world, but if you do not have a production company of your own, lots of cash to make it, then push it around the TV companies to find a buyer, then it's not going to happen.
I believe this is why there is so much poor quality shows on TV, the companies including the BBC just want to sit back and let the shows come to them, if they don't want it, it gets pushed down the chain ending up on C4 or C5 or some obscure satellite channel.
I know Cooper & Walsh approached the BBC with what would of been a great spin off show, they said they liked it but C&W had to make it first,then they would look at again, possibly, but they also said in today's market there is little demand for the older style gentle comedy with a more like 70's/80's feel, yet low and behold the do a rehash of Open all Hours and Porridge
 
Brian Johns said:
I have just finished watching the whole series and while it is no Emmy or Bafta winning performance I found it pleasant enough. I even got some genuine laughs at some scenes in the last couple of episodes.
YES it is a clone of the original, YES some of the jokes are repeats, but I actually found it quite watchable. Which is rare for me with "new" comedy, especially remakes of old classics.

One of the striking things that I found in the original Porridge, and I wasn't a big fan, even though I loved Ronnie Barker, was also present in the original Open All Hours, was a dark, bleak undertone to the
whole thing, counterpointing the humour. The two new remakes are missing that undertone. Both are "surface only" with nothing behind them. (If you understand what I mean???)

Still.... they are much better than a lot of other stuff masquerading as "sit-coms" today.
Click to expand...

You have summed that up very well, especially about about dark, bleak undertones.

Now a lot of modern sitcoms insist on being realistic, dramatic and edgy. These two sitcoms have tried to follow a basic traditional sitcom format (nothing wrong with that, but somehow these programmes need a bit more realism perhaps).

Either way, it is what it is and are there to entertain us.

But I do feel with a bit of effort but shows could find the balance between being believable, and being true to the spirit of the original programmes.
 
The plot is so poor and the humour telegraphed , Clement and LeFrenais are just reworking plots from the original and in an unaccomplished manner. Last week it was the Fletch writing letters for the prisoners to sweethearts and loved ones, with a straight copy for the new series .. A Godber lookalike character is having issues with his girlfriend and the twist is instead of Lenny [having been dumped] and taking up with Fletch's daughter Ingrid , the new Fletch falls for the Godber like character's girl when she visits , basically a lazy rewrite .

The writing was on the wall [no pun intended] when Clement and LeFrenais wrote the follow up Going Straight which was poorly received and not a patch on Porridge . Employing them to write the new series was wrong because they are simply writing a pastiche of the original and employing some other writers , presumably , would have been impossible. I just could not see anyone accepting the offer because you're on an immediate loser. Given all that then they should have left the classic series as it was and followed John Cleese/Connie Booth's example who have flatly refused all offers to remake Fawlty Towers as a series and knew precisely when to call it a day for the original.

I await the Terry and June remake
 
Even Going straight, which wasn't all bad, borrowed bits and pieces from Porridge.

There was an episode of Porridge where Fletcher was laughing about a fellow inmate who was due to be released, and that the first thing he would do was to go to an ironmongers, buy a spade, and attempt to dig up some loot - in an unusual place. This is what Fletcher did in Going Straight.
 
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I may have written this before, if so apologies.

However I have never understood this current penchant for rewriting, refilming older classics. What is wrong with showing the originals again?

Is it a job creation scheme for actors, crew et al?

I have seen remakes of Hancock, and others and I am afraid, for me, they just are a pale imitation of the real thing.

If we have to recycle old scenarios then does this means that the creative pool has run dry?

Answers on a postcard please.
I remember the BBC always insisted answers be sent in on a post card or if you did not have one then a stuck down envelope. Better thn a stuck up one I suppose.

Any one know why?
 
Why refilm old classics? First of all, anything they do MUST be aimed at Primary Shoppers, i.e., twenty-thirty somethings. So they must include a nod to cell phones (mobiles) Instagram, Facebook, etc. Watching someone step into a phone booth, kiss at the conclusion of a date, use a dial phone, and/or send a telegram is so passe. But sadly, one of the main reasons to refilm is to every so slightly or more blatantly, lower the moral standards and up the action (shorter scenes, tight cuts, more upbeat music, color, much activity). So I say this with one caveat. I have never seen Porridge (new or old) as it has never made it across the Pond on PBS. So I cannot address Porridge specifically, but I have seen other originals and their remakes. And sometimes amorality creeps in, in the remake. And if not amorality, lots of action. Very sad.
 
Adanor said:
Why refilm old classics? First of all, anything they do MUST be aimed at Primary Shoppers, i.e., twenty-thirty somethings. So they must include a nod to cell phones (mobiles) Instagram, Facebook, etc. Watching someone step into a phone booth, kiss at the conclusion of a date, use a dial phone, and/or send a telegram is so passe. But sadly, one of the main reasons to refilm is to every so slightly or more blatantly, lower the moral standards and up the action (shorter scenes, tight cuts, more upbeat music, color, much activity). So I say this with one caveat. I have never seen Porridge (new or old) as it has never made it across the Pond on PBS. So I cannot address Porridge specifically, but I have seen other originals and their remakes. And sometimes amorality creeps in, in the remake. And if not amorality, lots of action. Very sad.
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The Original series of Porridge was brilliant and well worth tracking down to watch
 
Sad to say Adanor it did make it across the pond as On the Rocks [sad for all Americans because it was a very pale imitation of the original ] please see below

Porridge/On The Rocks

Norman Stanley Fletcher, Ronnie Barker’s Brylcreemed jailbird, is by far and away one of the UK's most beloved of comic creations.

Related content
So how do you make him work for a US audience? Recast him as a Puerto Rican criminal languishing in a Californian maximum security prison, that’s how.

Unsurprisingly, despite the involvement of Porridge’s writing team Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais – the pair even travelling around various American prisons to get a taste of what life was like in them – the project was doomed to fail.

Forced into making too many compromises by the network that had originally courted them – they preferred the scripts to be “family friendly” and “hip” – both Clement and La Frenais, along with the show’s US producer, decided to pull the plug in 1976, after little under a year.
 
Many years ago i saw some of the pilot for the USA version of Dads Army, The Rear Guard. It didn't get past the pilot stage but interesting to see nonetheless. As a big fan of the original and a lapsed fan club member i can't even force my self to watch the film from the other year....yet. Some things are best left alone !!
 
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