A Comedy On This Day: Seven Of One - Prisoner & Escort (1 April 1973)

 With pilots, you tend to be looking out for discrepancies from the eventual series - here, that there's no Godber, and the implausibly progressive institution which Barraclough promises to Fletcher doesn't bear much relation to the Slade Prison that we eventually see in Porridge. But this isn't how their original audience would have watched these programmes, and it’s instructive to try to respond to them as freestanding comedy playlets.

 The central relationship is between the prisoner and the kindlier warden, each needing something from the other, becoming ever more interdependent through adversity as - shackled together by handcuffs - they become abandoned in the freezing countryside overnight, eventually finding shelter by breaking into a deserted cottage. The dynamic of this is as tragic as it is funny, as Fletcher gets Barraclough drunk and the officer opens up ("I'm a failure. I'm only holding on to this job by the skin of my teeth"), and confides about being repeatedly cuckolded by his wife. The relationship is an uneasy thing to watch, with prisoner shown to be devious in his manipulation of the escort and Barraclough the greater victim of the pair. The viewer is grateful that the cunning Fletcher is never consciously cruel to Barraclough, and manages to maintain our sympathies. Its a strong story in itself, sharing the qualities of balance and two lives being reflected in each other with the authors' contemporaneous Likely Lads, but one can understand why Ronnie Barker was reluctant to take it to a series.

 

 (I love the bleak moody atmosphere from the time they leave the railway station to when the van breaks down, you can almost feel the chill in the air and the sense of isolation as darkness approaches. There's some very convincing 'cold' acting (shivers, pulls face) from Ronnie Barker in the scene of the three of them outside the van in the middle of nowhere. From the look of it, it didn't take much acting to feel the cold, but he still does a good job of making the viewer know about it.)

A Comedy On This Day: Porridge - Poetic Justice (25 February 1977)

 I don't think that I've ever seen this one (in which the judge who sentenced Fletcher now shares a cell with him) before. Its striking quite how dialectical Clement & La Frenais' dialogue is in this episode, with characters spending much of the time considering the wider implications, ironies and inconsistencies of their position and changed circumstances - although every discussion is always topped off and illustrated by an action. Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads already had much dialogue that worked in this way, with Bob and Terry both liking to philosophise about their place in society, but the institutional prison setting of Porridge (a place where knowledge of hierarchies and rituals is vitally important) created the ideal opportunity for this type of comedy to be explored to its fullest extent.

 Considering that he started off in ITMA and Much Binding In The Marsh Maurice Denham (as the disgraced judge) didn't do much sitcom comedy, and his performance demonstrates the value of having a really good actor as a guest performer. His quiet responses to the cell door shutting behind him for the first time, or when being cornered by three threatening prisoners, are understated but clear, and register to the viewer as being emotionally true.