Dick Clement, OBE, co-writer of Porridge and The Likely Lads, is 80 today. Clement wrote the original sketch on which was based - Double Date - for a Ö÷²¥´óÐã director's course exercise in the early 60s, with his long-term collaborator Ian La Frenais.

The sketch was so well received that the pair were commissioned to write a whole series based on its main characters, Terry Collier and Bob Ferris, which first went out on the new channel Ö÷²¥´óÐã Two in 1964. An expanded version of Double Date became the series' second episode. 

The Likely Lads was highly popular and ran to three series, which were all repeated on Ö÷²¥´óÐã One, and were adapted for radio. Clement also produced the TV series, and other programmes, including series two of .

Clement and La Frenais wrote a number of television and film scripts during the late 1960s, but returned to their Likely Lads characters for a sequel, in 1973. The same year, they contributed two scripts to the Ronnie Barker series Seven of One, one of which was the pilot episode of .  

The writers were later responsible for the scripts of the hit ITV series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, which launched many actors' careers including Jimmy Nail, Kevin Whately and Timothy Spall. It had two series in the 80s and was .  

Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais were also behind a number of other , and have had a successful careers as writers of many Hollywood films. Both were awarded the OBE in the 2007 Birthday Honours list.

With a remake in the pipeline as part of the Ö÷²¥´óÐã’s tribute season to classic sitcoms, we look at Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais’ brilliant 1970s comedy about the inmates of Slade Prison.

Clement and La Frenais had made their name with in 1964, one of the first hit shows to be produced for Ö÷²¥´óÐã2.  When the series finished in 1966 after three seasons, they moved into writing feature films, Clement leaving his job as a Ö÷²¥´óÐã television producer to do so.

They returned to the Ö÷²¥´óÐã at the start of the 1970s with a follow-up series, , a rare example of a sequel outshining the original.  At the same time, they were asked to contribute to a series of one-off comedies starring Ronnie Barker, called Seven of One, made in the hope of discovering a long-running hit.

Clement and La Frenais had two scripts accepted:  , about a family of Welsh compulsive gamblers, and , in which a convicted felon is being escorted to a remote Cumbrian prison by two warders.  The episode saw Barker’s character, Fletcher, attempt to escape after he arranges the breakdown of the prison van by peeing in the petrol tank.

Transmitted on 1 April 1973, Prisoner and Escort was basically a three-hander – the only other cast member was a cameo by Hamish Roughead as a police sergeant, whose voice was eventually re-dubbed by Barker.  Another voice Barker provided was that of the judge who sentenced him, which was played over the titles on every successive episode of Porridge, from when a full series began in :

“Norman Stanley Fletcher, you have pleaded guilty to the charges brought by this court and it is now my duty to pass sentence.  You are an habitual criminal who accepts arrest as an occupational hazard and presumably accepts imprisonment in the same casual manner.  We therefore feel constrained to commit you to the maximum sentence allowed for these offences.  You will go to prison for five years.”

The series title was the result of much debate, with the pilot’s name irrelevant once we were inside the jail. One of the many pieces of underworld slang for imprisonment seemed to fit the bill.

Clement and La Frenais had been unsure at first whether they could write a whole series from the premise, as a research visit to an actual prison left them depressed at the atmosphere of hopelessness. 

But the series adviser, former convict Jonathan Marshall, gave them the clue they needed for the nub of the show, the phrase “little victories”. While the prisoners were unlikely to ‘win’ because they were locked up, there were always small ways they could get one over on the authorities.  The series' authenticity benefitted from Marshall's input, and with some of the extras having also been ‘inside’, the programme’s slang was always convincing.  That said, prison language had to be toned down, and the series is credited with popularising the phrase ‘naff off’ as a useful expletive, as well as the words 'nerk' and 'scrote'.

New characters were introduced for the series, the most important of whom was Lenny Godber (played by Richard Beckinsale), Fletcher’s naïve but personable first-timer cellmate.  Beckinsale was an experienced sitcom actor, who came to national attention in Jack Rosenthal’s ITV sitcom The Lovers, and who was (simultaneously to Porridge) appearing in Rising Damp with Leonard Rossiter.

Beckinsale and Barker established a rapport at once, which was demonstrated in one of the earliest episodes, (mistakenly billed as An Evening In in Radio Times).  Set almost entirely in their cell, it is a character piece where the old lag Fletcher gives Godber advice on how to survive the ordeal of prison.  As the series goes on, Fletcher acts as a father figure to him at times, not wanting Godber to end up like him.

The officers who escorted Fletcher to Slade were the other two main recurring characters.  Mackay and Barrowclough were opposite in character, the former was an ex-army martinet, the latter a dithering do-gooder who Fletcher saw as his route to privileges during his time in jail.  Both men were expertly played, by Fulton Mackay and Brian Wilde, bringing unexpected levels of nuance to their roles. 

Overall the series benefitted from faultless casting by its experienced producer/director, Sydney Lotterby.  As Richard Beckinsale’s commitments to Rising Damp meant that he was not available for the whole of the first series, Clement and La Frenais had scope to flesh out some of the other characters.  Among these were prisoners Warren (Sam Kelly), McLaren (Tony Osoba) and Lukewarm (Christopher Biggins) and prison governor Mr Venables (Michael Barrington), with whom Fletcher also planned to ingratiate himself.

The of Series One saw Fletcher’s family introduced, notably his daughter Ingrid, played by Patricia Brake.  In this, Fletcher composes a letter for his fellow cons so they can reassure themselves of their partners’ fidelity while they are locked up.  Ironically it seems Fletcher’s own wife has 'strayed', which leads to him being granted compassionate leave… but things are not as they seem.

With the first series getting excellent ratings there was little doubt that another series would follow, and Clement and La Frenais’ tight plotting and brilliant dialogue ensured that it was as popular as the first.  New characters included the aged character , played by David Jason in two episodes.  Jason was a long-time associate of Barker’s (including another of the Seven of One pilots, ) and often played much older men – he was a candidate to play Corporal Jones in Dad’s Army.

Another occasional character was Peter Vaughan’s 'Genial' , a crime boss who everyone dreads being asked a 'favour' by – there being no option to refuse.  Grouty’s character is a nod to Noel Coward’s Mr Bridger in The Italian Job, with his luxuriously furnished cell, albeit somewhat less refined.

The second series was followed by the first of two Porridge Christmas specials, , in which Fletcher has an escorted visit to hospital, as part of Grouty’s plan to help another prisoner escape.  The plan goes wrong, but Fletcher manages a “little victory” out of it.

With no new series in 1976 (Barker making the first series of Open All Hours in the meantime), the next episode of Porridge was another Christmas special, , in which Fletcher is involved in a hostage situation in the governor’s office. 

The third and final series in 1977 saw the judge who had sent Fletcher to prison ending up there himself . He was played by , despite the voice-over by Barker still being played over the opening titles.

Godber’s character had continued to develop, beginning a romance with Fletcher’s daughter in series two.  With the final series culminating in , a follow-up was planned, showing how Fletcher would survive on the outside.  , co-starring Beckinsale, Patricia Brake, and a young Nicholas Lyndhurst as Fletcher’s teenage son, did not quite work, though it had its moments, such as in the last episode when Fletcher is almost tempted back to a life of crime.

There was one final outing for Porridge, the almost-obligatory 1970s sitcom spin-off, but as with most attempts to exploit television comedies it lost something in translation – though it is one of the better attempts. 

With the tragic death of Richard Beckinsale in 1979, there was to be no more of the Porridge franchise  - with one exception - the ‘mockumentary’ in 2003, in which former associates of Fletcher recalled their relationships with the character, and 'Fletch' himself appeared briefly, now running a pub.

Porridge shows the consummate skill of Clement and La Frenais, in their ability to craft an excellent sitcom, does not date as much as some shows with its prison setting.  Like many of the best comedies it finds its characters in a situation which they cannot easily escape from – in a more literal sense than usual.  Despite the fact that the characters are mostly convicted criminals, we are able to empathise with them, in the way the British often identify with a ‘loveable rogue’. 

Clement and La Frenais used the success of Porridge to create a US version, On the Rocks,  while the original series was still running and  decamped to the States to do so.  Many episodes of Porridge were actually written beside a Californian swimming pool (it’s a hard life being a writer). 

While the American series was not a great success, they continued to be employed as script doctors in Hollywood, and also enjoyed further British TV success with the likes of , but Porridge remains arguably their finest moment.

Tribute must be paid too to Ronnie Barker.  His versatility in playing both sketch characters and rounded sitcom characters is amazing, but Fletcher must surely be his greatest creation, giving degrees of pathos and insight rarely seen in comedy, while delivering Clement and La Frenais’ lines with impeccable timing.

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