PORRIDGE was without doubt one of the greatest (if not the greatest) sitcoms ever produced on British TV,and two years after it's final episode (and a year after the sequel GOING STRAIGHT),everyone involved decided to produce a big screen version with all the familiar elements at hand.Looking at the rather cheap-jack and crude attempts in previous years (STEPTOE AND SON,ON THE BUSES and ARE YOU BEING SERVED? instantly come to mind among others),most critics and audiences would have dreaded such a prospect,as the film version of another great sitcom DAD'S ARMY was the only one that adequately cut the mustard.
The cinema version of PORRIDGE generally comes across rather well,though with definite flaws.The first half-hour or so is certainly the best,with plenty of very funny incident and occasionally hilarious one-liners,with such performers as Brian Wilde,Richard Beckinsale,Fulton Mackay,Peter Vaughan and of course,the brilliant Ronnie Barker,more than effectively repeating their memorable comic characterisations from the classic TV series.In the film's final two-thirds however,inspiration begins to flag,with a somewhat over-stretched plot involving the smuggling out of a new con (Barrie Rutter) during a football match.And much unlike virtually every episode of the TV version,the incidents depicted become rather foolish,flabby and lacking in credulity,which inevitably would have been far more subtle,taut and concise in it's regular half hour sitcom format.Being filmed almost wholly on location in the middle of winter also doesn't help;it all looks very bleak and morose which gives the film a rather pessimistic mood,in stark contrast to the TV version which despite the obviously grim countenance of a prison,still managed to amuse with spectacular success with a minimum of location work,and mainly being set in a convincingly constructed studio set with less harsh lighting,which despite it's claustrophobic feel still managed to produce a consistent vein of optimism.
Still,the performances from Barker,Beckinsale,Mackay and co. remain as good as ever to the final shot,and there's enough amusing moments to prevent the film from being anything near the vapid quality of most TV to film spin-offs from this period of British film history.With the execption of the forgettable sitcom BLOOMERS,it was sadly the final released work to feature the immensely talented young actor Richard Beckinsale;he had previously made a name for himself in the slight but amusing sitcom THE LOVERS,before he really hit the big time with his performances in PORRIDGE and another great sitcom of the 1970's, RISING DAMP (arguably the best example of this genre the ITV network ever produced) opposite Leonard Rossiter.He would undoubtedly have become a very big star in the 1980's and 1990's had it been not for his tragically premature death of a heart attack in 1979 aged only 31.Like his fellow co-stars,his performance isn't quite as good as it was in the peerless TV series,but it is still a perfectly acceptable epitaph to his talents and a genuinely classic BBC TV original.
RATING:6 and a Half out of 10.
The cinema version of PORRIDGE generally comes across rather well,though with definite flaws.The first half-hour or so is certainly the best,with plenty of very funny incident and occasionally hilarious one-liners,with such performers as Brian Wilde,Richard Beckinsale,Fulton Mackay,Peter Vaughan and of course,the brilliant Ronnie Barker,more than effectively repeating their memorable comic characterisations from the classic TV series.In the film's final two-thirds however,inspiration begins to flag,with a somewhat over-stretched plot involving the smuggling out of a new con (Barrie Rutter) during a football match.And much unlike virtually every episode of the TV version,the incidents depicted become rather foolish,flabby and lacking in credulity,which inevitably would have been far more subtle,taut and concise in it's regular half hour sitcom format.Being filmed almost wholly on location in the middle of winter also doesn't help;it all looks very bleak and morose which gives the film a rather pessimistic mood,in stark contrast to the TV version which despite the obviously grim countenance of a prison,still managed to amuse with spectacular success with a minimum of location work,and mainly being set in a convincingly constructed studio set with less harsh lighting,which despite it's claustrophobic feel still managed to produce a consistent vein of optimism.
Still,the performances from Barker,Beckinsale,Mackay and co. remain as good as ever to the final shot,and there's enough amusing moments to prevent the film from being anything near the vapid quality of most TV to film spin-offs from this period of British film history.With the execption of the forgettable sitcom BLOOMERS,it was sadly the final released work to feature the immensely talented young actor Richard Beckinsale;he had previously made a name for himself in the slight but amusing sitcom THE LOVERS,before he really hit the big time with his performances in PORRIDGE and another great sitcom of the 1970's, RISING DAMP (arguably the best example of this genre the ITV network ever produced) opposite Leonard Rossiter.He would undoubtedly have become a very big star in the 1980's and 1990's had it been not for his tragically premature death of a heart attack in 1979 aged only 31.Like his fellow co-stars,his performance isn't quite as good as it was in the peerless TV series,but it is still a perfectly acceptable epitaph to his talents and a genuinely classic BBC TV original.
RATING:6 and a Half out of 10.