I watched this again over 3 decades after it was made with younger folks. How to make it relevant to them? The jokes fall flat in our new millennium — like the 'oh he's gay, so it's funny'. This in a sense made it relevant because it shows what was seen as funny back then.
What hadn't changed is the Class War aspect which is clear and present as the backdrop, starting with the accents. Quentin Crisp joke that 'In the US your accents shows where you're from. In contrast to the UK where your accent shows where you're from'. The middle accents come from the 2 governors of the prison. The official governor, from privilege and boarding schools and the shadow governor, the prisoner who runs things from the inside with aspirations of class, displayed by his brilliantly acted faked accent.
Between official and shadow governance is the space Fletcher moves, bopping and weaving. Fletcher, the main character we all watched Porridge for, is the survivor. He's not for the system or against the system to fight it, he just wants to get it off his back and get by (straight outta the book and movie 'The Spook Who Sat by the Door. Watch for his delivery of the line to a prison officer 'you, I, we are merely here to establish the status quo'.
So yea, this old grimy film worked well as a conversation trigger on the 'how things were back then' theme, without any nostalgia, giving a new lease of life and relevance. Why was it a comedy unlike say HBO's brilliant Oz series? As the man said, if you going to tell people a painful truth you better make them laugh.
Shadow Governance
What hadn't changed is the Class War aspect which is clear and present as the backdrop, starting with the accents. Quentin Crisp joke that 'In the US your accents shows where you're from. In contrast to the UK where your accent shows where you're from'. The middle accents come from the 2 governors of the prison. The official governor, from privilege and boarding schools and the shadow governor, the prisoner who runs things from the inside with aspirations of class, displayed by his brilliantly acted faked accent.
Between official and shadow governance is the space Fletcher moves, bopping and weaving. Fletcher, the main character we all watched Porridge for, is the survivor. He's not for the system or against the system to fight it, he just wants to get it off his back and get by (straight outta the book and movie 'The Spook Who Sat by the Door. Watch for his delivery of the line to a prison officer 'you, I, we are merely here to establish the status quo'.
So yea, this old grimy film worked well as a conversation trigger on the 'how things were back then' theme, without any nostalgia, giving a new lease of life and relevance. Why was it a comedy unlike say HBO's brilliant Oz series? As the man said, if you going to tell people a painful truth you better make them laugh.
Shadow Governance