Porridge is a British sitcom, starring Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale, written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, and broadcast on BBC1 from 1974 to 1977. The programme ran for three series and two Christmas specials, and was followed by a feature film of the same name (in the United States, the film was released under the title Doing Time).
The sitcom focuses on two prison inmates, Norman Stanley Fletcher (played by Barker) and Lennie Godber (played by Beckinsale), who are serving time at the fictional HMP Slade in Cumberland.
Several characters from Porridge reappear in the sequel series Going Straight (1978) and in the 2003 spoof documentary Life Beyond the Box: Norman Stanley Fletcher. The 2016 'reboot' series of Porridge has a different cast of characters, including Nigel Norman Fletcher, grandson of Norman Stanley Fletcher in the original series.