PORRIDGE

GB
1979
1hr 33mins
Dir: Dick Clement
Starring: Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale

Two inmates of HMP Slade become unwittingly involved in a break-out

This successful big screen adaptation of the famous TV comedy features an opening scene filmed at a bleak looking Wargrave station on the Henley-on-Thames branch with a departing Class 117 DMU. ‘Doing porridge’ is British slang for serving a prison sentence, porridge once being the traditional breakfast in UK prisons. The Americans would probably not understand this colloquialism, hence the film’s alternative US title Doing Time.

Wargrave station with a departing Class 117 DMU