One of Britain’s funniest sitcoms. Ronnie Barker is absolutely hilarious as Norman Stanley Fletcher, a man who just can’t stay out of prison. This show has one funny line after another. If you’re into comedy, don’t miss this one. Barker won numerous awards for his performance.
Pilot episode: “September 5,1974 :”New Faces,Old Hands” – Norman Fletcher is sharing a cell with first timer Lennie Godber who is in for breaking and entering and the clueless Cyril Heslop whose back inside for the second time.
On the first day guard Mr.MacKay gives the orientation lecture complete with one liners from Norman. He also gives advice to Lennie on how to cope with prison life. This is a very funny sequence.
The prison governor has a thing for animals and keeps pigs and tropical fish. One of the fish has some kind of disease. The prison doctor has to exam the three prisoners and Norman’s cons don’t all work. He tells Lennie and Cyril that he’s going to get an easy job either in the kitchen or library.
Norman tries to convince MacKay that he’s a fish expert. Time to hand out jobs. Lennie gets the kitchen. Cyril says he read a book once. All he remembers about it is that it was green. He gets the library job. Norman gets to work with animals but not exactly what he was planning.
There are a lot of good jokes in this episode and it’s easy to get hooked on the twenty episode series.
American audiences know Barker from “The Two Ronnies” with Ronnie Corbett. (1971-87).
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