What is Porridge? Message Forum Links Merchandise Desktop Theme Frames No Frames

Welcome to a web site dedicated to providing you original quality Desktop Themes for you to download and enjoy. This is Theme 27 so if you missed the earlier themes be sure you visit the rest of the website before leaving - click on Frames or No Frames to access the main menu. This page is my small tribute to one of the BBC's classic comedies of the 70's, Porridge.

Norman Stanley Fletcher.... you are an habitual criminal who accepts arrest as an occupational hazard and presumably accepts imprisonment in the same casual manner....

So intoned the judge over the opening credits of this Dick Clement and Ian La Francis sitcom about an ageing Muswell Hill lag sentenced to a five year term at HM Prison Slade in darkest Cumbria. There the genial, crafty, quick-quipping Fletcher played by Ronnie Barker shared a cell with naive Birmingham offender Lenny Godber (Richard Beckinsale) and generally ran comic rings around the warders - notably strutting Scotsman Chief Officer MacKay played by Fulton MacKay and kindly (but dim) Warden Barrowclough played by Brian Wilde -while earning the awe struck admiration of his fellow cons. These included Bunny Warren (Sam Kelly), brain-dead murderer Blanco (David Jason), gay cook Lukewarm (Christopher Biggins), a Scottish hard-case McLaren (Tony Osoba) and the simple Heslop (Brian Glover). Slade Prisons Mr Big still ran his racket from within the prison and was played by the frightening Peter Vaughan.

Porridge is an English slang expression for a spell in jail. It is also the name this successful BBC comedy series followed in the mid 70's by thousands of inmates up and down the country where the punishment of the day was withdrawal of TV rights to watch Porridge! Now enjoying re-runs on UK-Gold, Porridge enjoys an on-going popularity with the escapades of Norman Stanley Fletcher and the rest of the inmates and prison wardens of Slade Prison.

Porridge was stacked with shinning performances brilliant characterisations and droll humour. It was derived from a play Prisoner and Escort, seen on Ronnie Barker's 1973 anthology for BBC2 entitled Seven of One. A total of 18 half-hour episodes were made and screened during the years 1974-77 plus two hour-long Christmas specials in 1974 and 1976. A sequel, Going Straight, (1978 6 x 30min) followed Fletcher's fortunes on release and his resumed life with his family. A film Porridge, released in 1979 by Black Lion/Witzend, was also released but proved to be an unfitting testimonial to an otherwise splendid series which to this day is guaranteed to bring a smile to your lips at some of the timeless quips and jokes. Perhaps the most memorable is when Fletcher finds a cake in a filing cabinet drawer to which he remarks, "that's novel, a file with a cake in it!"

Passionate about comedy? - add a comment to the Porridge Forum at ezboard.com

The Porridge Forum

Links to other Porridge Web Sites

Here are a couple of links I have found relating to this show. If you come across any more please let me know so that I can add them to the list for subsequent visitors to explore.

Visit the Porridge web page at the Beeb Comedy Zone

Visit the Porridge Episode Guide web page

Visit E-Online's Porridge Facts web page

buy Porridge Videos and DVD on-line ....

The Porridge Desktop Theme is my tribute to this classic BBC TV comedy show of the 70's. The Theme features themed start-up and shutdown screens, hi-colour desktop wallpaper, animated cursor set and new desktop icons. Also included are new windows sounds taken from a number of classic episodes including A Day out, Ways and Means and Disturbing The Peace. Also included is a full feature screensaver made using Screen Saver Deluxe. Instructions are provided in a Readme file and the whole theme is available in a convenient zip file to download.

If you don't have a copy of Microsoft Plus! help is at hand in the form of Desktop Themes, a shareware desktop theme manager published by Jonathan Potter at Left Side Software. Click on to get your copy.

The following thumbnails will give you an idea of the screens used in this theme.

Click here to download the Porridge Desktop Theme Version 1.0 (1.44Mb)

Problems downloading from ?

You can now use GetRight.Com's downloading Utility GetRight for Java to download this desktop theme. Click on the GetRight Download button that follows to download the Porridge Desktop Theme using GetRight for Java instead of your browsers usual download tool. Check out my Download Problems page to find out how to use this facility and for more great tips on how you can improve your downloads using Net Vampire.

If after successfully downloading the theme you think it could be improved or has bugs, then please E-Mail your comments and/or suggestions to me. If you liked this theme please tell future visitors to this web-site -

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