One of Britain’s best-loved comedies "Porridge" comes to the Liverpool Empire from 22-24 March.
Written especially for the stage by the original creators, Dick Clement and Ian Le Frenais it has a cast of of 15.
Headlining the show is Shaun Williamson - best known for his fomer role as Barry Evans in ‘EastEnders’ and, more recently, for playing a comically unemployable version of himself in Ricky Gervais’ BBC Sitcom ‘Extras’.
The role of Godber, originally played by the late Richard Beckinsale, has gone to rising talent Daniel West.
Originally aired on BBC1 between 1974 and 1977, the character of jailbird Norman Stanley Fletcher was originally conceived for a one-off comedy, ‘Prisoners & Escort’, forming one of Ronnie Barker’s 1973 season of TV pilots, ‘Seven of One’.
The show was initially to be named ‘Bird or Stir’ before the team settled on the euphemism for life behind bars, ‘Porridge’.
When the first series was aired in the following year, it was greeted with outrage by sections of the tabloid press, shocked at the notion of a comedy programme glorifying prison.
Nonetheless, two further series, two Christmas specials and a feature film proved the show’s success as it became the regular diet both inside and outside Britian’s jails; prisoners claiming it to be the most accurate portrayal of real prison life on TV.
The show also spawned a BAFTA-winning sitcom sequel ‘Going Straight’, set around Fletcher's life on release from Slade, before more episodes were curtailed by the untimely death of Richard Beckinsale in 1979.
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