First look at the new Porridge | Kevin Bishop is Fletch in BBC reboot © BBC/Scott Kershaw

First look at the new Porridge

Kevin Bishop is Fletch in BBC reboot

Here is the first look at the BBC's reboot of classic sitcom Porridge.

Kevin Bishop plays Nigel 'Fletch' Fletcher - the grandson of Ronnie Barker's original inmate – in the new one-off which airs this autumn.

He shares a cell with Joe Lotterby, who will be played by Dave Hill, best known as Bert Atkinson in EastEnders.

Porridge sitcom

The new images reveal that stand-up – and former soap actor – Ricky Grover plays another inmate, and not for the first time. His character's name is Scudds.

Ralph Ineson, who played Dagmer Cleftjaw in Game of Thrones and Chris Finch in The Office, is another hardman lag, Richie Weeks.

Porridge sitcom

Catastrophe's Mark Bonnar plays Scottish prison officer Meekie, bound to evoke comparisons with Fulton Mackay's fearsome Mr Mackay from the original series, which ran from 1974 to 1977.

Porridge sitcom

Porridge's creators, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, have written the script for the new episode, which involves Fletch jailed for a series of cyber crimes.

Once inside, Fletch finds himself beholden to Richie Weeks and forced to use his hacking skills to get him off the hook.

Bishop said: 'Dick and Ian have brought Porridge back to life again with a brilliant script and it is a genuine honour to be involved in a show that is iconic in so many ways. Ronnie Barker's character was one of the most loved in BBC history and the thought of stepping into his grandson's shoes fills me with both thrills and paralytic fear!'

Also in the cast are Dominic Coleman as Officer Braithwaite; Harman Singh as Aziz and Jason Barnett as Shel.

The new episode goes out in the autumn as part of the BBC's Landmark Sitcom season of reboots, pilots and celebrations of the genre.

Porridge sitcom*

Published: 7 Jul 2016

Live comedy picks

We see you are using AdBlocker software. Chortle relies on advertisers to fund this website so it’s free for you, so we would ask that you disable it for this site. Our ads are non-intrusive and relevant. Help keep Chortle viable.