Porridge Details

The original TV series had ended two years earlier and Ronnie Barker had even been Going Straight before he was talked back into the role of Norman Fletcher for this movie spin-off. He's excellent and this is one of the best of its kind, but, sadly, that's not saying much. What worked in a tightly scripted half-hour falls apart over 90 minutes in a story about a Lags XI v Celebrity All-stars football match set up to cover an escape. Dreadful idea — so what possessed John Huston to recycle it for Escape to Victory?

Genial expansion of a successful TV series to the big screen; alas, as usual the material is stretched to snapping point, and the welcome irony of the original becomes sentimentality. Still, the film is a valuable record of memorable characters.