Brilliance, itself,as a follow on to porridge, unfortunately due to the untimely death of richard beckinsale, i believe this shortened, what would have become, a thriving, multi-series show, as porridge was... British comedy at its best, with legend status, shame nothing these days can come anywhere near , ronnie barkers wisdom and wit...Julez.....

'Porridge' ended its final series in 1977 with 'Final Stretch' in which his cell mate Lennie Godber was released from Slade Prison. In 1978, it was Norman Stanley Fletcher's turn to be released from behind bars when writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais engineered a sequel entitled 'Going Straight'.Norman Stanley Fletcher, now 45 years of age, has decided that upon his release from Slade prison that he will be going straight from now on. However, it becomes clear that life on the outside isn't the bed of roses he thought it would be. In the first episode, on the train home, he meets Mr. MacKay who has retired from Slade Prison as well as an old friend and fellow criminal who tries to involve Fletch in his latest fiddle.As if the temptation of crime is not bad enough, Fletcher is also dismayed to return home and find that not only has his wife left him for another man, but his daughter Ingrid ( once again played by Patricia Brake ) has started a relationship with Lennie Godber, who is now working as a long-distance lorry driver. Adding to Fletcher's problems is the lack of interaction with his gormless teenage son Raymond ( played by Nicolas Lyndhurst ), who only ever really speaks to ask what time it is.Eventually, Fletch manages to put his life of crime behind him and secures himself a job as a night watchman at a hotel and in the final episode Ingrid marries Lennie.'Going Straight' was never going to rival 'Porridge' but as a show itself it was great. It was interesting to see what life would be like on the outside for the lovable ex-lag and it also gave Ian La Frenais and Dick Clement a chance to develop the relationship between Ingrid and Lennie ( which began in the 'Heartbreak Hotel' episode of 'Porridge' ). The show is also notable for having given future 'Only Fools & Horses' and 'Goodnight Sweetheart' star Nicolas Lyndhurst early television exposure.Barker and Beckinsale were as brilliant as ever together and Clement and La Frenais still came up with some razor-sharp lines, such as when Ingrid berated Fletcher for making her party dresses out of parachute material when she was a child. Fletcher retorts: ''Well, you would have been alright if you had ever fallen out of a window, wouldn't you?''. Another witty item, excellently delivered by Barker, had Fletch angrily rounding on his daughter after she questioned his ability to hold down his new job - ''I only took this job to prove a point to my family, but obviously now, the point is pointless, so what's the point, eh?''.Depsite being a ratings success, as well as scoring a BAFTA award, 'Going Straight' came off air after only one series. It was heavily slated at the time by the critics, who felt that it proved to be too tall an order and that it came too hot on the heels of 'Porridge'. The series was also further marred with the untimely death of Richard Beckinsale shortly after finishing production of the show. It is still genuinely entertaining in my opinion and for fans of Barker it can't be missed and is miles funnier than Barker's later sitcom 'The Magnificent Evans', which was written by Roy Clarke.In 1979, Fletcher was back, this time back inside for the feature film of 'Porridge'. No mention was made of his time on the outside, nor of Godber's marriage to Ingrid, so we must assume that it was set some time before 'Going Straight'.

Like Porridge, Going Straight was a series that was to shine! In 1978 it won a Bafta TV Award and rightly so! With a fantastic theme tune (If you can find the elongated version on LP - do its magnificent!),Writing team and the superb acting of Ronnie Barker- Fulton Mackay and Richard Beckinsale who could say it was bad? As many posters have said here - it didn't live up to the expectations of Porridge and in a way this "could" be correct, but i feel it packs the same punch! It shows the strain of trying to reintegrate back into life, on the straight and narrow, fighting back temptation and the leering face of crime and Barker plays this to an Art! Be it the wittiness of Fletch,The stupidity of remarks from Raymond or the "happy ending" - The series is memorable for it.And to say that Barker said it was up there with Porridge - what more can one say!

PORRIDGE was a classic sit com due to the characters and how they interacted with one another so was it a good idea to have a spin off from the show where most of the characters disappeared ? It's kind of like making a spin off from ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES where Del and Rodney don't appear , no one one would ever dream of doing that would they ? What they did ? Oh dear The most memorable thing about GOING STRAIGHT was the theme song sung by Ronnie Barker " I'm going straight I am straight as an arrow ... " and that's mainly the start and finish of memorable moments . The first episode was undoubtedly the best since it featured the last television appearance of Mr McKay the head screw of HMP Slade . There is a very intelligent context for this since the opening episodes of PORRIDGE and GOING STRAIGHT both feature Mckay and Fletcher on a train so we see a dramatic example of full circle . The plot itself featured McKay being mistakenly accused of theft and Fletcher putting the world to rights in a great example of character development where Mckay thanks Fletch " I'll never forget this Fletcher " Ironically enough McKay seems to be the only person in the world who hasn't forgotten GOING STRAIGHT but it's easy to see why it's forgotten . One episode revolves around Fletch going to collect some money he's buried before he got put away only to discover that a block of houses has been built on his stash . This plot had already appeared in countless British B movies and wasn't all that funny to begin with . Another episode involved a budgie in a cage and Fletch feeling sorry for it so he releases it and he later relates to his daughter and Godber what he has done " I knew how it felt so I let it go ... and next doors cat eat it " GOING STRAIGHT shows that if you have a winning formula like PORRIDGE it's a bad idea to change the formula via a spin off