Delightful to see the cast speaking out of character. Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale seemed so diffident yet were so incredibly talented. More than 40 years on British TV still seems all the poorer for the loss of Richard Beckinsale.
You see any interview with Richard Beckinsale and there is a yearning each time that you wish you could go through the screen to tell him to get his heart looked at thoroughly !
I watched Zulu Dawn the other day, which Lacey filmed a year or so after this. A very good performance, as always. He was a quality actor, pity he drank himself to death.
Remember, this was a report made for children about a sitcom with situations that today would trigger the PC brigade to claim that the BBC is glorifying prisoners and exposing children to things that they shouldn't be. This was the same era that kids watched It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Benny Hill, Fawlty Towers, Dave Allen and many, many others whose only crime was to instill a decent British sense of humour.
Great little clip & interview with Ronnie, Richard & Co...Back in the days when comedy was gold and most importantly allowed..Fantastic series which was full of superb actors who are all sorely missed X 🥰🙏❤🇬🇧
God I used to love Blue Peter. They always communicated with the young as if they were mature and didn't patronise. I'm really enjoying this channel I'm glad I found it lol
It's not difficult to imagine that Fulton Mackay really was in the Black Watch. He definitely had a military air about him in all of his mannerisms. You can just imagine him barking orders on the parade ground.
Just a minute! I was expecting this classic children's TV program to be a demonstration of how to make that wonderful breakfast dish, and it to explode all over John Nokes, and Val to whipe it off him with a part of her dress soked in warm milk....... Oooohhhh, I may have drunk too much Gripewater again!
After all these years watching and loving Porridge, I never knew that some of the interior walls were made of fabric! I know we can look back with rose tinted glasses, but the likes of Ronnie, Richard and John Noakes were absolute geniuses. They may be gone, but certainly not forgotten. Every now and again you get someone trying to remake the classic stuff. You really cannot replicate the original. It was more than the sum of its parts. Just pure chemistry.
Ronnie Barker was an incredible character actor. When John was interviewing him you still couldn't imagine this guy was playing Fletcher. It just shows how mundane making a film is, The patience these guys need to have, sitting about, numerous takes, rehearsal, taking in your script, coming in and out of character. Incredible.
We were lucky to have one man involved in what would be 2 of the top 5 British comedies ever - Ronnie Barker. Porridge and Open all Hours. Yet knew when it was time to retire and step back to enjoy the rest of his life running an antique shop.
I was on holiday years ago and got talking to a guy who worked for Jim Henson and worked on Fraggle rock and he said Fulton Mackay was a lovely guy but was also the most vain celebrity he had ever worked with..... funny the things you remember
if its just air clip from blue Peter show, there must be a unedited versions, but the where very fond of just binning stuff back then, it's surprise we have this clip
Something you don't see everyday is John Noaks and Fulton McKay together, those two of my favourite Kids TV personalities, Noaks for BP and McKay for ITV's "Fraggle Rock"
@@stephenchappell7512 and to be fair, it was his own personal car. still on the road as well, 68,254 miles at last MOT and only advisory is a minor oil leak.
Fantastic opportunity to look at the Porridge TV set and some of the legendary cast, One of the less dangerous on Blue Peter for John Noakes presenting Jobs that time, I loved watching his presenting and he nevermind being put in the deep end of the pool by our great BBC.. 😊
Slightly mystified that Sydney Lotterby is directing here, but Dick Clement is credited as director of the Porridge movie. Is this the TV show? Wasn't that shot on videotape?
In this clip, the production team are filming the inserts for the TV series. Once edited, the inserts would be played into the studio recording where the smaller sets (cell interior, governer's office etc) were. For example, when Fletch walked out of his set (in the TV studio), they would run the insert film of eg Fletch walking across the whole prison set. The studio output was recorded onto videotape (2") and later edited to produce the final show for broadcast. If you watch any episodes of the TV series, the change in the nature of the image when cutting from the TV studio to the filmed inserts is very marked.
@@jonbignold4711 I was always fascinated by that choice of using film for exterior work and video tape for the studio work. They look so different on screen when combined together. I guess video tape was mostly confined to the studios as it was costly to use on location back then?
@@johnking5174 Yes, I'd say that's true - electronic capture outside a studio was mainly confined to outside broadcast units which were used for sporting events and major public events. Although there were mobile recorders, these events were usually recorded "down the line" at television centre or at a regional centre. 2" VT recording apperatus was big, expensive and cumersome by today's standards - requiring e.g. compressed air and skilled maintenance. The other very significant factor is that electronic editing was in its infancy. Whilst it was very effective for editing together the parts of an "as live" studio recording, the demands of traditional film editing (reworking a piece over a longer period of time, reordering, adding music and effects etc) were harder to do electronically - and there was already an established workflow from the film world. You may be interested to know that one innovation used in Porridge was the still frame which formed a visual punch line before the credits ran. Creating a still frame was no easy feat. It was achieved using the slow motion replay equipment normally used for sport. There was just one such (video disc) recorder inTelevision Centre, I forget the exact figure but I think it could record about 30 seconds of pictures.
@@jonbignold4711 Fascinating. I had the pleasure of visiting BBC Television Centre a couple of times (before it was torn to pieces into the modern version we have now). Loved the place. Got lost in it a few times, trying to find my way from TC8 to TC1 I remember was one occasion.
