Going Straight
| Going Straight | |
|---|---|
 Going Straight main title. | |
| Created by | Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais |
| Written by | Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais |
| Directed by | Sydney Lotterby |
| Starring | Ronnie Barker Richard Beckinsale Patricia Brake Nicholas Lyndhurst |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 6 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer | Sydney Lotterby |
| Editor | Bill Wright |
| Running time | 30 Mins |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC One |
| Release | 24 February – 7 April 1978 |
Going Straight is a BBC sitcom which was a direct spin-off from Porridge, starring Ronnie Barker as Norman Stanley Fletcher, newly released from the fictional Slade Prison where the earlier series had been set.
It sees Fletcher trying to become an honest member of society, having vowed to stay away from crime on his release. The title refers to this: 'straight' is a slang term meaning being honest, in contrast to 'bent', i.e. dishonest.
Also re-appearing was Richard Beckinsale as Lennie Godber, who had been Fletcher's naïve young cellmate and was now in a relationship with Fletcher's daughter Ingrid (Patricia Brake). Her brother Raymond was played by a teenage Nicholas Lyndhurst.
One series of six episodes was made in 1978. It attracted an audience of over 15 million viewers[1] and won a BAFTA award in March 1979, but hopes of a further series had already been dashed by Beckinsale's premature death earlier the same month.
Episode list
| Title | Airdate | Description |
|---|---|---|
| "Going Home" | 24 February 1978 | Fletch, having been paroled, makes his way home from prison. On the train, he bumps into Mr Mackay and an old friend. |
| "Going to be Alright" | 3 March 1978 | Fletch visits his probation officer and reveals his wife has left him, and borrows Godber's lorry to drive to Essex to dig up a buried stash of ill-gotten gains. |
| "Going Sour" | 10 March 1978 | Fletch is diverted from his own problems when he comes across a young runaway girl (Roberta Tovey) in his local cafe and tries to set her on the straight and narrow, with debatable success. |
| "Going to Work" | 17 March 1978 | Fletch is set up with a job by his probation officer as a night porter, but can't face starting his first ever conventional job. |
| "Going, Going, Gone" | 24 March 1978 | Fletch, while at work, recognises an old fellow inmate (Nigel Hawthorne) and does his best to prevent a crime from occurring. This episode also includes an appearance from Pete Postlethwaite. |
| "Going off the Rails" | 7 April 1978 | Fletch almost falls off the straight and narrow on the day Godber is to marry Ingrid when he assists an old friend with a bank raid, but has a change of heart before it's too late when he walks into a pet shop: the sight of all the animals in cages triggers memories of his many years in prison, and he abandons the job to attend the wedding. |
Theme tune
The theme tune, sung by Ronnie Barker, detailed Fletch's determination to go straight, an ambition first laid out in the Porridge episode "Men Without Women":[2] This was released as 7-inch single by BBC Enterprises. The B-side is a track called 'The String Bean Queen'.
References
- ^ Information published on DVD back cover
- ^ "The Full Lyrics to the Theme Tune from Going Straight". Retrieved 25 January 2009.
