Going Straight


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. 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 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.

Episodes

Six episodes of Going Straight, all written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, were produced for the BBC. The show began airing on 24 February and ended on 7 April 1978. All episodes had a running time of 30 minutes.

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": This was released as 7-inch single by EMI records. The B-side is a track called "The String Bean Queen'"