Porridge (TV Series)
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40 free Porridge (TV Series) trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Porridge ran for just three series in the 1970s, yet it is still counted among the best British sitcoms ever made. Its hero, the cynical old lag Norman Stanley Fletcher, spends his days scoring small wins over the system, and over the ever-watchful Mr Mackay in particular. This quiz covers the whole world of Slade Prison: Fletcher and his young cellmate Godber, the warders and the wide boys on the landing, the best-remembered episodes and Christmas specials, and the actors and writers behind them. The feature film, the sequel and the later revival get a look in too. It is pitched for anyone who grew up with the repeats as well as for dedicated fans. Expect a gentle start and a few questions that only a true regular of the landing will get.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The BBC sitcom Porridge takes its title from 1950s British slang for what?
A prison sentence
A prison sentence was called porridge after the breakfast once served in British jails. The show's star and both of its writers hit on the title independently.
Q 02Which comedy great played the wily old lag Norman Stanley Fletcher in the BBC sitcom Porridge?
Ronnie Barker
Ronnie Barker played Fletcher and also recorded the stern narration over the opening titles, a choice he reportedly came to regret.
Q 03Which future Only Fools and Horses star played the elderly inmate Blanco Webb in the sitcom Porridge?
David Jason
David Jason was only in his thirties when he aged up to play old Blanco, a lifer who appeared in three episodes.
Q 04In the Porridge film, what do Fletcher and Godber do after a fleeing armed robber dumps them outside the walls?
Break back in
Break back in is their only option. With months left to serve, being caught outside would add to their time, so they sneak home in a coach's luggage hold.
Q 05In the Porridge episode Poetic Justice, who turns out to be Fletcher's unwelcome new cellmate?
The judge who jailed him
The judge who jailed him, Mr Justice Rawley, ends up sharing the cell and stays until his own appeal succeeds an episode later.
Q 06Which word did the BBC sitcom Porridge popularise as a stand-in for the inmates' ruder swearing?
Naff
Naff was almost unknown before Porridge. Its star admitted decades later that he never knew what the word actually meant.
Q 07In the Porridge episode Just Desserts, the theft of which smuggled treat from his cell enrages Fletcher?
Pineapple chunks
Pineapple chunks were the prize, and the culprit proved to be kindly Mr Barrowclough, who confiscated the tin and took it home, where his wife ate the lot.
Q 08Brian Wilde, Porridge's soft-hearted Mr Barrowclough, also played Foggy Dewhurst in which long-running BBC sitcom?
Last of the Summer Wine
Last of the Summer Wine cast him as the ex-army schemer Foggy, a part he took on while Porridge was still running.
Q 09In Porridge's first Christmas special, No Way Out, what are the prison carol singers there to cover up?
An escape tunnel
An escape tunnel was being dug beneath the carols. Fletcher's plan to drop Mr Mackay into it ended with him falling in himself.
Q 10Which Rising Damp actor played the young first-time inmate Lennie Godber in the BBC sitcom Porridge?
Richard Beckinsale
Richard Beckinsale, father of the actress Kate, made both sitcoms at once. He died of a heart attack at 31, weeks after finishing the Porridge film.
Q 11Which sequel to the BBC sitcom Porridge follows Norman Stanley Fletcher after his release on parole?
Going Straight
Going Straight ran for only six episodes yet won a BAFTA for best situation comedy, and it ends with a wedding for a couple who met on visiting day at Slade Prison.
Q 12Lennie Godber, the first-time inmate who shares Fletcher's cell in Porridge, comes from which English city?
Birmingham
Birmingham is Godber's home city: he supports Aston Villa and shared a flat with his girlfriend in nearby Smethwick.
Q 13In which part of Slade Prison does Fletcher's young cellmate Lennie Godber work in the sitcom Porridge?
The kitchen
Q 21In which historic English county is Slade Prison, the fictional jail of the BBC sitcom Porridge, set?
Cumberland
Cumberland gave the writers a bleak, remote setting: the pilot shows the jail sitting in the middle of nowhere, reached by van after a long train ride north.
Q 22Fulton Mackay, Porridge's strict Mr Mackay, later played the Captain in which Jim Henson children's series?
Fraggle Rock
Fraggle Rock had a separate British version, and Mackay played its Captain from 1984 until 1987, the year of his death.
Q 23Porridge writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais first made their names with which 1960s sitcom?
The Likely Lads
The kitchen gave Godber the chance to lift butter and other treats for Fletcher, who toiled on the farm before wangling a job in the library.
Q 14Which future I'm a Celebrity winner played the mild-mannered inmate Lukewarm in the BBC sitcom Porridge?
Christopher Biggins
Christopher Biggins won the jungle show in 2007, three decades after playing Lukewarm, the cellmate who fussed over old Blanco.
Q 15What prison term is handed to Norman Stanley Fletcher in the opening titles of the BBC sitcom Porridge?
Five years
Five years is the maximum for his offences, announced in a booming narration that replaced a theme tune because music was thought wrong for a show set in jail.
Q 16In the Porridge episode A Day Out, where does Fletcher sneak off to when sent to buy ointment?
The village pub
The village pub was his real destination: he spent the ointment money on a pint and crisps, then fled on a stolen bike when Mr Mackay walked in.
Q 17In the Porridge episode The Harder They Fall, two rival gang bosses order Godber to lose at which sport?
Boxing
Boxing was Godber's new hobby. Told to throw the bout by both sides, he and his opponent each went down after one punch, so every bet was void.
Q 18In the 2016 revival of Porridge, Fletcher's grandson Nigel is locked up for which crime?
Computer hacking
Computer hacking put Nigel Norman Fletcher inside, and the revival was written by the same two men who created the original four decades earlier.
Q 19Which other hit sitcom for Porridge's leading man grew out of the same run of BBC pilots?
Open All Hours
Open All Hours also began as a try-out in the same anthology, though its star's own favourite was a third pilot about a Welsh gambler.
Q 20Which young actor played Fletcher's teenage son Raymond in the sequel series to Porridge?
Nicholas Lyndhurst
Nicholas Lyndhurst played the gormless Raymond as a teenager, three years before Only Fools and Horses made him a household name.
The Likely Lads launched their partnership in the mid-1960s, and they went on to write Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and even the 2016 Porridge revival.
Q 24Norman Stanley Fletcher, the old lag at the heart of Porridge, hails from which part of north London?
Muswell Hill
Muswell Hill is where Fletcher claims he reigned as king of the Teds in the 1950s, with a seamstress girlfriend who took in his trousers.
Q 25Which actor, later Maester Aemon in Game of Thrones, played the feared prison kingpin Harry Grout in Porridge?
Peter Vaughan
Peter Vaughan played Grouty on television and in the film, and his turn in Game of Thrones, begun in his late eighties, was his final role.
Q 26In Porridge, why does the inmate Bunny Warren ask Fletcher to deal with the letters from his wife?
He cannot read
He cannot read, and that is also how he was caught: he missed a sign warning that the place he was burgling had an alarm.
Q 27According to Fletcher in Porridge, his daughter Ingrid was conceived on whose tomb in Highgate Cemetery?
Karl Marx
Karl Marx is the name Fletcher drops in a sleepless late chat in the cell, adding that his children were spaced out by his spells inside.
Q 28In Porridge's pilot, Prisoner and Escort, how does Fletcher sabotage the van carrying him to Slade Prison?
Urinates in the fuel tank
Urinates in the fuel tank: allowed a quick stop behind the van, Fletcher eyes the filler cap, and the breakdown later strands him overnight with one soft-hearted warder.
Q 29In the Porridge episode The Hustler, Fletcher's secret gambling den in the boiler house centres on which game?
Snakes and ladders
Snakes and ladders was the game of choice, until Mr Mackay broke it up by timing a coal delivery to arrive mid-game.
Q 30Which team does Fletcher cheer on at home during his weekend of compassionate leave in Porridge?
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur win while he is home, a trip he wangled with a fake marriage crisis. In the film, though, he claims to follow Leyton Orient.