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| Norman Stanley Fletcher | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Porridge/Going Straight character | |||||||||||||||||||
 Ronnie Barker as Fletcher. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by | |||||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 1974–1978, 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | "Prisoner and Escort (1973) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | Life Beyond the Box: Norman Stanley Fletcher (2003) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Created by | Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais | ||||||||||||||||||
| Spin-off appearances |
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Norman Stanley Fletcher, commonly nicknamed "Fletch", is the main fictional character in the BBC sitcom Porridge, and the spin-off, Going Straight.[1] He was played by Ronnie Barker.[2]
In the pilot episode, Fletcher claims to Mr. Barrowclough that he was sentenced for stealing a truck, which then crashed through garden walls and a toolshed when its brakes failed. This turns out to be a shaggy dog story leading up to the punchline "I asked for six other fences to be taken into consideration". In other episodes, it is stated that he was sentenced for breaking and entering and that he is a career burglar. The opening of each episode refers to Fletcher as a "habitual criminal."
His tactics range from the practical (stealing pills from the prison doctor and eggs from the prison farmyard), to the symbolic (finding new and imaginative ways to stick two fingers up at Mackay, the antagonist prison officer, and get away with it). In return, Mackay's frenzied, neurotic attempts to catch Fletcher out, when fruitful, give the warder a level of smugness and satisfaction that is only accentuated by his charge's hostility and skulking.
Fletch is also surprised when this spell in prison finds him taking on the role of father figure. It is left to him to help Warren when he needs a letter read or written and to oversee new, younger inmates such as McClaren and Godber.
Fletch is manipulative and can play upon the sympathies and weaknesses of people like the liberal warden, Mr. Barrowclough, and the ineffectual prison governor to acquire more pleasant employment, accommodation, or special privileges.
Fletcher was born, in his words, "two-two-thirty-two" - 2 February 1932. He is a native of Muswell Hill. His elder daughter Ingrid was conceived in Highgate Cemetery, shortly before his marriage to Isobel at the age of 19. He also has a younger daughter Marion and a son named Raymond. Fletcher did his post-war National Service in the early 1950s, including service in the Malayan Emergency. He joined the Royal Army Service Corps or RASC, which he refers to in army slang as "Run Away, Someone's Coming". He was "King of the Teds" in Muswell Hill, circa 1955, and retains fond memories of Gloria, a seamstress with whom he had an affair at that time, and who used to tighten his trousers for him.
Upon release from prison, Fletch decided to give up his criminal career. In the follow-up series, Going Straight, he took a job as a hotel night-porter but found himself often tempted back into crime, although he resisted. His wife, Isobel, had left him, leaving him in sole charge of Raymond.
When last seen, in the mockumentary Life Beyond the Box: Norman Stanley Fletcher, Fletch was the landlord of a pub in Muswell Hill, alongside his second wife, Gloria (an old flame briefly mentioned in Porridge).
In 2009, the character was revived in a stage production, penned by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, and is played by Shaun Williamson.
In the 2016 revival of the show, also titled Porridge, it is revealed that Fletcher died circa 2011.
- ^ Erwin James (2005-10-05). "Erwin James: Doing time with Porridge | Media". The Guardian. Retrieved 2013-08-25.
- ^ "Comedy - Porridge". BBC. Retrieved 2013-08-25.