Porridge

Series 2, Episode 1:  Just Desserts

First Aired: 24-10-1975

Written by: Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais



He’s looked all over and he cannot find them anywhere in his cell. Fletcher’s tin of pineapple chunks is missing and he is forced to draw the conclusion that one of the prisoners is a thief. It takes one to know one I suppose, and as Warren quite rightly points out, there are nearly 600 prisoners housed within the walls of Slade prison and about two thirds of them have probably been incarcerated for thieving. Fletch is well aware of this, but he is a firm believer in honour amongst thieves, and he tells the other prisoners that he is going to have a shower and if his tin of pineapple chunks have not been returned by the time he gets back he will have to open up a full scale enquiry.

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The tin of pineapple chunks is not returned and so Fletcher and most of the cellblock gather inside his cell, where he informs them that they all had the means, motive and opportunity and he has established that the crime was committed during the fifteen minutes before bang-up. As it turns out, however, Fletcher is wrong because most of the men have firm alibis for that time. Even Fletcher’s prime suspect, Ives, can prove that he was in the hobby shop making a big fluffy panda.

Needless to say, Fletcher get to the bottom of it in the end, but when he does eventually solve the mystery of his missing chunks the culprit turns out to be the last person he would have expected.