Porridge was a British sitcom broadcast on BBC1 from 1974 to 1977, running for three series, two Christmas specials and a feature film also titled Porridge (the movie was released under the title Doing Time in the United States). Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, it stars Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale as two inmates at the fictional HMP Slade in Cumberland. "Doing porridge" is British slang for serving a prison sentence, porridge once being the traditional breakfast in UK prisons.