Ian La Frenais

For just under two hours this afternoon, BBC Two devotes itself to a celebration of Porridge (the prison-based sitcom, not the breakfast). First up, at 4.20pm, is a repeat of Comedy Connections (Scot, 8.00pm), which traces the genesis of the show and includes contributions from Ronnie Barker, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. It's followed at 4.50pm by Life Beyond the Box (Scot, 4.20pm), a nicely made mockumentary about Norman Stanley Fletcher, the show's central character. Finally, there's a classic episode (Scot, 8.30pm) in which Fletcher and co set up an illicit sweepstake.

Yes, Porridge WAS the greatest show ever

An affectionate tribute from the creator of Birds of a Feather.

Porridge is 'best programme ever'

Porridge, the television comedy about life behind bars, is the greatest programme ever made, according to Sir David Attenborough.

Despite the shortcomings in the plot, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet has been the best "new" British drama on TV this year. Its return, whilst critically not quite living up to its previous two series, has still been very welcome indeed.

The big TV event of the week is the return of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (BBC1), something I'm unqualified to comment on with any degree of authority, having been too young to appreciate the original ITV series, which at the time seemed to consist entirely of slightly frightening men standing in a Portakabin, bellowing at one another in a dialect I didn't understand.

Weak television, but nevertheless a well deserved tribute to two writers whose place in TV heaven would be assured, had they not been rash enough to give Christopher Biggins his first break.

Of course, such a seminal series deserves to be shown again, but the partnership was only at its best in Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads, when Bob had become middle-class, Terry had inexplicably acquired a Geordie accent, the horrendous Thelma had appeared, and the ingredients were finally in place for a serious comedy about class and sex.

It is well worth a watch. At the worst you learn how to spell Widersehen just as that deplorable business with the Barlows taught us how to spell Dierdre. Hang on, Deirdre. No, I before E except...

But if you want to hear how the use of language can be the making of a series, the re-run of Porridge (BBC2) is the show to watch. Those scripts by two writers were gold in every molecule. 'Her flat fell through.' 'Fell through to the flat beneath, I expect.' When you recover from laughing at the way Ronnie Barker delivers it, you realise that a lot depends on how the writers wrote it: the word 'beneath', in particular, is perfectly chosen and placed. Years from now, when all those semi-documentary, semi-improvised, semi-truthful epics about working-class rebellion have dated hopelessly, the work of Galton and Simpson and two writers will still be there to testify that there really was such a thing as common speech with a rhythm of its own.

'Going Straight' is the worthy successor of 'Porridge.' Norman Fletcher, still played by Ronnie Barker, is out of the nick and cleaving to the straight and narrer. His dialogue, like everybody else's in the show, is still supplied by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Every line they write is at least twice as good as anything in the average West End play.