Factual error: Lennie Godber goes before the parole board on a Monday morning and is in his cell that afternoon telling Fletcher the good news - he made parole. That is impossible. The parole board will meet, interview the prisoner, then take depositions from other interested parties - the prison governor, psychologists, and so on. They will then consider their decision and if they approve parole they will then pass their recommendation on to the Home Office who will approve or decline it. All this takes three or four days at least, so there is no way for Godber to know that day, nor to pass the news on to Fletcher.
Porridge (1973)
1 factual error in Final Stretch
Starring: Fulton Mackay, Ronnie Barker, Brian Wilde, Richard Beckinsale
Genres: Comedy
Character mistake: "Blanco" Webb refuses parole on the grounds that, under Home Office rules, that would mean he had to admit to murdering his wife, a charge he vehemently denies. However, he accepts a pardon from the Home Office issued on the recommendation of the prison governor. Surely someone like Blanco, a man who quotes Home Office regulations by chapter, paragraph and verse, must know that a pardon is a remission of all punishment for a crime committed by the person being pardoned? By accepting a pardon he is admitting his guilt in exactly the same way as he would have been had he accepted parole.
Mackay: There are only two rules in this prison: 1 - do not write on the walls. 2 - You obey all the rules.
Trivia: Before Richard Beckinsale was cast, Ronnie Barker had suggested Paul Henry (Benny from the TV soap opera "Crossroads") for the role of Lennie Godber.
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