everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Having just seen Going Straight for the first time on DVD, I'd have to say it's terribly underrated. A sequel to Porridge that was so different (being set "On the outside" and with most of the Slade prison supporting cast gone) was always going to divide audiences. There are some brilliant episodes and moments though- including Fletch bumping into Mr. MacKay on the train home (in one of their best ever scenes together they part company getting drunk together and even shake hands). A pr Only Fools And Horses Nicholas Lyndhurst is excellent as Fletch's vague son, Raymond too. Most interestingly though, along with the Porridge film, Going Straight represents a kind of missing link between the gentler '70's writing of Clement and La Frenais with series like The Likely Lads and the earthier, more realistic style of Auf Wiedersehen Pet and The Commitments.The main attraction for most people though, should be to find out what became of Fletcher in the end (although it was made later the Porridge film is obviously set before this).Whilst it's still mainly broad, old school sitcom humour, Going Straight has several more serious moments as Fletch and his family struggle to make their way without him having to return to crime. The episode in which he helps a cynical teenage thief to change her ways is particularly poignant. The looming threat of Thatcherism hangs over this series like some huge dark shadow about to turn the British working class into the underclass and unscrupulous, upwardly mobile "Greed is good" types- as the writers would go on to explore with Auf Wiedersehen in the '80's.Clement and La Frenais have done an incredible job, not just with their almost unbeatable comedy writing (only John Sullivan comes close as far as I'm concerned), they have also left us these brilliant documents of British social history over the past forty years. Going Straight is just as much a valid part of this as Porridge, The Likely Lads and Auf Wiedersehen.

Like Porridge, Going Straight was a series that was to shine! In 1978 it won a Bafta TV Award and rightly so! With a fantastic theme tune (If you can find the elongated version on LP - do its magnificent!),Writing team and the superb acting of Ronnie Barker- Fulton Mackay and Richard Beckinsale who could say it was bad? As many posters have said here - it didn't live up to the expectations of Porridge and in a way this "could" be correct, but i feel it packs the same punch! It shows the strain of trying to reintegrate back into life, on the straight and narrow, fighting back temptation and the leering face of crime and Barker plays this to an Art! Be it the wittiness of Fletch,The stupidity of remarks from Raymond or the "happy ending" - The series is memorable for it.And to say that Barker said it was up there with Porridge - what more can one say!

'Going Straight' is often thought of as a failed sequel to 'Porridge.' However, it would help to think of the show as an epilogue to 'Porridge.' If both shows were called 'Fletcher' then I very much doubt that any distinction would be made between the two.By the time the show was written Ian La Frenais, Dick Clement and Ronnie Barker had the mind of Fletcher down to a tee. This in itself made the series superb - with some of the finest writing and acting to adorn our T.V. screens. But there is a more important point to 'Going Straight.' Although 'Porridge' tried to relate the daily grind of prison life it was, by it's very nature, a comedy programme. Fletcher's spirit, intelligence, humour and status inside 'Slade' almost made you want to commit a felony and go and join him. However, once outside he became a 'nobody.' The writers cleverly showed that outside a prison Fletcher was on life's bottom rung - on course for a life of menial work, low status and even lower pay. Fletcher finds himself very frustrated at the lack of opportunities for ex-cons, especially at his age, and this comes through in the series quite strongly. Personally, I admired him in 'Porridge' and pitied him in 'Going Straight.' In 'Porridge' it was often referred to that the system can't be beaten. 'Going Straight' showed that even after having served time for crimes the system still controls your destiny. A lesson for us all.

Well, I got the DVD of Going Straight the other week, and put it with my DVDs for Porridge. I've read all that stuff that says GS wasn't received as fondly as Porridge - and I've also read that Ronnie Barker thinks it's just as good. I am in full agreement with Mr Barker here.First off - yes, Going Straight dispensed with the "less is more" approach that made Porridge (and almost all the greatest sitcoms bar Fawlty Towers) so brilliant. But that's the only problem I have with it.I suspect that the people who dismiss this show were disappointed because it wasn't just more Porridge. Well, the whole point is that he's been released on parole. Alternately, for the people who miss Warren, Lukewarm and Grouty - remember that they were all sent down from different parts of the country, and so when released, all went home to different parts of the country. To have them all on the outside together would not be realistic. The only fellow ex-con to be kept in the series was, of course, Lennie Godber. Plus Fletch's daughter Ingrid has a much bigger part in this series - again, to be expected.Certainly, the series still has the same emotional resonance - Porridge dealt with the pressures of being in prison, and Going Straight deals with life on the outside for ex-prisoners, and the prejudices they are up against. Much like the prejudices that sequels tend to be up against . . .Overall, I like this series. Not quite as much as Porridge, I'll admit. But certainly enough to recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Porridge. Who said that sequels aren't as good?!