Porridge gets a Tory flavour | The Sunday Times

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Porridge gets a Tory flavour

Richard Brooks, Arts Editor Published: 7 September 2014

Jonathan Aitken at home in West London. (David Bebber) Photograph: Times Newspapers Ltd

WHAT would Fletch say? Another old lag is to have his spell of porridge turned into a comedy series.

Jonathan Aitken, the former Tory cabinet minister who spent seven months in jail for perjury and perverting the course of justice, is the inspiration for a Channel 4 series. He may not be the “habitual criminal” that Fletcher was in the BBC comedy Porridge, but Aitken can see the funny side.

“It was me, the Old Etonian, with the old lags,” he said. Aitken is working with Sean Gray, who co-wrote the political satire The Thick of It , and producer David Aukin, the former head of film at Channel 4.

The central character will not be called Jonathan, let alone Johnno. “That’s what they called me inside,” said Aitken. “All prisoners have their first names changed to end with an ‘O’ or a ‘Y’. I hope I’m not recognisable though I’m

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