In what turned out to be the pilot for Porridge, Fletch tries to escape from McKay and Barraclough. Yet in the series proper the only escapes he only gets mixed up tend be against his will with one in particular due to Harry Grout having a hand in it. Is this change in character ever explained?
shareThe pilot sees Fletcher (faced with five interminable, soul-destroying years in the nick ahead of him) having a fit of 'escape panic' on the way to HM Prison Slade. The misadventure shows him how utterly futile an escape attempt in the middle of the frozen Pennines would be. A man fleeing in the dark without a compass will get hopelessly lost out there. It's a harsh lesson in the merciless physics of those moors. It teaches him never to try anything that stupid ever again.
From that point on Fletcher recognises that his best option at Slade is simply to bide his time, do his porridge and get by on the strength of his 'little victories' over the system. A practiced jail bird is what he is, an athletic escape artist is what he now knows he isn't.
The pilot play is about Fletcher reaching this understanding as he arrives at Slade. By the end of the episode he has abandoned any notion of escape and instead settles in to try and make the system work to his advantage. He decides to use his brain rather than his chubby legs. It's not a change in character, it was just a learning curve for Fletcher on the road to his five year stretch.
The pilot episode doesn't really make a lot of sense, because suppose Fletcher did escape - where would he go? he couldn't go home, because that would be the first place they would look for him. if he wanted to get away from the law, he wiould have to go abroad, which he probably hasn't the money to do. if he was one of the great train robbers it might make sense, but not for someone doing five years for burglary.
shareIt was Fletcher doing something very foolish in the heat of the moment. Even seasoned jailbird recidivists can make elementary mistakes (the kind a green first-time amateur might make) when a moment of temptation comes along. The old rational grey cells (which should be telling you not to try it) cease to be in control, and a form of run-rabbit mania takes over. There is neither rhyme nor reason to it, it can just happen sometimes to even the brightest and most experienced of prisoners.
As for money.... well, Fletcher - as we later discover in Going Straight - had a heap of stashed money from an old blag hidden away "For a rainy day". The resources were there for him to do a flit if he could have gotten away with it. However he failed in the escape and then gave up any notion of further attempts. It has to be chalked up to experience, something from which Fletcher learned and then evolved into the wily prison fox of the main series.