Did not know that, but then again Porridge never caught my interest not Neighbours when ever child was watching it on the telly. The only thing I ever watched was Blue Peter, and years later, more of an enthusiast of the Old Bard in the West End, Dr Who, Monty Python, Some Mothers Do Have Them repeats on the old Auntie.
When I was first moved to the US, I remember visiting an area in D.C., I think it was Jersey St, less than a mile away from Pennsylvanian Ave (the White House), and shocked as to the state of it, rotten to the core with paupers roaming, junkies on sidewalks, and life left to rot, a mile away from the corridors of power in the biggest economy of the world. That was till I visited the deep South, the Country (Mississippi, Alabama etc) where people do not even know they live the US. That was when I realised socialist Europe was not so bad.
Brixton was bad back then, but not to the level of US standards in the ghetto sense.