Plot
Picking up some time after "Five Gold Rings" in February 1962, as Del Boy and his friends (Boycie, Trigger, Jumbo, Albie, and Denzil) are having a smoke outside Sir Walter Raleigh Tower, his mother Joan reads her baby son, Rodney, a bedtime story, and regretfully talks about how Del ruined their future happiness. The door suddenly slams and Joan jumps.
Going back seven months earlier to July 1961, life is still more or less the same for the Trotter family. Del continues to pursue countless girls with his glass rings, Reg is still unemployed, and Joan works for Freddie "The Frog" Robdal as his "charlady", although they really use their time together for sexual pleasure (unknown to the rest of the Trotters, Robdal is the father of Rodney). Robdal, for his part, keeps his own eyes on the Trotter family, going as far as to assault Joan's lecherous employer, Mr. Raynor, by breaking his fingers and threatening him into silence after learning of his perverted behaviour towards her through gossip in the Nag's Head.
Del crosses paths with an old flame of his, Barbara Bird, and they go for a coffee together, where they agree to continue seeing each other but only after Barbara returns from an upcoming trip. Around the same time, Robdal gives Joan a ring as a gift, which she notices is from Margate. She asks Robdal if he stole this ring from the jewellery store in Margate while on the 1960 Jolly Boys' Outing with Del, but he denies it. Robdal and his friend, Gerald "Jelly" Kelly, are approached once again by the corrupt DI Thomas and DC Stanton, who now claim to have a one-eyed war hero eyewitness, Eric Poulton, to the Margate robbery, and later on, Thomas arrests them both when Poulton goes missing. However, Robdal comes triumphant once again when it is revealed that Poulton is actually a policeman who lost his eye in a street fight and served as the desk sergeant when DI Thomas first started as a policeman. It turns out Poulton was living in Margate opposite the jewellers, and Thomas asked him to tell a few "white lies" in return for a share of the reward money, but Robdal and Kelly paid him a visit and told him their side of the story, treating him to a holiday in Spain. All but defeated, Thomas begrudgingly drops the case, but once Kelly is gone, Thomas plays his trump card: he has acquired the ring which Robdal gave to Joan, which she recently pawned in order to buy Del a lambretta. Despite furiously threatening Joan over the phone, Robdal chooses to protect Joan and Del (and get Thomas off his back once and for all). Robdal subsequently takes the full blame and is imprisoned on an alternate charge for a few months while Kelly goes free.
Del, meanwhile, begins his own plans to make a film, Dracula on the Moon, and become a millionaire. Joan, under the name "Reenie Turpin" (Trigger's aunt and Joan's best friend), visits Robdal in prison. Robdal claims that once he is released, he wants to move to his country house near Bournemouth and start a new life, and implores Joan to run away with Rodney to live with him. Joan accepts, but tells Robdal seven months later in February 1962 that she will only leave with him once she is certain of Del's financial security, even though Robdal, knowing of Del's life as a market trader, believes Del is old and smart enough to look after himself. During the conversation, Joan mentions that she briefly began working as a charlady for an art dealer, Roland Pernell, for seven pounds a week, although Pernell callously deducted three pounds from her salary for "tax reasons". This, as well as the mention of Pernell's name, pique Robdal's interest.
To get Del set up financially, she pushes his relationship with Barbara, who comes from a rich family. Del takes Barbara out to dinner, where he gets engaged with her. Barbara's parents, Bernard and Beryl, take a liking to Del and invite his family over for an engagement party, during which Reg gets drunk and makes a fool of himself. Unfortunately, whilst alone in the kitchen, Beryl makes a sexual pass at a surprised Del and is seen by the rest of the family. Beryl confesses that she never had the happy, privileged life Barbara had, and became so jealous, especially with her disturbed childhood and unhappy marriage to Bernard, that she began secretly dressing in Barbara's clothes and listening to her music while alone. Despite Joan's efforts to patch things up, the engagement is off, and Joan ultimately decides to remain in Peckham for Del's sake. Meanwhile, Robdal and Kelly rob Pernell's art gallery together: many years back, Pernell cheated Robdal out of some money and went into hiding. Once Robdal went to jail, Pernell re-emerged, opened a new art gallery, and cheated Joan out of almost half of her wages. By robbing Pernell, Robdal will make him a target for the Inland Revenue for tax fraud. Following this, Robdal vows to go straight, unaware of Del's failed relationship.
Returning to the opening scene, while Del and his friends share a smoke outside, Joan reads Rodney a bedtime story and laments how both her and Del's happy futures were ruined. The door slams and Reg comes inside, surprisingly calm and expressing relief that Del's relationship with Barbara is over, having been disturbed by Beryl's actions. Reg goes to bed, leaving Joan to sit with Rodney and wait for Robdal to call (unaware that he himself is waiting for Joan to call him). Del and his friends, meanwhile, steal some lambrettas and ride off into the night towards Brighton as "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" by The Shirelles plays in the background.
Only Fools and Horses.... is a British television sitcom created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom from 1981 to 1991, with sixteen sporadic Christmas specials aired until the end of the show in 2003. Set in working-class Peckham in south-east London, it stars David Jason as ambitious market trader Derek "Del Boy" Trotter and Nicholas Lyndhurst as his younger brother Rodney Trotter, alongside a supporting cast. The series follows the Trotters' highs and lows in life, in particular their attempts to get rich. Critically and popularly acclaimed, the series received numerous awards, including recognition from BAFTA, the National Television Awards and the Royal Television Society, as well as winning individual accolades for both Sullivan and Jason. It was voted Britain's Best Sitcom in a 2004 BBC poll.
(not to be confused with Del Boy - a similarly nick-named Zimbabwean-English boxer - Derek Chisora)
Edward Kitchener "Ted" Trotter, better known simply as Grandad, is a fictional character who was one of the original leads of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. He appeared in the show's first three series, played by Lennard Pearce. The character is grandfather to Del Boy and Rodney Trotter. Pearce's death in December 1984 was written into the series with the death of Grandad. His place was taken by Uncle Albert.
Colin Ball, more commonly known as Trigger, is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses and its prequel Rock & Chips. He was played by Roger Lloyd-Pack in Only Fools and Horses and Lewis Osbourne in Rock & Chips.
Rodney Charlton Trotter, is a fictional character in the long running BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, played by Nicholas Lyndhurst.
"Thicker than Water" is the third Christmas special episode of the BBC sitcom, Only Fools and Horses, broadcast on 25 December 1983, and is the first to be screened on Christmas Day.
"Big Brother" is the first episode of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. It is the first episode of series 1, and was first broadcast on 8 September 1981. In the episode, Del buys a consignment of briefcases, only to later discover that the combinations are locked inside.
"Tea for Three" is an episode of the BBC sitcom, Only Fools and Horses. It was the fourth episode of series 5, and was first broadcast on 21 September 1986. In the episode, Del and Rodney find themselves battling for the affections of Trigger's niece Lisa.
"The Frog's Legacy" is the sixth Christmas special episode of the BBC sitcom, Only Fools and Horses. It was first broadcast on 25 December 1987. In the episode, the Trotters search for the hidden gold legacy of Freddie "The Frog" Robdal, an old friend of their mother's.
"Strained Relations" is an episode of the BBC sitcom, Only Fools and Horses. It was the second episode of series 4, and was first screened on 28 February 1985.
"The Second Time Around" is an episode of the BBC sitcom, Only Fools and Horses. It was the fourth episode of series 1, and was first broadcast on 29 September 1981. In the episode, an old fiancée of Del's returns and they rekindle their relationship, to Rodney and Grandad's horror.
"A Losing Streak" is the third episode of series 2 of the BBC sitcom, Only Fools and Horses. It was first broadcast on 4 November 1982. In the episode, Del Boy plays a high-stakes game of poker with Boycie. Also, this is the only episode in the series in which Boycie serves as an antagonist.
"The Yellow Peril" is an episode of the BBC sitcom, Only Fools and Horses. It was the fifth episode of series 2, and was first screened on 18 November 1982. In the episode, Del buys a consignment of yellow paint which, unknown to him, is actually luminous, a fact he only discovers when they use it to decorate a Chinese restaurant.
"Homesick" is an episode of the BBC sitcom, Only Fools and Horses. It was the first episode of series 3, and was first broadcast on 10 November 1983. In the episode Rodney is appointed chairman of the local Tenants Association, and Del expects him to use his influence to secure a move to a council bungalow.
"Sleepless in Peckham...!" is the final episode of BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. It was first screened on 25 December 2003 as the third and final part of the early 2000s Christmas trilogy, and as the eighteenth and final Christmas special. It was the last Only Fools and Horses-related episode until the Sport Relief special in March 2014.
"Ashes to Ashes" is an episode of the BBC sitcom, Only Fools and Horses. It was the second episode of Series 2, and was first screened on 28 October 1982.
"Danger UXD" is an episode of the BBC sitcom, Only Fools and Horses. It was the second episode of series 6 and first broadcast on 15 January 1989. In the episode, Del acquires a batch of faulty sex dolls, which have inadvertently been filled with an explosive gas.
Rock & Chips is a British television comedy-drama miniseries and a prequel to the sitcom Only Fools and Horses. The show is set in Peckham, southeast London, during the early 1960s, focusing primarily on the lives of Del Trotter, Freddie Robdal and Joan and Reg Trotter. Nicholas Lyndhurst, who played Rodney in Only Fools and Horses, plays Robdal alongside James Buckley, Kellie Bright (Joan), Shaun Dingwall (Reg) and Phil Daniels (Grandad). The Shazam Productions and BBC co-production was written by Only Fools and Horses creator John Sullivan, directed by Dewi Humphreys and produced by Gareth Gwenlan.
"Five Gold Rings" is the second episode of the Rock & Chips trilogy and the series' first and only Christmas Special. It was first aired on December 29, 2010.
