It’s pretty embarrassing that I
have forgotten so many of the characters and situations when I started to watch
this episode. This episode is the second from what was hailed as the final
trilogy to the series. The three episodes are loosely connected. From the
moment that the familiar theme music started up and that classic title
sequence, I felt at home again. There were truly moments that characters would
pop up and my heart would melt because I haven’t seen them in so long. Uncle
Albert telling stories about what was happening during the war, Mike the
Landlord at the Nagshead, and of course Trigger. I actually exclaimed, Trigger!
How could I forget Trigger? He is one of the best written comedy characters
played of all time. So underrated yet often having the best punch line to the
joke. I watched this before Roger Lloyd-Pack passed away. I had no idea he
would be leaving us so soon.
The episode itself starts out with
word that Rodney and his wife Cassandra are expecting a child. This is amazing
news for them especially as a lot of the episodes from the 1990s dealt with a
rough relationship with those two. They found their way and were now expecting
their first child. There is a lot of celebrating amongst everyone about this.
Obviously there will be the jokes about how Rodney had it in him and all of
that. There is a great moment in the Nag’s Head (which is the local) where
pretty much the whole cast is present to celebrate the happy occasion. I
cherish this scene. There isn’t much more of these type of scenes left in the
series and when the show came back in 2001, this sort of scene would have been
impossible to do.
There is Uncle Albert playing the
piano with all sorts of old songs from a bygone era. There is Boyce, Denzil
(another amazing character I forgot about), sitting at the table with Del,
Rodney, Cassandra and Raquel having fun. Mike is trying to get Del to pay for
his drinks but Del wants to pay with shoddy merchandise instead, Mickey trying
to one-up Rodney and Trigger just being dumb. Del has this funny trick to
trying to get out of paying for his drinks by doing a hand trick with Mike. He
tells Mike that he can make Mike turn his hands over without touching him. He
tells Mike to hold out his hands, which Mike does, and Del looks at him and
says “No. The other way.” and Mike simply turns his hands over. There you have it;
he turned them over without touching them. So when Rodney goes up to buy the
next round, Trigger (who saw Del do the trick) bets Rodney £5 that he can make
Rodney turn his hands over too. Trigger then plays the trick perfectly on
Rodney only to then give Rodney £5 instead of collecting it from Rodney! What a
plonker!
There were a lot of themes and
moments in this episode which I truly enjoyed. The last Only Fools and Horses I had watched generally had been the new post
2000 episodes. What I liked about this was being reminded how badly they were
off with money. The crap that Del would try and sell which would even sometimes,
amusingly, injure his friends. There is a hairdryer in this episode which burns
Mike’s scalp. There is towards the end of the episode a bike helmet fitted to
benefit Indians who wear a hijab. It is kind of insulting but it is also highly
hilarious. It is hilarious because of how ignorant Del is but how honest he is
to think it will catch on. Del wanted to call it The Turbanator. In the later
episodes when the series come back, we have these same type of gags but I just
don’t think they are as sincere as they are here or in the original run of the
series.
The whole point of the episode is
the idea of the Modern Man which the title is taken from for this episode. Del
is reading a book about the modern man and how he should act. This is very much
in character as Del is all about trying to portray himself in a certain way. He
spent most of the 1990s wanting to give people the impression he was a yuppie
but really had no idea on what that meant! Part of being a modern man is being
responsible. He feels he needs to be responsible to Raquel and decides that
means he should get a vasectomy. This scene takes place in their bedroom. It is
fun to watch because there is a naïve sweetness to the character of Del Trotter
and it really shows here. In fact, there are a couple of time where it looks
like David Jason and Tessa Peake-Jones are going to crack up at any moment.
It’s really fun to watch. Within that scene we move on to Raquel suggesting
that Del ease up on Rodney a little bit. Make it so he can have some help
especially with a child on the way. We find out that Del is already way ahead
of her as he had put an ad in the paper for some help.
Rodney on the other hand is looking
to possibly getting another job as he feels his career is going nowhere under
the Del Trotter regime. He searches the paper and finds an ad for a company
that is global and is looking for someone with the same skills that Rodney
possess. Rodney picks up Del’s house phone and calls this company. Meanwhile,
in Del’s room, Del’s cell phone rings. He gets Raquel to pick it up and answer
in a professional receptionist voice only to hear Rodney on the other end
inquiring about this cool company. Del decides to have fun with this and
answers in a thick Welsh accent. I wouldn’t do the gag justice here but it is
pretty funny if not going on for a tad too long. Finally, Rodney realizes it is
Del and thinks Del is trying to replace him. Nothing could be further from the
truth and instead Del has a great idea to get his little brother a better
position within the company. It actually fires Rodney up and he is super
excited about what can be achieved with the company.
To celebrate, the Trotters go to
Sid’s café and have a fry up. I am such a foodie. I love the idea of a fry up
and I have done my own over here on occasion. Fry ups have eggs, bacon,
sausage, perhaps baked beans, and tomatoes. Not very good for you if consumed
often but they appear to be consumed quite often in Only Fools and Horses. I love seeing food in TV series and I
enjoyed this scene. I also enjoyed this because Del confines to Rodney that he
is thinking about getting a vasectomy. He ends with telling Rodney not to tell
anyone. As they leave, Rodney goes straight up to Sid to tell him Del is
getting a vasectomy and as soon as he leaves Sid announces it to the whole
diner.
Something John Sullivan had always
done well was to create a simple and effective way to combine comedy and drama.
As the episode starts with the pure excitement of the next chapter of Rodney
and Cassandra’s life, Rodney gets a call at Del’s house and finds out that Cassandra
had a miss-carriage. They lost their baby. Rodney and Del race down to the
hospital. Once they are there, the nursing staff mistakes Del as the father and
gets him into the scrubs and keeps addressing him while Rodney is trailing
behind. It is a simple comic expression which immediately lightens the mood. Once
that is all sorted out, Rodney stops Del and tells him in all honesty that he
can’t handle seeing Cassandra like this. He doesn’t know what to say or do to
console her. Del tells him to be the strongest person he can be because she
needs him. Do not shed a tear. They walk into Cassandra’s hospital room and
before anyone can say anything, Del uncontrollably bursts into tears. He can’t
stop! It’s sweet and once again really breaks down the tension.
The final act of breaking down tension
occurs when Del takes care of one of the people waiting in the reception area
of the hospital. Before Del and Rodney arrive, there is a belligerent drunk who
demands he gets seen before anyone else and is being rude to the nurses. As he
is still drunkenly yelling insults, Del come out still in his scrubs and
punches him out and walks away. This guys was punched into sobriety and
instantly behaves thinking that was a doctor.
It has been a while since I have
seen these characters in action. I had forgotten how Del spoke. Using slang, he
would call things differently than they really were. Such as calling peanuts
“Dry Roasted” or a coronary a Connery. I somehow forgot that Trigger would
always call Rodney “Dave”. There is no reason for it. When everyone proposes a
toast to Cassandra and Rodney at the Nag’s Head, when they say Rodney’s name
you can hear Trigger in the background say Dave! I also forgot how Rodney
thought Damien (Del’s son) really was Damien from The Omen. Damien had no special powers but every time he would
appear, Rodney’s eyes would get big and he would hear the theme from The Omen. I
always laughed at it.
This episode, as I am sure others,
always is fun to watch in a historical sense. The UK has changed a lot since
1996. There are references made electric cars and solar windows in this episode.
It sort of reminds me that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Electric cars or Hybrids are a lot more accessible now but certainly still a
ways away from being mainstream. Speaking of the more things change……
This past Christmas, a brand new
episode of Open All Hours aired and
was called Still Open All Hours starring
David Jason. The last episode aired was in 1985. I will watch it but have yet
to do so. I am in no hurry. There is also talk of an all new episode of Only Fools and Horses. Even though John
Sullivan passed away, his sons were looking to make a new episode. We then
found out that wasn’t quite true and that the new episode may only have been a
skit for Sports Relief because it could give high visibility to the charity.
John Sullivan’s sons were adamant that they would not dare resurrect the
series. That being said, it looks like it may have been produced with David
Beckham appearing in it.
As for myself, luck hit me twice. I
never had to pay for the PAL VHS releases of the series and I was very
fortunate to not have to pay for the DVDs either. A friend of mine (Mike) had a
second set of the entire DVD set which is twenty-some discs. He sent it to me
which was really cool. It sort of like history repeating itself.
Sadly, after I watched the episode,
we were hit with the sad news of the death of Roger Lloyd-Pack. He played
Trigger pitch-perfect. Everything I have seen him in was truly memorable. Roger
was only 69. He was way too young to go and he will be missed. I am sorry to
say this but I hope never to see anything new of Only Fools and Horses because everything that makes it unique is
now gone from it. I want to remember it for the truly funny and sweet series
that it was…..from 1981 to 1996.
Next week: I will be publishing the final regular 50WHO article
which is happening a month later than I planned but I really think it was worth
the wait. I have spent the last year writing one article on each of the Doctors
and a story of theirs that meant a lot to me for my own personal reasons. Next
week I will publish an article on how I worked with Ian Levine to animate the
incomplete Tom Baker story and how we had plans to go beyond it into The Reign of Terror and other stories.
Next week, I publish an article titled, Animating
Shada.
Have a great week!Do you have feedback, article requests or want to talk about a program but do not want to leave a public comment? Feel free to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com
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