"Go West Young Man"

15th September 1981

Del wears a rather unflattering and horridly coloured yellow polo-neck in this episode. Later on he wears an awful red shirt/white tie/braces ensemble. Yuk!

Quite a few in this episode: starting with the soon-to-be-often-heard "Mon Deiu!", Boycie’s car is admired with a loud "sonnet lumiere!" and the waiter in the gay club is hailed with "garcon, la petit pois!"

Del is 35 in this episode (he’s not lying, because he mentions it to stop Rodney revealing his age to the girls in the club), compared to 36 implied in the previous episode. But as it’s only a year, and he might be approximating, we’ll let it go.

Interestingly, Del tries to sell a knackered cortina to an Australian-sounding gentlemen who is played by the same actor to later cameo as his old friend "Jimbo" Jones. Despite essentially being the same character, and Jimbo later returning from Australia, it can’t be the same man as he doesn’t seem to know Del in this episode.

Rodney has a fantasy about women in uniforms (referred to in many later episodes).

There is a Nag’s Head disco.

Rodney is dating Monica, who we don’t meet (she has "fat thighs", according to Del). Del tries to chat up a couple of "sorts" who turn out to be nothing of the kind…

A first mention of Rodney’s friend Mickey Pearce, though we don’t meet him. We briefly meet Boycie, a car salesman, for the first time, although like Trigger and Grandad, no first name is forthcoming. It might appear that we first meet Jimbo Jones here, but it must be his identical twin instead (see above).

Del orders a "Caribbean Stallion" – a shot of tequila, a shot of coconut rum, a shot of crème de monf, a smidgeon of Campari, a merest suggestion of ‘angus steurus’ and topped off with fresh grapefruit juice – "shake, do not stir!"

"Do you prefer grass or astroturf?"

"I don’t know, I’ve never smoked astroturf!"

This episode gives birth to possibly the series first famous moment, when Del tries to pull a couple in the club.

"Are they a couple of ravers?"

"No, they’re a couple of geezers!"

John Chalice (Boycie) played Scorby in "The Seeds of Doom".

A decent episode, with some nice location work. The series penchant for creating its own future-history through dropped references (e.g Mickey Pearce) is well in evidence. However, there is some shockingly-outdated material set in the gay club, including a very clichéd camp barman and Del’s warning to Rodney to "watch his back".