"Wanted"

15th December 1983

Rodney the "Peckham Pouncer" is the enemy of all women after a late-night encounter with the mad Blossom…

The episode starts with Rodney and Mickey Pearce lusting after twins (we don’t see them, so presumably the budget didn’t stretch). Del also spots a sort he knows who works in Sainsburys.

And talking of birds, Julie the Ginger Barmaid is no more! Now we have only Sharon, a bored looking wench of few words and not much glamour.

Blossom is a mad mid-forties woman from the "happy home", known to the police for accusing men of molestation.

Rodney "hasn’t finished" a "two year" suspended sentence, according to Grandad [not only was this only "eighteen months" in the very first episode, but by no stretch of the imagination has less than two years passed since then anyway. The possibility remains that this is a different suspended sentence, but that seems unlikely. We’ll put it down to Grandad getting confused and Rodney not bothering to correct him].

There is a ventilation duct in the Trotter’s flat (what’s the betting it’s gone by next week?). Del has a "Johnny Cash Live At St Quentin" LP. "Old Man Corby" is a wheelchair-bound local resident. Trigger has a cousin called Marilyn.

Rodney has, alarmingly, been "smoking his funny fags" again when he’s in hiding (BBC1’s top family comedy advocates drug use).

Mickey Pearce is back, and in trademark garb: suit and trilby. Del’s skin-tight blue polo neck with red body warmer. Rodney’s maroon sweater (and the bulge is back).

"I don’t know what was wrong with her, but she stunk of booze"

"I was speaking meteorologically."

Del promises to buy Rodney a new pair of "rhythm and blues" (shoes).

Not great. In these days of personal harassment cases and political correctness, Blossom’s "cry rape" (the actual word rape is used) is quite frightening, and Del appears uncharacteristically sadistic in making Rodney think he’s going to prison when he seems seriously upset, hysterical even at one point. Rodney hides in the cellar with tins of food and no tin-opener like a twelve year old, and three seasons of character development go out the window. All in all, a bit too "season one" for my liking.