"As One Door Closes"

4th April 1985

Del needs to lay his hands on 166 "Louvrey" doors – and flog a load of hair brushes (or "deluxe trimming combs" as he would have them).

Albert was in Bombay in 1959, and can’t swim. Denzil has been made redundant, and has £2000 redundancy money [which suggests he’s been working in the same job for a while]. Corrine is mentioned, and they are still together. He has five brothers.

Rodney is "24" [which is rubbish; according to "The Yellow Peril" he ought to be at least 27 by now, although it ties in with "Happy Returns"] and Joan used to call him her "wonder baby". His oft-mentioned criminal offence is chatted about in some depth – here Del reveals that he was "done for the possession of cannabis" and received a £250 fine and a suspended sentence [it was £300 in "The Long Legs of the Law"]. It seems Del bribed the police, and Rodney was going to be let off through "lack of evidence" until he confessed by post 3 days before his trial.

Albert is "with the co-op" which refers to the arrangements for his funeral. Del owns the plot of land that Joan’s monument stands on, having bought it in the 60’s, and Grandad is buried nearby in "the garden of external peace" (!).

The butterfly is quite clearly being dangled on a bit of string by the way it moves about. How big must the Trotter garage (which was already mostly full in "It’s Only Rock and Roll") be to house all 166 Louvre doors?

"In 35 seconds you two have married me, buried me and given my widow skin trouble!"

Finally, Rodney gets to say the immortal line to Del – "you plonker!".

Rodney in camouflage.

Not one of the better episodes. It’s all over the place story-wise, starting off as a caper with some louvre doors before changing to a silly slapstick hunt for a butterfly with a padding scene of dialogue and some dodgy gags in between. Plus for some reason there’s a long outdoors scene shot all on videotape (which makes it look like it’s from "The Seeds of Doom") which suggests a production nightmare. We don’t get to see most of the episode – Denzil’s brothers, Brendan, stealing the doors – it all happens off-screen.