Video Nasty

28th September 1986

Boycie and Marlene are still trying for a baby (see "From Prussia With Love") and here we discover that it’s Boycie who is infertile. They have been married "20 years" and Marlene used to act when she was younger.

Trigger has no children, and isn’t sure who his Father is – his Mother put "some soldiers" on the birth certificate. Mickey Pearce returns for the first time since "Watching The Girls Go By" and is working for Boycie who is now, for some reason, "into the video game". Likewise due to the demands of this particular storyline, Rodney is suddenly doing an council arts course! Mr Stevens is his Art Teacher.

Monkey Harris is mentioned, and has a sister, as is Abdul which surely isn’t the same Abdul as in "To Hull and Back" although I suppose it could be.

Rodney once wrote a book called "The Indictment" which Del threw down the rubbish chute.

Marlene wears a horrid purple striped dress thing. Mickey dons a flat white cap when filming. Amanda is a punk with bright red hair.

It’s not a favourite of mine, but on cheap nostalgia shows this episode is mainly remembered for the scene where Del ribs Boycie for having a low "count".

"Who’d have thought it, Boycie, a Jaffa!"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you know… seedless!"

"The film is called ‘There’s a Rhino Loose In The City’"
"What’s it about Del?"

Later Rodney picks a few holes in Del’s idea for the movie so he retorts:

"So what do we call the film then? ‘There’s a Rhino Loose Out In The Sticks Where No Sod Lives’?"

"This is Amanda."
"A what?"

It’s…… Rex Robinson! As seen in such Doctor Who stories as "The Three Doctors", "The Monster of Peladon" and "The Hand Of Fear". Only someone has painted him orange.

It’s the first ever mention of The Driscoll Brothers, who would later appear in the regular series and, later still, be used as a plot reason for Boycie and Marlene’s escape to spin-off land in awful 2005 revival "The Green, Green Grass". You’re not getting an episode guide on that, I can tell you.

A very odd episode, "Video Nasty" was once notorious between my friends and I because it was the one we could never get hold of – for some reason, they never repeated it or wanted to release it on VHS. It’s actually not that bad, one of those frustrating affairs that has Del wreck Rodney’s ambition for want of a quick profit – their differing attitudes to life are shown when Rodney asks, more out of genuine curiosity than anger, "Why are you doing this to me?" to which Del replies "What’s the matter with you?", not understanding his brothers desire to make something of himself over earning a bit of bunce. However, the episode has a very weird ending which isn’t fully explained, as we skip from Mickey abusing the councils video camera to make what must be a porn film, to Rodney inexplicably apologising to Del when said film is shown in the backroom of the Nags Head. Was something cut? All in all, this is probably not one to re-watch that often.