"Dates"

25th December 1988

Trotters Independent Traders are doing great business – having made "nearly £2000 in the last month". Meanwhile Trigger’s date gives Del cause to visit 'The Technomatch Friendship and Matrimonial Agency"…

We meet a new character – Jevon – for the first time in the pub. He seems to have been introduced as someone who Mickey Pearce can team up with to belittle Rodney. Mickey himself is back for the first time since "Video Nasty" two years earlier.

Steven Woodcock (Jevon) would later find fame of sorts as Clyde Tavernier in "Eastenders". The policewoman apparently spent two years in Corrie, but I’m buggered if I remember her.

Raquel Turner is 30 and calls herself an "actress" although in reality she’s more of a "dancer" and is a stripper "for a living" to pay the bills. She has been married before ("It was a disaster") in a reference designed to set up the next few series worth of plot developments. When she was 17 she was in a pop duo called "Double Cream".

Boycie is in the Masons and spends "most of his time" at the Lodge. Marlene and Dukey the Dog watch "That’s My Dog" on TV (Duke gets more questions right than Marlene does). Boycie reveals that Joannie spent a lot of her time "standing in the corner of the pub with two geezers" (perhaps we could have guessed that). Boycie has "a little bird" in Sheffield [he’s having an affair].

Albert is addressed as "Able Seaman Albert Trotter, late of Her Majesties Peerless". He was once responsible for the sinking of USS Pittsburg because he didn’t understand his ships radar. He sometimes cooks for the family. Del used to date a lifeguard called Monique.

Sid’s café has changed back to being small and in studio.

It’s a long time since we had a new Nags Head bar maid, but here we welcome "nervous" Neris Sampson, who "works most evenings" (but we never see her again). Rodney takes her on a "cruise" in the three-wheeler, in the mistaken belief she’s after a rough ride…

Top of the Pops is mentioned, and when Del sees Trigger’s suit he asks "Is it Comic Relief again already?" Believe it or not, Raquel claims to have appeared in "Doctor Who"! "About ten years ago… I was a Lizard Person" she claims. That would make it 1978-79, so it’s possible she was a swampie.

Less than a minute after the Doctor Who reference, who should stroll in but Nick Courtney! He’s the waiter at the Hilton.

Trigger’s blue suit ("if I was dressed like that, I’d need a scotch" says Mike). Rodney’s James Dean look. Del’s red and white striped tie in the closing scenes.

"I told them I was a bus conductor… to add a bit of glamour" (Trigger lies about being a road sweeper to Technomatch)

"The lucky lady is guaranteed a steak meal!" (Del sets out his stall at Techno Match…)

"I don't want you lumbering me with some old bow-wow who don't know the difference between a Liebfraumilk and a can of Tizer!" (… and gives them some idea of the type of girl he’s not after too!)

"It’s Derek Duval!" (not according to the video sleeve, which adds an ‘e’ even though Del states there isn’t one!)

"She’s had nothing but bad luck… then she met me."

"Bloody hell, life’s a bitch!"

Del’s cruel and heartbreaking dismissal of Raquel outside the Nag’s Head:

Raquel: "Look, this is probably a daft question, but, do you want to see me anymore?"

Del: "Yes, of course I want to see you again, sweetheart. But next time I'll pay at the door like all the other punters."

Rodney: "There was no need to say that to her, Del."

Del: "I know there wasn't, now I wish I hadn't. But it's like most things in my life, it's too bloody late."

My personal favourite scene of this episode is Marlene answering the phone – it never fails to make me laugh. "You get him out!" she screams upstairs before changing her voice instantly to a soft and sweet one as she answers the phone!

The final pay-off to the whole stripper/joyriding strands sees Del hilariously mistake a policewoman for a stripper in the Nag’s Head. Played to perfection, it’s still an utterly funny scene to this day, and not the first to feature Del in hysterics while everyone around him laughs for a different reason. Just watch the Nag’s Head punter behind him, who is clearly having a whale of a time.

"The old rock’n’roll" (Dole)

"A Malibu and cherryade for moi"

An all-time classic. It’s perhaps a little long, but that’s a minor gripe. The plotting, dialogue and performances are superb – what is essentially the story of Del and Raquel’s romance is a cleverly entertaining string of coincidences and heartbreak. Wonderful!