"The Sky’s The Limit"

30^th December 1990

Boycie has a £2000 satellite dish, so when it’s apparently stolen Del is quick to ‘acquire it’ back from him and take £500 for the trouble. Only Del’s turns out to be a slightly different type of dish…

The flat is suddenly miraculously bigger, and the main living quarters open out into separate rooms for Del and Raquel, Rodney and Albert.

Boycie and Marlene live next door to a (bent) police officer. "Bronco" Lane is Marlene’s brother, and a window cleaner. He’s been in prison for 5 years (he seems to have a compulsive thieving habit, being nicked for speeding in a stolen JCB!). He has a wife, Sandra, and a daughter Kylie. They live at the end of Gatwick runway.

It’s 18 months since Cassandra and Rodney’s honeymoon ["Little Problems" aired almost two years ago in February 1989, but this could be an approximation]. Albert’s father lived to 81 ("That was a good age." "Not for him – he died!"). He sings "Step Back In Time" by Kylie Minogue, a chart hit in November 1990 (just weeks before this episode aired, so a very good piece of forward thinking/planning on the part of the production team), has been banned from singing in the Nag’s Head and was in the Soviet Union during the war. Del gets the "Financial Times" and "Exchange and Mart" (!) and has a suspicious address book full of women, with stars next to their names!

Alan and Pam have a villa in Spain which they hope to retire to. Trigger had a relationship with a council depot manager called Linda which ended when he didn’t realise their romantic weekend in Henley-on-Thames was supposed to also involve her!

Boycie talks about last seeing Raquel when she was a stripper, so he’s forgotten about watching her on stage with the Great Raymondo in "The Jolly Boy’s Outing". There is a long gag with Del trying to remember the name of Bronco’s hotel, but as far as I can see he was never told this information in the first place (he barely looks at the card before throwing it into Boycie’s geraniums).

Del orders a "peach decari" (and a chipolata sandwich)

Not a rhyme exactly, but Del mentions the "J Edgar" (hoover!)

Boycie’s red velvet dressing gown. Del mentions a "midnight pink shirt". Tyler’s ‘mink’ outfit matches Marlene’s. Raquel wears a horrible patterned cardigan in the pub and probably has some knitting in the pocket.

Del trying to explain to Albert that he and Raquel are sleeping together is a joy:

"She slept with you then."
"Yes. And don’t you say anything to her about it."
"Why, don’t she know?"

Del on Boycie: "He’s the one that cheered when Bambi’s Mum died!"

"That Psychologist reckoned you suffered from some sort of paranoia."
"Don’t take any notice of him Del, he’s always had it in for me!"

Albert gets Del’s "French painter" when he guesses "Schubert" (a German composer!) – so they are as bad as each other!

Gordon Warnecke, who plays the cheeky Porter at the airport hotel, played Tusa in "Mindwarp" (the rubbish warlord with the bandana that can’t act)

A quietly good episode – though the plot is deceptively simple, it’s quite nicely tied together as usual, and the episode is peppered with gorgeous funny dialogue and character moments, such as Boycie’s tightfistedness with the down-on-his-luck window cleaner (who turns out to be his brother-in-law!) and Alan’s banter with Del. It’s not the greatest thing to kick off the season with, but the final image of the plane, soaring down towards Del’s cheap-looking stolen satellite dish on the balcony of Nelson Mandela House, is memorably enduring.