"Mother Nature’s Son"

25th December 1992

Not so much ‘gear’ as a hookey idea – Del’s going to flog tap water from the Thames back to the people of England, repackaged as "Peckham Spring Water"…

Raquel’s frumpy hair and Del’s leopard skin case. We are all okay on the outfit front until the end, when Sue Holderness arrives to ruin things with a dress which frankly defies belief.

Rodney is 31 [which would make him 20 when the series started, rather than 23 as was stated; when we adopt the "new" dating system (see "Class of ‘62") then Rodney was born in 1962/3 and is 30 or 29). Albert reads "The Daily Mirror".

Trotters Independent Traders "haven’t bought or sold anything for months". Del now owns the flat in a bizarre continuation of a couple of one-liners in Series 6 (see "Yuppy Love" and "Danger UXD") – has Sullivan got the series first "last episode" in mind? The mortgage is 2.5 times the rent.

Conveniently, Grandad owned an allotment and for some reason it "comes with the flat". Miles is a self-made millionaire that Rodney knows from evening school (see "Yuppy Love") and we know from "The Caves of Androzani" and "Life On Mars".

Someone has recently broken into Del’s garage and stolen half his stock. As Raquel points out, the half left was what even the burglars didn’t want! Included are 150 Bros LP’s [presumably their debut "Push"], 275 "Free Nelson Mandela" T-Shirts (Del claims to have bought them a few days before he was freed – an unseen adventure), Charles and Diana Wedding Plates (it’s a wonder someone didn’t edit that bit out the DVD as part of the Orwellian taste censorship that saw mention of dead girlfriends removed from "Watching The Girls Go By"), a 9 carat identity bracelet inscribed "Gary", Pirated copies of "The Poseidon Adventure", some Romanian Riesling (a clear nod to "Miami Twice") and a Deep Sea Divers suit.

Trigger has now been promoted from road sweeper to "environmental hygienist", but still sweeps the roads. Denzil appears to work for a company called Transworld Express.

During the war Albert was in the Pacific fighting "the Japs".

Miles the Organic Entrepeneur is played by Robert Glenister, who Doctor Who fans know as Salad Cream from "The Caves of Androzani".

Del drunk Perrier Water in "Class of ‘62" so shouldn’t be so shocked here that people drink bottled water.

"I’m down the Casino every night ‘til 3am trying to win us some money. If she knew how much I owed, she’d know how hard I’ve been trying!"

"It’s like a parable of the lucky git!"

"It could be toxic."

"It could be bloody poisonous an’ all!"

"It’s Del Trotter, not Albert Einstein"

"I don’t see what the Beatles manager has to do with it"

Best of all:

"You said it was open twenty four hours a day"

"Yeah. But not at night."

"It’s the middle of winter and there’s a drought warning! So people are panic buying Peckham Spring!"

There is a great dream sequence at the start (which the audience would initially have thought was real) where Rodney realises Damian has no reflection!

The unveiling of the Peckham Spring is the centrepiece though, as Del winds in the helpless Miles with his display of adopted ignorance.

A bit of a forgotten classic, this is a highly original and entertaining script with some classic gags. The worst one can say about it is that parts are padded – the closing sequence is nice, but there doesn’t seem much point to making a lengthy location trip to Brighton just to reveal the Spring Water glowing. Minor padding gripes aside, this is one of the series most memorable episodes.