(Only three years after being made!)

The Trotters debt to the Revenue is now £53,000. This leaves us somewhat baffled at the relative timescale of the three episodes in the "Pushing Their Luck" Trilogy. It was £48, 754p in "If They Could See Us Now…!", then presumably interest had pushed it up to "over £50,000" by "Strangers on the Shore", but this appeared to set a year after its predecessor (as it was shown) because Cassandra was suddenly quite pregnant. Here, she’s only slightly more pregnant and it’s up to £53,000. Perhaps the Inland Revenue jacked the interest rate up, or revalued it to be higher? Either way, the plot strand is clomping to its conclusion, with the flat due to be auctioned in just a months time. This episode is set over three weeks, as the auction is "ten days" away by the end.

This episode is Continuity Central. We see Joan’s tombstone again, with an appallingly staged bit of exposition to let us know that the Trotters upgraded it when they were millionaires (Del says out loud, to the grave, "We upgraded it while we were millionaires!" or somesuch). Her birth date is March 12 1964 on the tombstone which is… the same as in "The Yellow Peril"! Thank the Lord! Mind you, we saw the tombstone and its date in that episode, so they only had to copy it.

This is all a means to unlock a gateway of recycled continuity from "The Frogs Legacy" episode. Freddie "the Frog" Robdul, the "Raffles of Peckham", is clearly stated to be Rodney’s biological father here, as was suggested in the earlier episode. Aunt Reen took all the photos of Joan from the flat and burnt them, because Freddy was in them all [a bit unlikely? Would you really put lots of photos of yourself with your fancy man in the flat where you lived with your husband?]. In 1964, he sat on a detonator (it’s said to be August 1963 in the earlier story, but we’ll let them off). You start to see why a series set in the 1960’s was at one time mooted, it all sounds very interesting. One curious thing though, is that Freddy’s gold is not mentioned here. It’s also a bit odd that neither Rodney nor Del think the other has a clue about Rodney’s real parentage – even though it was at least heavily suggested in the earlier adventure. It’s as if that never happened. The explanation of the discovery "Albert got drunk at an old folks do" suggests Del was the only one that was told.

Mike is mentioned (to justify Sid turning the Nags Head into a theme pub – he’s still in prison), as is Tyler Boyce (about time! Though he’s still mysteriously absent without explanation. Viewers would soon meet him again, though). Marlene and Boycie have been married 34 years. According to "Fatal Extraction" (and taking into account Rodney’s age from "The Yellow Peril") Marlene dated Del in 1960, so she could easily have married Boycie in 1969.

Rodney’s first child is born in this episode, and they call her Joan.

Trigger has a flat. Rodney once worked for the Samaritans. Albert invested the money the Trotters gave him from their fortune in "blue chip", an unexciting but stable investment that secured the brothers £145,000 inheritance each, after tax.



None.



Hurray for this long lost section. Strangely, we get a new barmaid for this final episode. She’s called Jane, and she’s not paid to speak.

"What was the name of that bloke who invented the Dyson Vacuum Cleaner?"

Rodney on Marlene's new boob’s: "I’m going to call up Twickenham to see if they’ve got a couple of balls missing". In fact the script suddenly sparkles with wit during this scene, with some great put-downs from Raquel and Cassandra, including "When I first met you, you were pushing 40. Now you’re practically towing it!". I like Sid’s "Get off home and take your foster tits with you!" too.

"You didn’t tell me this flat was being auctioned in ten days time!"
"Yes, well you had all that ironing."

"Every business move I’ve ever made, we’ve already been done for."



Del’s silk Japanese style dressing gown is seen again (see "Modern Men" and "Strangers on the Shore"). Marlene’s new hair! (Like "Brian May in a spin dryer" according to Del). That woman has practically kept this section of the guide going single-handedly recently.



At one point 8 days have elapsed between scenes, and we don’t find out until someone announces it, which is lazy direction.

One of the flaws creeping into the series since it came back is that characters are treated as if they are somewhat stupider than they actually are. The silly scene where Del and Rodney devise a Hollywood film is a case in point, as both revert to daft younger versions of themselves, and all the character development of the last decade is left at the door. Even Trigger is treated somewhat unfairly here – was his back scratching invention really that stupid? He’s actually working along good lines for thinking of something, and it’s a lot more likely to take off than a Hollywood Blockbuster film written by Del and Rodney.

And are Marlene’s boobs really that big? Whilst I am grateful that they didn’t use hilarious comedy fake bosoms, they really don’t seem that impressive!



"Did you love him? Did he love you? I hope he made you laugh."

This final ever episode of the series is a mixed bag. It starts by exhibiting some of the problems of its immediate predecessors; namely cheap and stagy sitcom acting and far-fetched or unoriginal ideas. Several storylines here (Denzil’s "illness", Marlene’s boob job, the film script idea) go nowhere, and are introduced and then discarded as if this is several (weak) episodes joined together. The idea of the film script is even re-used from an earlier episode, "Video Nasty". This leads us to wonder if perhaps the way to go with this comeback was one series of six episodes, each 30 or even 45 minutes long. Things here also tend to stray into "Green, Green Grass" territory script-wise, and although lots of it is still mightily funny, there’s the faint feeling that it’s just not as hilarious as it once was.

However. Onto the good. The final third, concerning the birth of Rodney’s daughter and revelations about his parenthood (even if much of this is reused from an earlier episode) is back to solid, classic stuff. Here, suddenly, Sullivan remembers to write "Only Fools" as funny drama, rather than cheap sitcom. Oddly, I hated this episode at the time mainly for these scenes, I think because they promised much but, in the event, nothing new is actually learnt or done here after what we found out in "The Frogs Legacy". But perhaps that wasn’t the point.

For there IS a point to these final scenes, even if it’s difficult to put ones finger on. Rodney’s concern (which is the best word for it) over his father is settled when he asks Del if he’s anything like Freddy, to which Del replies that Freddy was a liar, a thief and a conman. The past (and indeed the present) is often romanticised in "Only Fools", with Freddy previously even described as a "gentleman safecracker". Here, it’s suddenly cast into the light of truth, and perhaps this applies to Rodney too; on the face of it, the Trotters exit the series as they came in – living on a prayer, scraping by, taking nothing but giving nothing. They are good people despite their exclusion from the tax-paying populace. At the same time, Rodney’s baby is born laying to rest perhaps the problems in his marriage that have dogged the character for many years, and there’s also a suggestion that things have come nicely full circle, with a new Joan Trotter in the world.

As for these new episodes, what you think of them largely depends on if you think three new episodes of the best comedy series of all time that are only 80% as good as all the old ones is worth losing its perfect ending and near squeaky clean quality record for. 80% of the best comedy ever still makes for a pretty great comedy, and they probably concluded that all the old episodes still exist; they aren’t wiped over by making more. So why not?

Well that’s me done then, as "Only Fools" comes to a somewhat less satisfactory end on DVD than it could have done. The series last ever line is "You know what Rodders, that’s a bloody good idea" about not making a Hollywood film. But who knows, perhaps they will make some more one day. I hope, if you’ve read some or all of this guide, that you’ve enjoyed it, that it’s reminded you of a few of the best lines and scenes from the series (and not just the ones people always remember involving falling through bars and dropping chandeliers) and maybe even that it’s inspired you to settle down and watch some less well remembered, yet equally brilliant, episodes.

I think I’ve covered everything (though my one regret is not commenting on the Trotters sofa, which changes in every episode), and if you want the Oil Rig episode for yourself you can buy it from most of the "Only Fools" convention days, or from the regular merchandising fairs at Earls Court. It honestly isn’t very good though. And I got bored of doing obscurities just before I got to doing a guide on David Jason’s in-character Nat West ad, so you should probably feel pleased about that.

I have no-one to thank, because basically I did it all by myself! And I don’t know of anyone that read every episode. But if, by any chance, you did, then thanks.

And if you didn’t, what are you waiting for? It’s an ideal excuse to re-watch the series from scratch, the best, most over-watched, but most skilfully written comedy series of our times, "Only Fools and Horses".


Si.