Del - What a right blinding Christmas this has turned out to be! Some people get wise men bearing gifts... we get a wally with a disease!
Another Christmas special has rolled around, and this one sets up a major plot point for many future episodes in the brothers lineage, as well as introducing Reg Trotter into the mix for the first and last time.
We have heard Del and Grandad discuss both the absent mother and father in the family set up a few times in the show’s history, and it won’t be the last. In this episode we get a new perspective on both parents.
We get to meet Reg, the boys’ dad, who has been away for 18 years and he is the focal disruption to the equilibrium in the episode. We’re used to there being insults and jokes flying around between the main characters but Del loses it big time and the wittiness of his dialogue shines out in moments of raw emotion, just like this.
Del - He deserted you when you was 5 years old! And not only that, but he walked out on his own father!
Rodney - But... he’s back now!
Del - What, after 18 years - did his watch stop?! Stone me Rodders, we see more of Hayley’s Comet than we do him!
We notice many similarities between Reg and Del right from the get-go but he is harsher, more brutal and more manipulating than Del has been. He manages to drive a huge wedge between the brothers by isolating Del, whereas it is normally Rodney that is the odd-one-out, rebel or outcast. Yet there are physical and behavioural similarities between Del and Reg which creates a moment of confusion when it appears that Del is a “mystery”.
Whereas Joan, the boys’ mum, has always been spoken fondly of, and continues to be in this episode but there’s a revelation that around the time that Rodney was conceived her and Reg were having lots of rows, and she made “new friends”. This episode puts some of these doubts of Reg being Rodney’s father to rest by the end of the script however it does resurface in future episodes - notably ‘The Frog’s Legacy’ and ‘Sleepless in Peckham’ which reveal that Rodney is in fact not Reg’s son.
The show’s creators cast Nicholas Lyndhurst in the role before David Jason. The role of Del had been offered to other actors prior to David getting cast - including Jim Broadbent who we saw as Slater in the last episode. However John Sullivan, the show’s writer, was adamant that Del shouldn’t be tall and there should be a contrast between Del and Rodney - that way the bullying and abuse Del often have Rodney wouldn’t be seen as too much as there is a physical disparity. It makes sense that Del has ‘short man syndrome’ and has to act tough, be loud and brash to get noticed and be seen as the commander. This casting allowed an episode like this to work so particularly well and the storyline of Rodney’s lineage to be believable.
Towards the end of the episode you can tell that Reg has got underneath Del’s skin, and Del is depressed by the situation of being considered a “Lone Ranger”. It takes Rodney to get him back on his horse and pointing in the right direction. Without Rodney’s advice Del wouldn’t ultimately overcome Reg and restore the status quo. There’s a theme that runs through these important (and often more serious themed) episodes that it’s not about who your parents are, but who you consider to be your family that’s important. As a result of these revelations, the bond between Del and Rodney is not undone, but only strengthened.
Tomorrow’s episode: Happy Returns
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