Pauline - Have you got your life insured, Del?
Del - Nah, I’ve never thought about dying before.
Pauline - Well we’ll have to sort that out; a wife needs protection.
Rodney - Especially with your luck Pauline!
This episode fully explores Del and the Trotter’s relationship with women in more detail by bringing and old flame into the picture, Pauline. After 2 husbands dying on her, she’s back in Peckham to pick up where she left off with Del. Suspicions grow throughout the episode that not everything is right given the pace at which the relationship rekindles, what she asks of each of the Trotters, and Pauline’s obsession with life insurance protection.
Rodney and Grandad are instantly suspicious, with Rodney commenting that after Pauline’s twice widow experience “one more and she keeps the match ball!” Grandad comments how “besotted with her” Del became last time and it’s clear that he falls head of heels right away again.
Again the writing combines these clever, quick jokes with slapstick moments - showcased best in this episode with Del’s entrance after getting engaged and Rodney’s feet slamming the door in his face.
It is Rodney and Grandad’s intervention via Trigger that snaps Del out of his lustful ways. The fact that Del realises what a problem he had got into and prioritises the family unity over his own desires shows that when the chips are down family is critical to them all. We will see these ties tested by greater threats than Pauline in the future, along with many other scenarios that threaten to break up the family unit - but family prevailing always is a positive central theme of the show.
This is the last we see of Pauline, I’m not sure what else they could’ve done with her character without repeating the underlying plot again.
Tomorrow’s episode: A Slow Bus to Chingford.
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