Del - Just think what we can do with £1000 - eat, drink and be merry!
Rodney - For tomorrow we die!
The final episode of season 1 sees the series take on the more serious topic of nuclear war, but sprinkled with a combination of hilarious jokes and hypothetical situations and a moving story from Grandad which brings home the reality of war and Del’s imagination. “They promised us homes fit for heroes, they give us heroes fit for homes” is a wonderfully pertinent line and showcases the depth of emotion that Only Fools brings to the screen, giving us the audience much more than most sitcoms. David Jason in an interview has said that he felt the script had more to it than others he had seen, this episode is a classic example of that extra something baked in.
Del has been shrewd and landed himself £1000 worth of lead for just £100, but hadn’t realised that he had the components of a nuclear fallout shelter. After persuasion from Rodney to keep it for the worst case scenario instead of taking the quick profit, they test out life in the shelter for a weekend.
This episode speaks a lot right now to our current collective situation (at time of writing) in the Coronavirus pandemic where we are all doing our bit by staying inside, surrounded by a lot of war time rhetoric. Del refers to future wars being won by “computer programmers” which isn’t untrue, and you can tell that there is real concern for the outbreak of nuclear war with Russia - something I can relate little to having been born after this episode first aired.
The conversation between the characters goes further and further down an imaginative scenario of them meeting mutants and girls from Rodean School. This further explores the theme of Del’s ambition and it pushes him to conjure up a scenario where he could end up being the next King (or Queen!)
The episode has some wonderfully written jokes in there, some of which as we have seen in previous episodes get explored in future series. Two of note to me are:
Del - I’m not a ruthless mercenary! Who is it that goes round at Christmas making sure all the old people have got enough to eat and drink?
Rodney - Yeah, and who was it, during the Brixton riots, drove down in the van selling paving stones to the rioters?!
In the 1993 Christmas special ‘Fatal Extraction’ we see riots happening on the Trotter’s estate, and Del seizing the opportunity to flog them all the skiing goggles and gear he’d been selling earlier in the episode.
Grandad - Do you know, they had little lads of 14 pretending they was 18 just so they could fight for their King and country.
Del - And they accepted the little sprogs?
Grandad - More often than not. My brother George lied about his age.
Rodney - What, he pretended he was 18?!
Grandad - Nah he was 18, he pretended he was 14!
We never met Uncle George, but he is referred to at Grandads funeral when we meet Uncle Albert for the first time. He recalls spinning a coin with George as to who would be Del’s godfather.
As the episode draws towards its end, the characters realise the impracticality of their situation. Rodney suggests that they would need to remain in the shelter for 2 years, thus needing ”1,450-odd heavy duty batteries, about 5 tons of canned food, 30,000 gallons of fresh drinking water and a 3.5 acre warehouse to store it all in!” This is all assuming a pigeon doesn’t nest in the air filter too...!
When the camera pans out at the very end of the episode revealing the shelter’s location to be on top of the flats, this irony of the impractical nature of their situation not being mentioned just makes you fall in love with the characters yet again.
Tomorrow’s episode: Christmas Crackers (1981 Christmas Special)
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