Del - Arthur’s ashes? That’s the black bloke what won Wimbledon innit?
This episode demonstrates the great range of topics that the concept of the show allowed John Sullivan to explore. Here we have Del helping Trigger out, who has sadly had his gran pass away, by helping to sell her possessions, with a focus on some Meissen (19th century German pottery) urns. Only it turns out that one contains the ashes Trigger’s grandad, Arthur.
The scene in the middle of the episode is my personal highlight - Grandad is holding a seance late at night repenting for his friendship with Alice (Trigger’s gran) while Arthur was away in the army, and Del pretends to be Arthur from beyond the grave without Grandad realising for a few minutes. For a moment, Grandad truly believes that he has made contact with the other side and the payoff when the charade falls is an under-rated moment of comedy in my book.
This moment is echoed and amplified in a future episode (as we are seeing a lot from the best bits from these early episodes), this time in the 1996 trilogy middle episode Modern Men. That time, Rodney phones up a job ad in the paper, not realising that it’s Del’s ad for Rodney’s own job. In both of these scenes, we see Del at his most mischievous and a close family member at the butt of the jokes, so it’s harmless fun which is so true to each of the characters involved.
I’ve not heard too many people put these moments up there as the funniest in the show’s history, but they are definitely up there for me. We will see the chandelier moment later this series, and Del falling through the bar is another visual and slapstick masterclass, as are the Batman and Robin scenes and those at the end of Time on Our Hands - but the comedic writing both in this episode and in Modern Men is just as funny for me.
The episode rounds off with the brothers struggling to get rid of the Ashes in amusing ways - I always laugh at the moment the light comes on after Del starts his prayer on the bowling green lawn. In the end Arthur (well we hope it was him and not the surprise second husband!) is sucked up into a road sweeper in what Del describes as “like a Viking’s burial”.
The first three episodes of series 2 are all exceptionally strong from a clever writing and character development point of view, whereas the end of the series focusses more on situations and slapstick to get the laughs. There’s no better or worse and I am a huge fan of the big set-piece moments, but I want to highlight the writing quality here as just as enjoyable and often overlooked.
Tomorrow’s episode: A Losing Streak
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