S7 E4- The Class of '62

Rodney - On a cold rainy night in Peckham. Somebody has arranged for you 4 to be in this room at the same time. Nobody knows who, and most important and frightening aspect of the entire mystery, nobody knows why. Now think hard, who would do something like that?
Trigger - … Jeremy Beadle?!
Slater may well be my favourite recurring guest character in the show. He always brings the best out in Del as we saw in 'May The Force Be With You' and 'To Hull And Back'. There's an air of destiny in that Raquel was once Slater's wife and is now living with and having a baby with Del. This is the last we see of Roy Slater, and he is finally thwarted by Del once more, just as you think he's got him all ends up again.

We begin with Del being invited to a school reunion out of the blue and last minute, sent via his fax machine. The scene between Del, Rodney, Boycie, Trigger and Denzil with them guessing who arranged the reunion is brilliantly written and performed. When Jeremy Beadle is ruled out, prime suspect is their old Headmaster (who was seemingly looked up, so is one to fear)
Denzil - It's Bend-Over-Benson!
Del - Well if it is then he's grown another ear!
Slater repents for all of the times he stitched up the guys with false crimes. None of which we have seen, so could be ideas that John Sullivan had once had as plot lines. Rodney - I remember the time you followed me in the van, and you nicked me for doing 70mph in a built-up area. It was just my word against his, and guess who the magistrate believed?! I mean, you couldn’t get that van to do 70mph if you pushed it off a cliff! Afterwards, Slater tries to convince them that he's a changed man, but the group have a hard time believing it after all that he has done in his life. Del comes out with one of his all time best punchlines.
Slater - When I was in jail, I found Jesus!
Del - Yeah? What had they fitted him up with?! Some of the best lines are delivered by Trigger however. Pretty much in every episode throughout series 6 and 7 we have a 'Trigger moment' where they tee up that someone would have to be stupid to do or say something, and then Trigger does it. I also loved his perfectly timed "Dave" at Rodney's wedding in 'Little Problems'. He gets a couple of absolute classics in this episode which are worthy to note due to how cleverly they are written. Trigger - I’ve been standing in your dance hall for the last hour.
Mike - All the lights are off Trig.
Boycie - You’ve been standing in the dark for an hour?!
Trigger - Yeah... I thought we were all gonna jump out and surprise each other! We then have the wonderful Jeremy Beadle line noted at the top of this post. When they retire back to they reminisce about the old school football team and they couldn't remember the Italian boy's name. As Trigger is about to leave, Del tees up this jewel of a line. Del - We had Denzil in goal, we had Monkey Harris at left back. We had camaraderie!
Trigger - Was that the Italian boy?! As the revelation that Slater was married to Raquel comes to light, emotions are running high and Del is nearly "set" on Slater as he provokes him. Only Albert can't get there quick enough and asks "who's Rachel?!" at all the wrong moments (but the right moments in terms of comic timing).
Del and Rodney overcome Slater's hold on Del by figuring out his plan to sell the 10 diamonds that he had hidden away and not to allow Raquel any legal claim to them. This is a lesson in perception and bluffing as the photocopier doesn't actually work, so the threat to Slater is ultimately hollow but solid enough looking that he leaves town for good. Del has finally beaten his nemesis for good.
Tomorrow's episode: He Ain't Heavy, He's My Uncle