Jonathan Ross - Derek, you’ve used up all your options, you’ve lost all your money, you’re frozen out of the game.
After a 5 year absence, John Sullivan was convinced to bring back the show, and based on the episode pulling in 21.3 million viewers - there was demand. I think that the episode failed to live up to many people's expectations and particularly the heady heights of the 1996 trilogy. There had to be script rewrites due to the deaths of Buster Merryfield (Albert) and Kenneth MacDonald (Mike), but I understand the frustrations with the episode, particularly Albert's funeral scene which feels tacked on.
There is a formulaic element to the episode - it harks back to past successes but also feels like there is a checklist of things that must happen just because it's Only Fools and Horses. As such, it feels cramped at times and the supporting cast have been wheeled out to show that they are simply still there. However all in all the back end of the episode delivers and the characters still feel familiar - a credit to the acting of particularly David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst.
In order to get the show back to a form of 'business as usual' Sullivan has to rid the Trotters of their wealth - he's quoted as saying that being rich isn't funny, and it would be hard to argue against that. He recalls reading about a similar stock market crash and fully believed that the Trotters would have lost their money getting carried away with investing as Del had done at the end of 'Time On Our Hands'. He also ties Mike's fate to their failure and then adding him trying to embezzle the brewery as to why he's behind bars, putting Sid in charge of the pub in his absence.
Albert's funeral scene is classic misdirection - where it's seemingly clear that everything is fine until it dawns on everyone that the assumption we had made is disingenuous. Their turning up to the wrong funeral is funny, but as a result we didn't get a proper goodbye to Albert - but the next episode does make up for it. Whereas with Grandad's death we had a specific episode right away to slot into the series focussing on the matter, here it must've been a choice on abandon the script or re-write but giving it limited time. Del's attitude and behaviour also feels a little out of character, we have seen him be the hard man before but he seems to jump the gun a little too much here - particularly against someone who we believe at the time is extended family. It feels like a reminder of the importance of family ties to Del's character but instead of celebrating Albert's character it focusses more on this.
As the Trotters end up back at Nelson Mandela House after Del is declared bankrupt, it feels like a reset button and the start of a new episode almost. Rodney is now in charge, and not making much of a better situation, falling for Mickey's prank call as an advisor to the Sultan of Brunei. Del still can't help but assume that Rodney's management of the company is essentially cosmetic, it's as if the reset button puts Del back into the game that he craved for even after earning over £6 million in the last episode.
Del - Rodney's only come up with a brilliant idea to save the family: he's going to be the new Managing Director of Trotter's Independent Traders! I'm going to be in charge of sales, purchasing and finance, that's all.
Rodney also has decided that he and Cassandra should try for another baby as part of a wider plan to get his marriage back on track. He suggests some fantasy-based therapy that he's read about where they become different people in the eyes of their partner. The pay off of Rodney getting Cassandra to dress up in a policewoman's uniform is a pay off of one of the longest running jokes about his obsession with uniforms. It also gives us a great little scene where Del thinks he's being raided.
The highlight of the episode is possibly the most simplest moment, in Trigger coming round as Del said he will drive him to the pub (despite him having to walk past the pub to get to their flat). There's just something magical about Del thinking Trigger knows classical music, just for a second.
Del - What's this?
Trigger - It's Mozart's Symphony Number 38, in D major.... It's a karaoke version!
Del was supposed to be heading to the TV studio as he has surprised everyone by entering into a gameshow called Goldrush (which was supposed to be Who Wants To Be A Millionaire but ITV wouldn't give the BBC the rights to use it). This scene is a little far-fetched at times but Del's own sense of logic gets him to muddle through.
The subversion of the end where they think Mickey has phoned up to rectify the mistake is more like the kind of wally-ish behaviour we expect and have seen before from the Trotters - it reminds me of Del throwing the money out of the window in 'To Hull And Back'.
Tomorrow's episode: Strangers On The Shore
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