The beginnings of Peckham’s most successful failure

First shown on September 8, 1981 at 8.30pm on BBC1, the first episode of ‘Only Fools And Horses’ unknowingly appeared on our screens. From the glamor of Morecambe and Wise and even the theatrical perfection of ‘No’ Arf Hot Mum ‘, we found that our eyes were filled with all the glitz of an apartment in Peckham. How little did we know that this misery of unemployment and deception, several minutes from the ground, in a block called ‘Nelson Mandela House’, would remain etched in stone in our hearts for all eternity.

It was, as successful as we know it today, a long and uphill struggle for its writer, John Sullivan, during those early years. The episode ‘Big Brother’ may have had the title of the show we love to hate on Channel Four today, but back in 1981, it was greeted with little more than enthusiasm. Sullivan’s first two series had been touch and go. Since the end of the second series had been selected for the cutting room floor, Sullivan and his products, Ray Butt managed to plead with the Light Entertainment department to continue filming, after showing the first and second series again in 1983. Through the fourth season, British audiences began to take notice and the ‘Horse’ revolution had begun.

From this first episode that aired, all those years ago, it was important to pack as much information as possible for the viewer. John Sullivan was determined to continue the story from series to series. Basing each original episode as a contained story, from the third season, the plot lines began their own journeys. Gags were formed to run, for example; the apparent love story between Del and Marlene (Boycie’s wife), Trigger’s inexplicable convinced theory that Del’s younger brother was named “Dave” rather than Rodney and Del’s sordid long list of failed romantic engagements.

Each running gag was created due to the natural flow of each series.

What was vital for the viewer in this first episode was creating defining lines between the two brothers who were widely separated in both age, personality, and physical appearance. It was probably obvious to some that the two brothers shared neither the same mother nor the same father at first. Another visual comedy theme from Del is short and stocky and Rodney is tall and lanky.

Against a strong backdrop of the world of the black market merchant during the Thatcher years, the element of modern London appears immediately in this first episode. Del frequently uses references to the struggle with high taxes, high unemployment, and increases in demand for property that was a part of everyday life in the early and mid-1980s. This theme received a great deal of stage time during this opening line of the story. The scene of the existence of the three men is perfectly set in the mind of the viewer within this first half hour. Looking at the two generations (the occupants of the flat were the older brother in his thirties, Del Boy. The younger brother in his twenties, Rodney and an elderly grandfather), the struggles are seen from both sides. The ‘Big Brother’ undercurrent forces us straight into Rodney’s suffocation by his ‘overwhelming and overbearing older brother’. Rodney is 23 years old at the moment, desperate to be his own man and to be alone, away from Del. He encounters the obstacles of unemployment and his continued resistance to his actual dependence on Del. As he fights an internal battle of rebellion and acceptance of His “bad luck” growing up in such a limited and working-class world, his brother, Del, continues to live to keep his family covered and fed.

Writing a review for the most beloved comedy show of the 20th century is extraordinary. As I try to describe the first episode, I find that I am reciting a Greek tragedy, and as much as I would hate to take the air out of your devoted humorous candles for this show, the pathos of such comedy turned into drama, sometimes it has to be dealt with. What we find so funny about this show are its flaws and its characters. As Del realizes that he has once again fallen into a dodgy deal with a bunch of unknown brief rejected cases, it is discovered that Rodney ‘packed his backpack and had it on his toes …’

Rodney fights for some recognition from his brother and Del employees to see him as a financial advisor in the ‘business’ and not as the 60/40 partner he appears to be. Del delights in setting his brother’s mind in motion when he tells him that his financial advisor paid ‘200 pounds instead of 175 for 25 boxes and then quickly tells him to throw them in the river’, upon discovering that the reason why are rejected is that the combination of each The case is written on a piece of paper inside. There’s nothing Del can do with these ‘Old English Vinyl’ cases other than take Rodney’s advice. Rodney despairs when he sees Del’s carefree reaction and wonders how the hell they manage to pay for heat and rent when, the week before, they traded in a load of merchandise for a pickup truck full of one-legged turkeys. The loudest funny note is always, the short descriptions of the jagged things you always come across.

So there, Grandpa sits in front of his two televisions. (Something my grandfather did too). While deliberating on Sydney Poitier or Sydney Potter. Rodney sits with the ledger open and scribbles madly with all the confidence of a young man with two GCEs. The floor is a mess of stacked boxes of hooked items that changed with each episode. Some of us might remember three boxes of whiskey with a duty paid from them. They sat there for weeks. On this occasion, we can see a tire for a Curtain and other questionable items quickly wrapped with Cellophane in case there are unwanted eyes lurking.

We learn through the arguments of this first episode that there is an age gap of 13 years between the siblings, which makes them almost from different social generations. Del talks about missing The Who concerts due to caring for baby Rodney. We learn that his mother died when Rodney was just six years old, and two months later his father left. Leaving a teenage Del in charge of the family, as well as a grandfather who refused to go back to work as a lamp-lighter, another indication of London employment at a certain time. Del also remembers his mother’s age when she became pregnant with Rodney. At age 39, a woman having a baby was considered a mistake she had made in those days (which would have been the mid to late sixties), as Del makes a reference that “ during the first three months of her pregnancy, they treated you. ” like an ulcer.

At first, we are not given a lot of information about their surroundings in regards to other supporting characters. Trigger (Roger Lloyd Pack) has a scene here and is the only other character to appear in nearly as many episodes as the main cast members. We visited ‘The Nags Head’ briefly and noted that no real mention is made of an owner, just a waitress, Joycie. In fact, a Land Lord isn’t around until long after the series and comes in the form of ‘Mike’, another occasional victim of Del Boy’s scams. Rodney points to another of the running gags throughout the show, as he leans against the bar and says:

Do you know that we have always been missing something in life? First we were orphans of mother, then orphans of father, now we are whipping turkeys with one leg from a three-wheeler …

However, there is an exciting and adventurous streak that Rodney does not see in his brother’s life. Del delights in the daily ‘bend over and dive, turn and negotiate’ as it is the only life he has ever known and he prides himself on being the ‘businessman’ we know he is not. Rodney, on the other hand, can see beyond that and into an uncertain future. You can see that there are better opportunities for him, and although he admires and admires his brother in many ways, he still feels the need to expand his horizons and channel his ideas into an idealistic approach. Tragically, Del is always there to bring Rodney back to Earth to make him understand that there is no way out for him, and that his place should stay with Del, so that he can forever use his younger brother as a boy to watch. . to for coppers to buy in the market, as well as to whip sun hats when he is peeing in the rain …

Within his ‘nationalized industry’, Del revels in the fact that he is the owner of the ‘flat’. He trusts his contacts (when he desperately tries to get rid of cases, he turns to the gullible companions’ booklet) and enjoys the spectacle he easily offers to his’ clients’. Finally frustrated with the strangulation of his older brother and his mindless lifestyle, Rodney packs up and leaves, supposedly to Hong Kong to find his girlfriend and partner in expulsion from his art school after smoking marijuana, only to return. six days later filled with an elaborate story of how he got to ‘San Tropez’ and met the daughter of a wealthy exiled prosecutor who invited him to board his yacht. He overly greets his brother on his ‘lavish’ return with his story, only to find that Del knows exactly where he has been simply by finding his passport at the top of the wardrobe.

Del, the captain of one up man ship, has the last crack as he does in 90% of the episodes that ran from 1981 to the last Christmas special in 2003. Rodney takes the biggest fall when Del throws the passport at him and Rodney has to clarify where he’s really been. He confesses that he only made it to a back house in Stoke Newington.

The episode gave the show a shaky platform, as well as a test for Sullivan and his inspired new idea from his own youth. Basing Rodney on his own setbacks as a clumsy boy with a much older brother, the success of Sullivan’s previous creation, ‘Citizen Smith’, was enough to give him the confidence that he needed to fight for the airspace he thought ‘Just Fools. ‘, deserved. If I hadn’t done it then, I doubt it would have lasted more than two sets.

We may wonder why it took us so long to absorb the failures of working-class comedy. I guess for most of us and me growing up in South London it was too close to the mark. We didn’t want someone to ridicule a world in which we lived or knew. There were markets full of merchants and many Del’s filled the streets yelling their wares from a suitcase on a chair, so because these rude rogues are so warm and welcoming to the rest of us gamblers, we didn’t want to see them disassembled. , brutally on a show, particularly a comedy one. However, when we started looking, we saw that he was charming, warm and a tribute to the failures of those people who probably worked harder than the rest of us with nine against five, who were paid to do nothing …

You never saw Del having a quilt day …

The cast of this first episode was;

Del Boy Trotter – David Jason

Rodney Trotter – Nicholas Lyndhurst

Grandfather – Lennard Pearce

Trigger- Roger Lloyd Pack.

Written by John Sullivan

Produced by Ray Butt

Original music by Ronnie Hazlehurst.

BBC VHS video containing the first three episodes

014503467821 BBC Enterprises Ltd 1991 PG cert.

© Michelle Hatcher (sam1942 in dooyoo) 2006.