History Series / RockAndChips

** Even DI Thomas admits that he didn't really like his late wife.

* BuryMeNotOnTheLonePrairie: Freddie the Frog tells Joan about a friend of his whose dying wish was to be scattered on his favourite football pitch, and how this got them in trouble with the authorities.

* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Joan changes her hairstyle four times. The first time is in the first episode, when her new 'do is modelled after Creator/MarilynMonroe. The second time is in "Five Gold Rings" when it's modelled after Creator/ElizabethTaylor. The third and fourth times are in "The Frog and the Pussycat", modelled after Creator/AudreyHepburn and Creator/JaneFonda respectively.

* ChristmasEpisode: As might be deduced from the title, "Five Gold Rings" takes place during the festive period.

A British {{Dramedy}} created and written by John Sullivan which served as a {{Prequel}} to the hit sitcom ''Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses''. Set in the South London district of Peckham in the early [[TheSixties 1960s]], it centred on the younger lives of the protagonists of the original series -- although the main character, Joan Trotter (Del and Rodney's mum), was an [[TheGhost unseen character]] in the latter due to her having [[PosthumousCharacter died before the story began]].

The show ran for just three episodes between 2010 and 2011, with [[DiedDuringProduction Sullivan's death]] five days before the broadcast of the third one preventing any more from being written.

* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Rodney is the biological son of Freddie Robdal, not Reg Trotter. When she gets pregnant by Freddie (her lover) at a time when she has not had sex with Reg (her husband) for quite some time, Joan is able to convince the latter that they ''had'' been intimate, it's just that he was drunk at the time. Even though she claims that he was drunk as a result of celebrating [[UsefulNotes/BritishFootyTeams Millwall]] winning a football match (something he thinks [[TruthInTelevision sounds most unlikely]]), he buys it. As it happens, almost everyone assumes that little Rodney is Reg's son.

** Reg left Vi after she found out that he cheated on her.

* DirtyCop: DI Thomas, who's using corrupt methods to ensure that Freddie Robdal, a man he knows to be guilty, gets put back behind bars despite a rather inconvenient lack of actual proof.

* DomesticAbuse: Reg is abusive towards Joan, much to the fury of Del (their son) and Freddie (her lover). Even Reenie (her friend) calls him out on this. Joan herself is somewhat passive about both this and the pervy behaviour of Ernie Raynor, her and Reenie's boss at the cinema (when he tries the same with Reenie, she reacts with fury).

** Even [[{{Jerkass}} Reg]] is shown to have ''some'' standards, as he's as disturbed as everyone else in "The Frog and the Pussycat" when Beryl Bird comes onto Del, who's dating ''her daughter''.

* FlashbackToCatchphrase: A teenaged Del says "One day, I'm gonna be a millionaire!"

* InformedAttractiveness: While Joan is decent looking, the sheer amount of gushing she gets over her looks from pretty much everybody (including her son's friends) is somewhat disproportionate.

* CastingGag: Freddie is played by Nicholas Lyndhurst, who had previously played Rodney Trotter in ''Only Fools and Horses''; the last episode of that show had confirmed pre-existing rumours that Freddie was in fact Rodney's biological father.

* AdaptedOut: Uncle Albert is not even mentioned in this series, let alone seen. This makes sense when you consider that he's probably at sea somewhere, and in any case he and Grandad (Ted) were not on speaking terms after the two of them fell out over Ada (Albert's wife).

* TheGhost: Of the characters from the original show, the one most conspicuous by his absence is Uncle Albert, who isn't even referred to, let alone seen. This [[FridgeBrilliance actually makes sense]], as a middle-aged sailor like he would've been in the early 1960s would likely be away at sea, in addition to which it was explained in the original series that he and his brother, Ted, hadn't been on speaking terms for many years.

* ActorAllusion: Downplayed; at one point Del and his gang steal some scooters, presumably from a bunch of mods, and head to Brighton. Phil Daniels, who plays Del's grandfather Ted, famously played a mod in ''Film/{{Quadrophenia}}'', the climax of which took place in Brighton.

* ActorAllusion: Downplayed; at one point Del and his gang steal some scooters, presumably from a bunch of mods. Phil Daniels, who plays Del's grandfather Ted, famously played a mod in ''Film/{{Quadrophenia}}''.

* ActorAllusion: Downplayed; at one point Del and his gang steal some mopeds, presumably from a bunch of mods. Phil Daniels, who plays Del's grandfather Ted, famously played a mod in ''Film/{{Quadrophenia}}''.

* ActorAllusion: Downplayed; Del and his gang steal some mopeds, presumably from a bunch of mods. Phil Daniels, who plays Del's grandfather Ted, famously played a mod in ''Film/{{Quadrophenia}}''.

* DrugsAreBad: Del tries to get this message across to Albie, but it doesn't hve much effect.

* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Rodney is the biological son of Freddie Robdal, not Reg Trotter. When she gets pregnant by Freddie (her lover) at a time when she has not had sex with Reg (her husband) for quite some time, Joan is able to convince the latter that they ''had'' been intimate, it's just that he was drunk at the time. Even though she claims that he was drunk as a result of [[UsefulNotes/BritishFootyTeams Millwall]] winning a football match (something he thinks [[TruthInTelevision sounds most unlikely]]), he buys it. As it happens, almost everyone assumes that little Rodney is Reg's son.

* {{Prequel}}: To ''Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses'', so very much. We get to see the younger versions of Del Boy, Boycie, Trigger, Denzil and Roy Slater, as well as [[TheGhost unseen characters]] from the original, like Joan Trotter and Freddie Robdal.