The antique dealer episode. First broadcast 1 December 1983.
Del Boy enters the world of fine art when he attempts to pull the wool over "posh tart" antique dealer Miranda Davenport. He unsuccessfully tries to tell her a rickety old cabinet is in fact a "Queen Anne" original, but wise to the ruse, she coolly declines.
But when a painting on the wall of the flat catches her eye, Miranda soon worms her way into Del's affections and in no time at all, he has given her the painting as a gift. Keen to see her again, Del pays a visit to her shop, and is informed that she's at the local auction house.
Arriving at the auction, Miranda seems quite surprised to see him there, but not as half as surprised as Del Boy when Lot 24 is announced. It's Del's painting - a valuable work by 19th century painter Joshua Blythe that Miranda is hoping to make a huge profit on. It seems like Miranda has stung Del good and proper, but he has the last laugh when he informs her that she's actually selling stolen property, since his grandmother nicked it from the art gallery that she worked in decades ago. As the painting is sold and Del triumphantly leaves Miranda to her fate, two experts start looking more closely at the painting...
Tropes:
- All There in the Manual: It was later revealed in Del's 2015 autobiography He Who Dares (written by Jim Sullivan, the son of series writer John Sullivan) that Miranda went to prison as a result of this and other fraudulent art-related activities.
- Epic Fail: Del slaps a woman on the bottom and invites her out for a curry. To Rodney's amazement, she smiles and accepts (though he's unaware that she has an ulterior motive). Rodney decides to try out the same move on another woman. It results in her slapping him. Hard.
- Foreshadowing: This will not be the last time Del finds himself attending an auction. It's also not the last time the Trotters are found to be in possession of a valuable item, although in this particular case Del not only knows that it's valuable, he also knows that he can't sell it as it's stolen property.
- Headscratchers: Two art-related ones.
- If Miranda is immediately aware that the painting is a lost work by a particular nineteenth-century artist, how does she (an antique dealer) not know that at least one work by said artist was stolen from a gallery years ago?
- How come Rodney, who is stated several times over the course of the show to be interested in art and has a GCE in the subject, does not know anything about the painting other than that it's a family heirloom?
- Laser-Guided Karma: It's obvious to the audience (but seemingly not Del) that Miranda's only interested in him because of the painting that's hung in the flat. After coercing him to give it to her, she fakes the paperwork to say it's been her family's property for years and puts it up for sale. When Del tells her that it's actually stolen property, the camera pans out to show two people taking a closer look at the painting. Miranda is clearly in a lot of trouble.
- Oh, Crap!: The look on Miranda's face when she realises that that painting she's faked the paperwork for was reported as stolen years ago.
- The Reveal: At the auction house, Del tells Miranda that he knew what she was up to, and that he knows the painting is valuable but he never sold it because he knew it was stolen ... by his grandmother, who nicked it when she worked as a charlady in an art gallery in the 1930s.
- Uptown Girl: Miranda, who only gets interested in Del because she wants the painting.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Rodney and Grandad are both appalled that Del gave the painting away; evidently Del was the only one who was told that the painting was both valuable and stolen.
