The 1987 Christmas special — with rumours of a Rodney's parentage and a hidden stash of gold. First broadcast 25 December 1987.
Del, Rodney and Albert travel to Hampshire to attend the wedding of Trigger's niece, Lisa.
At the reception, Del catches up with an old family friend, Trigger's Aunt Reenie, his late mum's best friend who tells him about a Peckham-based gentleman thief, Freddie "The Frog" Robdal. He was a friend of Del and Rodney's mother in the early 1960s, at around the time Rodney was born. Reenie describes Robdal as a very strait-laced man, into French wine and paintings. In 1963, Robdal and his gang broke into a bank in London and stole £250,000 in gold bullion; the rest of the gang were apprehended by the police, but Robdal fled with the gold and hid it. Knowing that Robdal had left everything he had to his mother, who in turn bequeathed everything to her sons, Del embarks on a mission to find the gold.
Uncle Albert also knew Robdal. He says that shortly after stealing the gold, Robdal and an explosives expert known as "Jelly" Kelly robbed a post office but were both killed when Robdal inadvertently sat on a detonator. Del mentions that he was told that Robdal had an affair with a married woman, and wonders why he left everything to Del and Rodney's mother. He also mentions another rumour that Robdal fathered a child, who would approximately be Rodney's age now. This upsets Rodney, who wonders if he is that child, although Albert dismisses the whole thing as a rumour.
Meanwhile, Del gets Rodney a new job, though he declines to mention that it is working for the local undertaker as a chief mourner, a fact that angers Rodney upon finding out. Later, it emerges that Robdal purchased an extra-large coffin from the same undertaker back in 1963 for a friend named Alfred Broderick. Rodney quickly deduces that "Alfred Broderick" is an anagram of "Frederick Robdal", implying that Broderick did not exist, and that Robdal had purchased the coffin to hide the gold in and had arranged a fake funeral for it to be buried. While attempting to sell a faulty computer to the Rev. Sturrock, the vicar who presided over Lisa's wedding, Del learns that Sturrock also buried "Mr. Broderick". He then finally discovers the gold's whereabouts.
Albert had failed to mention earlier that Robdal earned the nickname "The Frog" because he was a frogman in the Royal Navy. Consequently, he buried the gold at sea to hide it from the authorities, intending to recover it at a later date, but he was killed before he could do so. While Del vows to find the gold, Rodney once again asks Albert about his resemblance to Robdal; Albert just dismisses it as rumours, but does acknowledge that he and Robdal do look similar.
Tropes:
- The Ace: Freddie "The Frog" Robdal. A debonair, gentleman thief who was a charming, generous and very clever man, who had a fondness and talent for art, was a hit with the ladies, and who successfully stole a quarter of a million pounds-worth of gold bullion, which he hid by burying it at sea under one of his pseudonyms (which he planned to retrieve after the heat died down, using his skills as a diver). The image is slightly ruined by the fact that he died by sitting on a detonator during a later job.Rodney: Freddie the Frog. Killed himself by sitting on someone else's detonator. What a plonker.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: After Del Boy reveals the gold is buried at sea, making it impossible to reach:Albert: If you knew he was buried at sea, why did you ask me to bring this shovel?
Del: [takes the shovel] So I can whack you on the bloody head with it! - Bait-and-Switch: While Del and Rodney are discussing the missing gold Freddie Robdal stashed away:Rodney: How can you be sure it ain't been found!? Over the past few years, every policeman and underworld figure in the country must have been looking for that gold!Del Boy: And what would they have done with it, eh? They either put it through a fence, which meant it becomes public knowledge, or they smelt it down themselves. And if they do that, well...that amount of gold coming onto the market causes ripples, the sort of ripples that would be remembered for a long time!
Albert: What if the police found it?
Del: I'm talking about the police! - Call-Back: To "Tea for Three", since everyone is in Hampshire for Lisa's wedding.
- Christmas Episode: Though it doesn't take place at Christmas.
- Comically Missing the Point: Del wonders why Robdal, who he'd heard was having an affair with a local married woman, should have left everything to his and Rodney's mother. He just can't put two and two together, likely due to his veneration of his late mum.
- Also this moment when Rodney reveals Freddie Robdal ordered a coffin through Mr. Jahan (presumably to hide the gold):
Rodney: He ordered it five weeks before the robbery, six weeks before he blew himself up! Don't you realise what this means?
Albert: Yeah, he had a premonition!
Rodney: [deeply annoyed] You berk! - Contrived Coincidence: The fact that the vicar at Lisa and Andy's wedding just happens to be the one who carried out Freddie Robdal's rather unusual funeral request two decades ago. Also, the fact that the undertaker's that Rodney works for was the firm that dealt with said funeral.
- Delayed Reaction: Rodney's a bit slow on the uptake that Del Boy expects him to go diving for the gold.Del: I shall bring it to the surface! We can do it! I have faith in you, Rodney!
Rodney: Come on, Del. How do you expect to... me?! What do you mean, you've got faith in me?
Del: Listen, I can get you all the equipment, all the proper gear; you're the only one in the family who can swim!
Rodney: All I ever got was a fifty yard certificate at school!
Del: Well you only have to swim fifty yards. [beat] Down.
Rodney: On your bike! - Explosive Stupidity: Happened offscreen to Freddie "The Frog" Robdal, who sat on his own detonator during a post office heist, killing himself and "Jelly" Kelly, his partner-in-crime.
- The "Fun" in "Funeral": Rodney, in his new job as chief mourner, accidentally leads a funeral procession down the wrong street.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: The fact that Rodney looks a lot like Freddie Robdal did leads to the resurfacing of rumours about the former's parentage, especially given that Robdal was said to have fathered a child with a married woman; Reenie and Albert clearly know more than they're letting on.
- Meaningful Background Event: Part-way through, Del and Aunt Reenie are discussing Freddie the Frog at a wedding when, in the background, the vicar enters the dining hall, just at the moment Reenie says the name "Freddie Robdal" loudly, which causes the vicar to pause, look over, shake his head, and then walk away. This rather stealthily backs up the vicar's claim near the end of the episode, when he mentions to Del that he had heard them discussing Mr. Robdal.
- Noodle Incident: Del Boy mentions one to show Rodney he's not worried about the Driscoll brothers finding out about the gold and trying to claim it for themselves:Del: A couple of years ago, right, some guru said the world was gonna end in a month and Danny Driscoll bet a grand that it would. And he's the brains of the outfit!
- Oh, Crap!: Rodney's reaction to hearing Del Boy went and asked the Driscoll brothers for information about Freddie Robdal.Rodney: [shocked] You went and saw the Driscoll brothers?!
Albert: Why, what are they like?
Rodney: Oh, they're smashing blokes, Unc! It's like bumping into the Two Ronnies — Biggs and Kray! - One-Shot Character: This is the only episode in which Reenie Turpin (played by Joan Sims) appears, although a younger version of her would be a character in the prequel Rock & Chips.
- Percussive Maintenance:Vicar: [indicating computer, whose screen is showing flickering lines] You see what I mean, Mr Trotter. I've tried everything but it simply refuses to work.
Del: Hmm, I see. Has the machine received a knock of any kind?
Vicar: Oh no, I can assure you.
[Del hits the screen and its display settles] - Really Gets Around: Reenie in her younger days; according to Albert, she was a "right little raver", who During the War had "more Yanks than Eisenhower".
- Remember the New Guy?: Trigger's Aunt Reenie was Joan Trotter's best friend, although she moved out of Peckham shortly after the latter's death. Del remembers her fondly; Rodney, who she looked after when he was a baby, has no memory of her.
- Running Gag: The faulty Rajah computers that Del's trying to sell are the same brand of computers that he was trying to flog in the previous year's episode "From Prussia with Love". They were also seen in the Trotters' flat in "The Miracle of Peckham".
- Series Fauxnale: The episode had been written as a potential finale to the show — establishing a way for the Trotters to potentially become millionaires some day via the titular stash of gold bullion — due to concerns about how viable it was to continue the series after the terrible reception of the previous year's Christmas special, "A Royal Flush".
- Small Role, Big Impact: Aunt Reenie only appears in this episode, but her impact is huge, as she is the one who brings up Freddie Robdal, this contributing to a major ongoing plot (see below for more). We would later see a younger Reenie in Rock & Chips.
- Story Arc: A big one in terms of the parentage of the Trotter brothers, carrying on from "Thicker than Water" in which it was speculated that they might not have the same biological father. Now, the focus shifts to Rodney as Aunt Reenie brings up memories of the long-dead Freddie Robdal, who was very friendly with Del and Rodney's mum and was rumoured to have fathered a child with a married woman — a child who would be approximately Rodney's age now. Del can't put two and two together on this one, but Rodney definitely has his suspicions that he may actually be Freddie's son. This would not be resolved until the last-ever episode, "Sleepless in Peckham".
