The riot episode. Also the 1993 Christmas Special. First broadcast 25 December 1993.
As Christmas approaches, Peckham has been suffering from recent riots. Del is suffering from toothache and is dealing with it by drinking every night at the Nag's Head, meaning Raquel hardly sees him. Meanwhile, Rodney and Cassandra have decided to try to have a baby.
Rodney catches Del gambling at the 1-2-1 Club one night, and Del explains that he is striking a deal with the club's owner Ronnie Nelson to get hold of some Russian camcorders to flog for Christmas. Rodney pleads with Del to spare a thought for Raquel, however the brothers eventually gamble all the way through the night until 8:00am the next morning, only to be told Ronnie was not in that night.
At the market, Del and Rodney are selling ski gear, until Cassandra calls Rodney back to their flat. Rodney is surprised when he finds Raquel and Damien there. Raquel explains that she's left Del, and Rodney and Cassandra let her and Damien stay at their flat until Del apologises. Later, at The Nag's Head, Boycie, Del, Denzil, Mike and Trigger discuss their problems with women — at which point, Albert enters to inform Del that Raquel's left him. That afternoon, Rodney forces a reluctant Del to go to the dentist. The dentist is able to remove the bad tooth from Del's mouth. Del then arranges a date with an attractive receptionist named Beverly.
That night at Nelson Mandela House, the Russian camcorders have arrived, but Rodney points out two problems — they're too heavy, and they take videotapes that don't fit in British VCRs. Del tells Rodney and Albert about his date with Beverly. They believe that Del is making a big mistake, and successfully talk him out of it. Del cancels the date by leaving a message on Beverly's answering machine.
The next evening at the Nag's Head, Rodney berates Del for ignoring Raquel. Del finally phones her, apologises, and promises he will stop gambling from now on, and he'll try to only go to the Nag's Head on weekends. After he promises to pick up both her and Damien tomorrow night, Del celebrates with a big bottle of champagne.
Later that night, a drunk Del sings "One Voice" while walking home, which starts a fight between some of the neighbours which quickly becomes a major riot. Del later goes down to sell ski gear to the rioters. The next morning at the market, while getting the Russian camcorders, Del spots Beverly (who was in the Nag's Head the previous night), and becomes frightened she may be stalking him.
That night, Del picks up Raquel and Damien in the Capri Ghia, and they return home to find their way blocked by the riot, which is still going on. Del beeps his horn, and the rioters and the police clear the way for him. He passes through, and when out of the way promptly sounds his horn, to which the riot resumes.
The following day, Del comes home from work, only to see Beverly in his flat. She's there because she wants Damien's high chair (which Raquel is getting rid of) for her grandson, who is also named Damien. Del rushes over to the Nag's Head to tell Rodney that Beverly is stalking him. Rodney doesn't believe him. Back at the dentist, Del confronts Beverly and tell her to leave him and his family alone. But Beverly tells Del that she thought he was stalking her, in addition to which she thought that she made a mistake by agreeing to go on a date with him.
Back at Nelson Mandela House, the Trotters celebrate Christmas. As Del puts Damien to bed, Raquel plugs in Del's new answering machine (which she acquired from Beverly in return for the high chair), only to hear Del's message about his cancelled date to Beverly. Del returns to the lounge, only to get hit by ornaments thrown by Raquel and the entire family end up in a huge argument. Meanwhile, outside, a group of carol singers sing "Silent Night", and Beverly looks up at the Trotters' flat with a smile.
Tropes:
- All There in the Manual: Del's "autobiography" goes into more detail about him skipping his O-level school exams to flog Tom Jones LP's at the market. One afternoon, Del came home from the market to find his family celebrating the eight straight A's he had received. But then, they remembered a letter they got from the school earlier to say that the A's all stood for "Absent". When they found out, Del's mother Joan was disappointed since she had big dreams for Del, who tried to explain to her that dreams do not require certificates. At the same time, Del's father Reg was unsurprised by this and called Del a waste of space. But, Del would not stand for that, so he told Reg that if he had been more of a man and looked after the family, Del wouldn't have had to go out and try to earn some money. After those words, Reg punched Del, who returned the favour by proceeding to beat up Reg in front of Joan, Grandad, Violet, and Rodney. Joan and Rodney were both crying, while Grandad tried to get Del to stop, but Del would not let up because he was rightfully giving Reg what he deserved for every single one of Joan's tears and every black eye she'd tried to hide behind her sunglasses. While Reg went to the hospital, Del spent a couple of days in Brighton to clear his head before eventually coming home to apologise to his family, but now knew that Reg would never hit Del, Rodney, or Joan ever again.
- Ambiguous Situation: Did Beverly deliberately give Raquel the answerphone with Del's message to get back at Del for his threatening behaviour, or is it a coincidence? Beverly's smile at the end is a point in favour of the former. She does, however, claim when confronted by Del that she didn't know that Raquel was Del's "significant other" until she was actually in the flat to collect Damien's old high chair (later revealed to have been exchanged for the answerphone), which is plausible as Del and Raquel have different surnames due to their not being married. That said, she could be aware that it's Del's flat, as she would know his address due to her job as a dentist's receptionist.
- Call-Back: A couple.
- Del arranging a date with another woman when his relationship seemingly falls apart is very reminiscent of Rodney doing the same in "Rodney Come Home". Like Rodney, he calls it off after being persuaded that it's a bad idea, but as was also the case with Rodney, there's hell to pay when his "significant other" inevitably finds out.
- This isn't the first time Del's tried to flog foreign video equipment that turns out not to work in Britain — although back in "Danger UXD" they were Taiwanese VCRs, and this time they're Russian camcorders.
- Contrived Coincidence: It just so happens that the woman who's agreed to take Damien's old high chair is Beverly. She's as surprised to see Del in the flat as he is to see her, although the extent to which she's out for revenge in response to Del's behaviour is debatable.
- Creator Cameo: Producer Gareth Gwenlan, who held an Equity card from his time as an actor, played a riot policeman, enabling him to stop the actors who played the rioters (drama students, mostly) from getting carried away during the riot scenes.
- Creepy Child: Damien, and this time it's not just in Rodney's head. While staying with his aunt and uncle, the kid wanders into their bedroom even though they locked the door.
- Drunken Song: Del's rendition of "One Voice", which manages to start a fight between the neighbours — which ends up as another riot.
- A Man Is Always Eager: When Rodney gets a call at the market from Cassandra to say she wants him home, he assumes it's for sex (justified, since we know they're trying for a baby). Back at their flat, he quickly strips down to his underwear before it's revealed that Cassandra wanted him home for another reason.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted with Damien, who shares his name (even down to the demonic spelling note ) with Beverly's grandson, although the latter is not seen.
- Parting the Sea: Parodied. Del is able to part the rioters and police by beeping the horn of the Capri Ghia. Once he's driven through, all it takes is another toot of the horn to restart the riot.
- Running Gag: The ski gear. Early on, Rodney's seen modelling it at the market — and he looks (and feels) like a right plonker. Later, Del is said to have sold some to the rioters. Later still, when Del's driving through the riot, several rioters and even some of the police are wearing it.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Fed up with Del drinking and gambling, Raquel leaves him and moves in with Cassandra and Rodney. Fortunately, it's only temporary.
- Stalker with a Crush: With his relationship with Raquel seemingly falling apart, Del sets up a date with Beverly, the receptionist of his local dentist, but calls it off after Rodney manages to talk him out of it. In the following days, Del sees Beverly wherever he goes, and starts to believe that she's stalking him. In a subversion, it turns out that their meetings really were coincidental, and Beverly for her part thinks that Del is stalking her. She thought the date was a bad idea to begin with and didn't mind it being called off, but Del's threatening behaviour when he confronts her actually motivates Beverly into taking revenge by giving Raquel an answering machine which had Del's message about cancelling the date on it.
- Story Arc: Del and Raquel's relationship hits a rocky patch at this point (Del's "autobiography" has since indicated that this is a result of the off-screen outcome of the previous episode); although they reconcile, there will be after-effects in future episodes.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The episode parodies Fatal Attraction with the twist that the woman isn't stalking Del; it's all in his head.
