The communion wine episode. Also the first part of the 1991 Christmas Special. First broadcast 24 December 1991.
The episode opens with Damien's christening which is attended by most of the cast. Shortly afterwards, Del concludes a deal with the vicar to sell "pre-blessed" wine. The plan is for the vicar to bless lorry-loads of wine (imported from Romania by a contact of Del's), which will then be sold to churches across the country where it can be used for communion without the vicars having to bless it during the services. Boycie brags to everyone about his upcoming family holiday — three weeks in the USA, no less. Meanwhile, Rodney is beginning to reconcile with Cassandra, and has learned that he can claim the pension money he accumulated while working for Alan.
A few days later, in Sid's cafe, Del tells Rodney about how he can get back together with Cassandra — surprise her by taking her to the USA, as she has been hinting that she would like a holiday there. Del's even bought the tickets already, using Rodney's pension money (having forged his signature to access it).
Unfortunately, Del's "pre-blessed" wine deal falls through when it emerges that the wine he's bought in bulk for this is Riesling, which is white and thus unsuitable for communion.
Later that night at the flat, an irate Rodney returns after learning that Cassandra has important meetings with her bosses at the bank for the week the holiday was booked, and thus cannot go with him. Sadly, the tickets are non-refundable. Despite Rodney's initial nervousness to the idea, Del persuades his brother to let him go with him instead. The episode ends as the Trotter Brothers board a Virgin Atlantic flight to Florida.
Tropes:
- Call-Back: Rodney's eligible for a pension pay-out from when he worked for Alan's firm, which he quit in "Chance of a Lunchtime".
- The Cameo: Richard Branson stars As Himself in the airport scene; he's the man in Del's way in the queue for the plane. He of course owns Virgin Atlantic, the airline Del and Rodney are flying with. Fifteen years later, he would have a similar cameo in Casino Royale.Del: Blimey. Anyone would think he owns the plane.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Boycie. The fact that he's going on holiday to the USA will turn out to be important in the next episode.
- Didn't Think This Through: The whole pre-blessed communion wine idea falls apart when Del realises he's bought white wine from Romania; as communion wine is meant to symbolise Jesus's blood, it's supposed to be red. The following year's Christmas episode contains a throwaway line which indicates that, a year later, he's still stuck with the wine.
- A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: As soon as he learns that Rodney's come into some money, Del works out how he can benefit from this. His plan — get Rodney to book a holiday for two without consulting Cassandra, for a time when she won't be able to go — works perfectly.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: Again, played when Rodney looks at Damien.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The main episode title is this to Miami Vice.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Del describes Rodney's pension money as "Maxwell money". This relates to the media tycoon Robert Maxwell, who died on 5th November 1991 — following which it quickly emerged that he had stolen £460 million from his employees' pension scheme to prop up his failing company. This episode was broadcast on 24th December 1991, mere weeks after the story broke.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Trigger, of course. When Cassandra's mum comments during the christening that everyone else just wants the service to finish so they can all go to the pub, he naturally mistakes her sarcasm for her being impatient to go to the pub, and chastises her for it.
- The Vicar: A different one from "The Miracle of Peckham", the last time Del had dealings with the church. This one's considerably younger, so Father O'Keith must have retired.
- Father O'Keith is a Roman Catholic priest. The vicar in this episode is a Church of England priest, so they officiate at different churches.
- Zany Scheme: Del's latest money-making idea is to import a load of wine from Romania (via a friend who's in the wine trade) and get the local vicar to bless the lot. Then it can be sold to churches all over the country where it can be used as communion wine without the local priest having to bless it first. The whole thing falls apart because Del doesn't realise that the wine he's importing is white wine, which can't be used for communion as the wine is supposed to be red, as it symbolises the blood of Christ.
- This has become
Hilarious in Hindsight as some churches use white wine for communion in this day and age.
- This has become
