A British Dramedy created and written by John Sullivan which served as a Prequel to the hit sitcom Only Fools and Horses. Set in the South London district of Peckham in the early 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 unseen character in the latter due to her having died many years earlier.
The story starts in Peckham in February 1960. Joan Trotter (Kellie Bright) is unhappily married to the lazy Reg (Shaun Dingwall), whose father Ted (Phil Daniels) has just moved in. Her 15-year-old son Derek (James Buckley), usually known as Del Boy, and his friends Boycie, Trigger, Jumbo Mills and Denzil (Stephen Lloyd, Lewis Osborne, Lee Long and Ashley Gerlach) are still in school, following an increase in the school-leaving age. Joan has two jobs — she works at the local cinema with her friend Reenie Turpin (Emma Cooke), and at the Town Hall as "a part-time filing clerk who sometimes makes the tea". Meanwhile, convicted thief Freddie Robdal (Nicholas Lyndhurst) has just been released from prison and has returned to Peckham with explosives expert Gerald "Jelly" Kelly (Paul Putner).
The show ran for three feature-length episodes note between 2010 and 2011, with Sullivan's death five days before the broadcast of the third one preventing any more from being written.
This series contains examples of:
- The Ace: Freddie Robdal — a debonair gentleman thief with a fondness and talent for art and an eye for the ladies.
- Actor Allusion: 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, is best known for playing a mod in Quadrophenia, the climax of which took place in Brighton.
- Adapted Out: 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 his brother Ted were not on speaking terms after the two of them fell out over Ada (Albert's wife). - Added Alliterative Appeal: The Bird family — Bernard, Beryl and Barbara. Also Ted Trotter, who was only ever referred to as Grandad in the original series.
- Awful Wedded Life: Applies to most of the married couples depicted in the show.
- Joan is a frequent victim of Reg's Domestic Abuse, to the point where she becomes a Sympathetic Adulterer.
- Vi kicked Ted out after she found out that he cheated on her.
- Beryl Bird is very unhappy in her marriage to Bernard.
- DI Thomas admits that he didn't really like his late wife.
- Berserk Button: Pervy behaviour towards Joan is this for Freddie Robdal — as Ernie Raynor, her boss at the local cinema, finds out to his cost when he gets all of his fingers broken after Freddie heard some gossip about him in the Nag's Head.
- Blatant Lies: In "The Frog and the Pussycat", Freddie gives Joan a ring. She notices from the label on the box that it's from the jeweller's in Margate that was robbed in "Rock & Chips" (the first episode); she asks him if that's how he got it (which is indeed the case), but he denies this.
- Book Dumb: Del's plan to sell stolen American records hits the buffers when he shows the police the receipts ... on which the word "Memphis" is mis-spelt, leading to the obvious (and correct) deduction that he fabricated them.
- British Brevity: Just three episodes were made, although they were each between 90 and 60 minutes long.
- Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie: Freddie 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.Joan: Did they say you needed permission?Freddie: Nah, they said he should have been cremated.
- Butt-Monkey: Roy Slater is this to Del and his gang. It comes back to bite them when he joins the police as starts to use his new status as a means of getting revenge.
- Casting Gag: 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, with Lyndhurst even appearing as Freddie in an old photograph.
- A more mild example would be James Buckley, who had already played a horny teenager in The Inbetweeners — although the young Del Boy is a lot less disgusting than Jay Cartwright!
- Christmas Episode: As might be deduced from the title, "Five Gold Rings" takes place during the festive period. It was first broadcast on 29 December 2010.
- Comically Missing the Point: Trigger, as per the original, although it's not played for laughs as much here. A good example occurs at a dance where a girl tells him she's not wearing a bra, to which he responds by telling her that he's not wearing a vest.
- We also have Del being invited to dinner with his latest girlfriend's parents' home for dinner, and getting the wrong end of the stick.
Glenda's Mum: Have you ever had coq au vin, Derek?Del: [smirking, because he thinks it means "sex in a vehicle"] No, this is the first time, Mrs Wilkins. - Continuity Snarl: A minor one; in the original series, Del remembered Albie Littlewood, a friend of his who died in his 20s, as his best friend. Here, Albie is alive and they're part of the same gang — but Del seems to get along better with the likes of Boycie and Jumbo, while Albie does drugs, which Del won't touch. Perhaps the older Del's memory was playing tricks with him and he was remembering Albie in a more positive way because he died young.
- Crappy Homemade Gift: Reg's mother Vi loves knitting. The clothes she knits for her family are very much this, however.
- Darker and Edgier: When compared to Only Fools and Horses, definitely so; subjects include domestic abuse, adultery (resulting in an unplanned pregnancy) and drug-taking. There's also some swearing. And, of course, there's no laughter track.
- Deadpan Snarker: Freddie Robdal, especially when he's being interviewed by the police.DI Thomas: Last night, I had this strange dream.Freddie: You've been a widower for eighteen months, so don't feel bad about it.
- Descent into Addiction: Albie Littlewood, one Del's friends, appears to be developing a drug problem.
- Dirty Cop: 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. Young Roy Slater is obviously one of these in training — we see him get his first taste of this while he's still a cadet, when the sergeant refuses to process his arrest of Del and merely confiscates the hooky records he was trying to sell, the implication being that he's going to try and sell them on himself.
- Dirty Old Man: Ted has shades of this; in the first scene in which he appears, Joan (his daughter-in-law) has to tell him to "cover yourself up".
- Domestic Abuse: 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 exhibited by Ernie Raynor, her and Reenie's boss at the cinema who is constantly trying to touch her up; when he tries the same with Reenie, she reacts with fury.
- The Dog Bites Back: In "Five Gold Rings", Roy Slater becomes a police cadet ... and immediately starts to use his new-found authority to get back at Del.
- Doomed by Canon: In Only Fools and Horses, Joan Trotter was Dead to Begin With, so it's not hard to work out where the story arc was going had it not been cut short by John Sullivan's death. This trope also applies to a few other characters, like Freddie "The Frog" Robdal, Gerald "Jelly" Kelly and Albie Littlewood.
- Drugs Are Bad: Del tries to get this message across to Albie, but it doesn't have much effect.
- Everybody Smokes: As per the period setting. The only time a character is called out for smoking is when Reenie lights up in the hospital delivery room while Joan is giving birth to Rodney.
- Everyone Has Standards: Del may be a somewhat dishonest young man who smokes and drinks, but he doesn't do drugs and is even seen to warn Albie of the dangers of them.
- Even 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. He's also the only adult to ask if Trigger is "all there" after witnessing him doing something strange.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Joan changes her hairstyle four times. The first time is in the first episode, when her new 'do is modelled after Marilyn Monroe. The second time is in "Five Gold Rings" when it's modelled after Elizabeth Taylor. The third and fourth times are in "The Frog and the Pussycat", modelled after Audrey Hepburn and Jane Fonda respectively. Reg, being Reg, barely notices.
- Fell Off the Back of a Truck: As per the original, much of the stuff Del and his mates are flogging down the market is this.
- Flashback to Catchphrase: A teenaged Del says: "One day, I'm gonna be a millionaire!"
- Foreshadowing: Does this for many plot points of the parent series. For example, the Running Gag about Del having been engaged to many women in his time is explained here by the young Del using a marriage proposal (and subsequent engagement, complete with a fake gold ring) as a ruse to get intimate with more than one young lady.
- Given Name Reveal: Done for two characters — Grandad's first name is shown to be Ted, while Trigger's name is revealed to be Colin Ball.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: Del Boy is desperate to lose his virginity and resorts to various tricks to try to achieve this end. "Five Gold Rings", for example, sees him acquire the five titular (fake) gold rings, which he gives to girls as engagement rings in the hope that being engaged will lead to a greater level of intimacy. Which serves to explain the Running Gag in the original show about Del having been engaged to lots of different women.
- Informed Attractiveness: 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.
- Insistent Terminology: Joan is not a tea-lady for the council; she's a part-time secretary, who sometimes makes the tea.
- Is This Thing Still On?: Reenie's verbal take-down of Ernie when he tries to touch her up is broadcast to the whole cinema, as the microphone in his office (used for public announcements) has been left on, much to the amusement of the punters present.
- It Amused Me: Del does and says a few things purely for his own amusement at the expense of others, just like his older self in Only Fools and Horses.
- Jerkass: Reg Trotter, a bone-idle wife-beater with hardly any redeeming qualities.
- Knight of Cerebus: Freddie Robdal.Ernie: Who are you?Freddie: I'm the last bloke in the world you want to meet.
- LOL, 69: Played with in "Five Gold Rings"; Joan picks up the phrase "j'aime un soixante-neuf" (literally, "I like a sixty-nine") from Freddie. She thinks it's an innocent phrase that can be used to indicate sophistication (because it's French) and passes it onto Del, who is keen to impress his latest girlfriend's middle-class parents. In the first instance of Del's chronic misuse of French phrases, he duly uses it in front of them ... and, given that they actually understand French, they're less than impressed about this working-class kid who's dating their daughter.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: A central plot point. Rodney is the biological son of Freddie Robdal, not Reg Trotter. When Joan gets pregnant by Freddie (her lover) at a time when she has not had sex with Reg (her husband) for quite some time, she is able to convince the latter that they had been intimate, it's just that he was drunk at the time and so does not remember. Even though she claims that he was drunk as a result of celebrating Millwall winning a football match (something he thinks sounds most unlikely), he buys it. As it happens, almost everyone assumes that little Rodney is Reg's son. Only Joan, Freddie and Joan's best friend Reenie know the truth.
- Miles Gloriosus: Reg Trotter, who beats his wife but backs down when confronted by a man. Or his teenage son. Or any other woman, if his reaction to Reenie calling him out on his behaviour is anything to go by.
- Monochrome to Color: The first episode starts off in black and white, then switches to colour as the opening credits end.
- My Local: As per the original series, the Nag's Head is a much-visited establishment by most of the characters. Even the ones who aren't (legally) old enough to buy and consume alcohol there.
- Oh, Crap!: In "Five Gold Rings", Del and Jumbo's reaction to Roy Slater's revelation that he's now a police cadet and is about to nick them for selling hooky records counts as this.
- Prequel: To Only Fools and Horses, so very much. We get to see the younger versions of Del Boy, Boycie, Trigger and the rest, as well as unseen characters from the original, like Joan Trotter and Freddie Robdal.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: Reg is neglectful, crude, abusive, and all too happy to sit at home, watch Joan bring home the bacon and then waste her meagre wages down at the pub. Is it any wonder she jumps into bed with Freddie Robdal — debonair and attentive, if somewhat unreliable and immoral — at the first chance she gets?
- Unseen No More: In this show, we finally get to see Joan Trotter, who had died many years before the events of Only Fools and Horses.
- Walk the Plank: Referenced when, after being told by the school gym teacher to go away, Del and his gang suggest heading to the park, and Slater protests that he doesn't want to go because they'll play pirates and make him walk the plank again. Del assures him that they're grown-ups now, and they don't play pirates. However, when the gang are later seen hanging out in the Ritz Cinema (where Del's mother Joan works), Slater is soaking wet.
