Tea for Three

Infobox Only Fools and Horses
episode_name = Tea For Three


Series = 5
writer = John Sullivan
director = Mandie Fletcher
producer = Ray Butt
Duration = 30 minutes
Airdate = 21 September 1986
Audience = 16.5 million
Cast =

Tea for Three is an episode of the BBC sit-com, "Only Fools and Horses". It was the fourth episode of series 5, and was first screened on 21 September 1986.

ynopsis

It's Talent Night at the "Nag's Head", and Albert is depressed because his wife Ada is in the hospital. Trigger tells Del Boy and Rodney that his niece Lisa will be arriving shortly. Del and Rodney both seem to remember her back from their childhood days. When Lisa, now aged 25, arrives, Del and Rodney both invite her over to Nelson Mandela House for tea tomorrow. In the meantime, Albert gets up on the stage and sings the song "Hey There" (though he pronounces it as "Ada") in tribute to his dear sick wife Ada, and wins the talent contest.

The next day, Albert is trying out the new solarium to cure his hangover, and Del enters the flat with a big bag of food for tonight's tea with Lisa. Rodney says that he also made a contribution: cheese, because it's all he can afford. As the Trotter brothers start to argue, Albert tells them both to shut up, and decides to go down to the Legion. As Rodney has a go at the solarium, Albert tells him about the time that Albert and Grandad fell out over the affection of Ada and never spoke to each other again. But Rodney falls asleep. Albert leaves, and Del turns up the timer on the solarium before leaving too.

Later that night, Del and Lisa are getting on well, while Rodney nurses his sunburnt face. Lisa tells the Trotter brothers that she has some friends who run a hang gliding club, in which Del lies by saying he enjoys it. This gives Rodney an idea in order to get back at Del for burning his face. Rodney tells Lisa privately that they should give Del a chance to hang glide as a surprise for his 37th birthday.

The following morning in Winchester, Del is shocked to hear that he is going to hang glide. He and Rodney meet the owner of the hang gliding club, Andy. Del also knows that Rodney did this just to humiliate his older brother. Rodney, with a "change of heart", decides to help Del out with the following plan: Del will pretend to be keen to hang glide, and he'll put all the gear on. And just when Del is about to take off, Rodney will come up to him and say that they've got a very important phone call from London, and have to go back. Del agrees to this plan. But just as Del does everything on his part, Rodney betrays his older brother at the last second. Del, not wanting to lose face in front of Lisa, actually flies the hang glider - right out to sea.

12 hours later back at the flat, Rodney, feeling guilty about what he did, is studying a map. Then Trigger and Mike show up with a wheelchair-bound Del Boy, who apologizes to Rodney for tampering with the solarium controls. Rodney, on the other hand, thinks that Del is pretending to be crippled just to gain sympathy, and is proven right when Del leaps out of his wheelchair. Del then tells the story about how he flew all the way to Redhill, only to crash into a television transmitter and fall on top of an unsuspecting courting couple in their Ford Sierra, and how he has to pay for a new Sunroof due to damage to the car, and on how the couple will have to postpone their upcoming wedding because of some injury sustained by Del and the glider falling on them. That in turn reminds Trigger to tell the others that Lisa's wedding to Andy, who she has actually been engaged to for over a year, has been set. Mike offers to open the Nag's Head early for a celebration drink, and Trigger and Albert join him, while Del and Rodney both realise their efforts towards Lisa were in vain.

Episode cast

Trivia

*When the hanglider scene was filmed, David Jason, who is a trained hang glider pilot, scuba diver, and swims with dolphins, wanted to actually fly the hang glider himself! But the BBC said it was too dangerous for him to fly it, for insurance reasons. [http://www.ofah.net/immediacy-298]
*The scene where Albert gets on the stage and sings "Hey There" is edited out of the R2 DVD version of the episode for contractual reasons, yet can be seen in repeats on UKTV Gold. There are also small edits where Del and Rodney use the term "Paki" when referring to staff at their local cornershop.

Errors

*Lisa says that she is 25, so that would have made her born about 1961. However in "The Chance of a Lunchtime" (which takes place in 1991) Trigger's younger sister, Lisa's mother, has had her 39th birthday. By then Lisa would be about 30. So Trigger's sister had Lisa when she was only 9 years old.

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/onlyfools/series5/tea.shtml "Tea For Three" at bbc.co.uk]