Sleepless in Peckham

Infobox Only Fools and Horses
episode_name = Sleepless in Peckham


Series = Christmas Special
writer = John Sullivan
director = Tony Dow
producer = Gareth Gwenlan
Duration = 75 minutes
Airdate = 25 December 2003
Audience = 15.5 million
Cast =

Sleepless in Peckham is an episode of the BBC sit-com, "Only Fools and Horses", first screened on 25 December 2003 as the third and final part of the early 2000s Christmas trilogy, and as the final episode of the entire series.

ynopsis

All seems calm and peaceful at Nelson Mandela House. Cassandra is in the late stages of pregnancy, which means Rodney will finally become a father. Del Boy takes Raquel's washing-up gloves and drives to the cemetery. At the cemetery, Del is cleaning up the monument of his and Rodney's mother Joan. It is revealed that after they became rich, the Trotters used some of their money to give their mother's grave a whole new makeover.

Later, at the "Nag's Head", Sid tells Trigger (who has been creating a portable backscratcher made out of chopsticks) that he got some suggestions from Mike on how to spice up the pub. He also shows Rodney, Del, Trigger, and Mickey Pearce an old photograph of the very first Jolly Boys' Outing in 1960. Del mentions the events of the last one when his dodgy radio blew up their coach, as well as the fact that there were no more because the coach company were afraid of losing another coach. They also notice that Marlene has been mysteriously absent over the last several weeks. Mickey and Sid quickly believe that Boycie killed her.

Back at the flat, Del helps Rodney with an idea for a movie about Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts crashing an airplane on an uninhabited island of cavepeople, including Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble. The next day, Rodney and Raquel berate Del because they are nowhere near the total sum of money that they owe the Inland Revenue. Del then says that if they do get evicted, then he and Raquel will go their separate ways.

The next day, the Trotter brothers and Trigger catch Denzil at a pizzeria and ask him if he made off with Marlene. Denzil says that he hasn't seen Marlene recently either and has actually been in hospital getting treatment for piles. This prompts Del and Rodney to go straight to Boycie and ask him if he murdered his wife and buried her in the garden. The Trotter brothers arrive at Boycie's house, ask him, and he replies that he didn't murder Marlene. In fact, she's home and upstairs asleep. And Boycie promises that he'll bring Marlene with him to the Nag's Head tonight. That night, at the Nag's Head, Boycie arrives with Marlene, who shows everybody that the reason why she was absent for several weeks was to get her chest surgically enhanced! Raquel wisecracks at the sight of it, and the Boyces are forced by Sid to pay for everyone's drinks.

With only a few days left before the Trotters are evicted from Nelson Mandela House, Rodney gets an enlarged copy of the 1960 Jolly Boys' Outing photo and shows it to Cassandra at a restaurant. He shows her who was in the photo: Del Boy, Boycie, Trigger, Denzil, Sid, Roy Slater, Grandad, Reg -- and local gentleman thief Freddie "The Frog" Robdal, who looks a whole lot like Rodney (and is thus also played by Nicholas Lyndhurst)! Rodney then tells Cassandra that Freddie is really his biological father, which explains the affair he had with Joan Trotter in 1959. Meanwhile, at the same time, back at the flat, Del tells Raquel about how he knew Freddie as "Uncle Freddie" back in the 1960s, as well as mention that he, Reg, Joan, and Grandad knew all along that Freddie the Frog was Rodney's real father. Raquel and Cassandra both ask Del and Rodney why they don't tell each other. The same answer that the Trotter brothers give to their lovers: "Nah, it'd break his heart..."

The next morning, Del and Rodney are called to see a solicitor named Mr. Cartwright, thinking that they failed to pay the Inland Revenue. But fortunately, Mr. Cartwright brings good news to the Trotter brothers, and it has plenty to do with their late Uncle Albert, who invested his share of the Trotter fortune in a much more safer spot prior to his death, while his nephews invested their shares in the Central American market. And according to his will, Albert wanted to give his enlarged share of the fortune to his nephews, leaving them with £145,000 each. Del and Rodney are both stunned by all this, but are happy that the danger of getting evicted from Nelson Mandela House is finally over. Just then, Del gets a phone call from Raquel that Cassandra's gone into labour. Del and Rodney race to the hospital and almost end up in the wrong delivery room, but eventually make their way to delivery room #16, where Raquel and Damien wait outside. The good news is that Rodney and Cassandra are now the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl! As Rodney looks lovingly at his newborn daughter, Raquel asks Del what the good news he had was, and Del just tells his fiancée that he'll tell her later.

A couple of days later, Rodney and his daughter are in the cemetery, as Rodney looks up to the heavens and asks his mother that if she ever sees Albert, she should tell him that Rodney and Del said thanks. Del Boy also shows up, and he and Rodney have a chat about Freddie the Frog. Rodney asks Del if he's anything like his father, and Del replies by saying that Freddie the Frog was "a thief, a liar, a conniving, sleazy, and dishonest man... So no Rodney, you're nothing like him." Finally, Del asks Rodney if he came up with a name for his daughter. Rodney just gestures to Del to look at their mother's grave, which now reads: "Here lies Joan Mavis Trotter. Fell asleep 12 March 1964. Mother of Del Boy and Rodney. Grandmother of Damien and Joan." The Trotter brothers then leave and drive off in their three-wheeled van back to Nelson Mandela House, with a new Joan Trotter for the world.

Errors/Plotholes

*In "The Frog's Legacy", Del had no knowledge of Freddie the Frog, yet in this episode, he claims to have known him when they were part of the Jolly Boys and called him "Uncle Freddie".
*During the scene where Rodney shows Cassandra the 1960 Jolly Boys' Outing photo in the restaurant, with a freeze frame - the photo Cassandra has in her hand isn't actually the one the camera shows of the individuals on the close-ups. This is very apparent if you look at where her finger is between the camera changes, when she is filming, it is just an old black and white photo but clearly not showing the characters such as Freddie the Frog etc.
*Marlene said that she and Boycie were married for 34 years (1969), But in "Video Nasty" (which took place in 1986), she said that it was their 20th wedding anniversary (1966). So in 2003, they should have been married for 37 years.

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/onlyfools/christmas/2003.shtml "Sleepless in Peckham" at bbc.co.uk]