Rock and Chips

One of the most successful British Sit-Coms, Only Fools and Horses followed the adventures of ‘independent trader’ Derek ‘Del-Boy’ Trotter and his younger brother Rodney as they scrimped and saved in Del’s quest to become a millionaire. The characters became part of British culture, everyone felt like they knew them. They felt a part of their lives – and grieved when Granddad died. The nation felt a huge cheer during the 1996 trilogy where the brothers finally achieved their dream…and sort of felt bad when Albert died. But wished the story ended earlier.

Rocks and Chips is the story of revelations revealed in the final episode – that Rodney and Del are half-brothers. Ex-con Freddie ends up seducing Del’s mum and changes the Trotter family forever. Characters we’ve seen before like Del, Boycie and Granddad are there – but they do take second place to the story of Freddie and Joan.

After watching it, I personally was left with a strange duality. The fan in me wanted to see a bit more set-up and in-jokes with the future; but the other half of me was impressed that John Sullivan didn’t go down the route of basically laying down clear foundations ala the Star Wars films. I.e. we didn’t see Del first seeing Rodney. There were plenty of references to stuff that happened before (like the Margate Trip) and we met people referenced in conversation. But Sullivan has to be commended on not going the injokey route for the majority of the ride.

In terms of style – it’s not a three-camera sit-com with three-walled sets. It’s a proper single-camera drama shot on digital film with no studio audience. There’s moments of comedy which work and some that don’t – but they mainly come from seeing characteristics that we have seen later on. In fact the golden moments here are Kellie Bright and Nicholas Lyndhurst as Joan and Freddie. Lyndhurst completely removes all trace of Rodney (mainly due to him looking older) and should play villains more often. Whilst Bright has come a long way from The Upper Hand and being the girlfriend of Ali G. She’s the star here, and she plays it to perfection and creates a multi-layered complex character that is the personification of the things we’ve heard from Del Boy over the years.

Kudos must go to James Buckley, who manages to stave off being Jay from The Inbetweeners and has some brilliant cameo moments that highlight the guy he is, and the guy he’ll become. There’s two moments in which I saw Buckley show the man David Jason would become. The first was Del standing up to his dad on his mum’s behalf, and the second was a wonderful moment where he basically scolds two of his friends for having drugs. It’s those moments which actually remind you that whilst he might be someone who does sell possibly stolen goods – he has a pure heart and a strong moral centre.

From something that was met with scepticism, this little one-off actually proved to be something a little more involving – which was a good thing. I don’t think we need to return to Peckham any more as the Trotter story has run its course – but it was a lovely and touching ride.