Who's a Pretty Boy?

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Only Fools and Horses episode
"Who's a Pretty Boy?"
Series 3
Writer John Sullivan
Director Ray Butt
Producer Ray Butt
Duration 30 minutes
Airdate 22 December 1983
Audience 11.9 million

Who's a Pretty Boy? is an episode of the BBC sit-com, Only Fools and Horses. It was the final episode of series 3, and was first screened on 22 December 1983.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Del Boy is jealous of Brendan O' Shaughnessy, an experienced painter and decorator, who sold him a tin of paint that was battleship grey instead of apple white. Del gets his opportunity for revenge by agreeing to decorate his friend Denzil's flat, much to the chagrin of Corrine, Denzil's wife. To do this, Del has to convince Denzil that Brendan (Denzil's original choice) was a good man, who was a great painter and did a fine job which Del only saw after the fire. As Denzil begins to investigate the causes (by asking Del and taking his word for it), he learns that it was in fact an accident caused by the fact that Brendan and his friends enjoyed their lunchtime pint, and even the coroner testified to this. Denzil immediately dismisses Brendan and chooses Del for the job.

The next day, Del, Rodney, and Grandad arrive at Denzil's flat and put the kettle on for a cup of tea (even though Corrine distinclty left a note telling them to stay out of the kitchen), only to fill up the kitchen with steam, leave the kettle with a big hole, and Corrine's pet canary dead. The Trotters all panic about what would happen when Corrine returns. Del takes drastic action by telling Grandad to go out and buy another canary, while Del and Rodney try to fix everything else.

Grandad purchases another canary from a pet shop for £45. He returns to Denzil's flat, and Corrine returns to a shock when she sees the new canary. The boys appear puzzled as to how she may have immediately realised that this was not the same bird, to which she informs them that when she awoke that morning, the canary was dead.

A few hours later, at the Nag's Head, Brendan comes in gloating to the Trotters that he will be taking over the job of decorating Denzil's flat, much to the disbelief of Del who has hitherto held a certain amount of respect for Corrine in that she was not the type to broadcast things. Then, the Trotters meet the pub's new landlord, Mike Fisher, and convince him to increase the brewery's bill of £1000 for Brendan to redecorate the pub to £2,000 for Del to do the job. The new landlord appears puzzled since the first offer was cheaper for his brewery, so Del explains to him that from that money, he and Mike would take a quarter each. When Mike asks Del what would happen to the other half (the £1000 left), Del says that the Irishman could take it and do the whole job. Mike, in the knowledge that this was costing the brewery and not him, warmly agrees.

[edit] Episode cast

Actor Role
David Jason Del Boy
Nicholas Lyndhurst Rodney
Lennard Pearce Grandad
David Jackson Brendan
Michele Winstanley Karen (barmaid)
Paul Barber Denzil
Eva Mottley Corrine
Anthony Morton Pet shop owner
Kenneth MacDonald Mike

[edit] Trivia

  • Del refers to a house Brendan burnt down in the King's Avenue, which is seen almost five years later in "Yuppy Love", where Rodney is dropped off outside a large house in the Kings Avenue, trying to impress Cassandra that it was infact where he lived.
  • The episode saw the introduction of the characters Denzil (played by Paul Barber) and Mike (played by Kenneth MacDonald), both of whom would become regular cast extras for the many years which followed.
  • The character of Brendan O'Shaughnessy would not appear again, although he would be mentioned as an important off-screen character in "As One Door Closes".
  • Eva Mottley, who played Corrine, made her only appearance in the series in this episode. She died of suicide by overdose in 1985. Out of respect, writer John Sullivan never killed off the character but was mentioned in many future episodes by Denzil, played by Paul Barber.

[edit] First Appearances

[edit] Errors

  • When Grandad leaves the pet shop after buying the owner's canary, the cage is fully wrapped. The canary couldn't have breathed if there was no air holes in the wrapped up cage.
  • Rodney mentioned at the end of the episode that Corrine ended up flooding the kitchen when she tried to make a cup of tea. Rodney made a hole at the bottom of the kettle earlier, so Corrine would have noticed it before putting any water in, thus supposedly flooding the Kitchen.

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Wanted
Only Fools and Horses
December 22, 1983
Succeeded by
Thicker than Water