Healthy Competition

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Only Fools and Horses episode
"Healthy Competition"
Series	3
Writer	John Sullivan
Director	Ray Butt
Producer	Ray Butt
Duration	30 minutes
Airdate	17 November 1983
Audience	9.7 million

Healthy Competition is the second episode of series 3 of the BBC sit-com, Only Fools and Horses. It was first broadcast on 17 November 1983.

1 Synopsis
2 Episode cast
3 First appearances
4 Quotes
5 Errors
6 External links

[edit] Synopsis

After an argument with Del Boy for failing to spot an approaching policeman at the market, leading to a frantic chase scene, Rodney informs Del and Grandad that he has other things on his mind and is preparing to make a big announcement, namely that he is leaving Trotters Independent Traders to set up a business partnership with his friend Mickey Pearce. Del warns Rodney that going it alone means he has to pay for everything himself from now, but Rodney goes ahead with it.

Rodney and Mickey meet Del at a local auction the following day, and set their eyes on a set of glass goblets. Del then arrives and urges them not to buy Lot 37, claiming that it's just scrap iron. Both Rodney and Mickey, thinking Del is trying to cheat them out of bidding for that lot, go ahead and purchase Lot 37, which turns out to be rusting and broken lawnmower engines. It also emerges it was Del who was actually selling the engines in the first place, having drunkenly bought them off Alfie Flowers, an associate of his. Adding insult to injury, Rodney and Mickey have paid so wildly over the odds for the engines that Del ending up making a decent profit on the engines, with which he was able to buy the goblets.

Just days into their partnership, it soon transpires that Mickey has gone on holiday to Benidorm with the company finances, leaving Rodney with nothing. Del Boy comes up with a scheme to get Rodney to rejoin Trotters Independent Traders with his pride intact and thinking that he has been successful. He pays another trader, Towser, to buy the lawnmower engines from Rodney for £200, even though they're only worth about £20, and to make up a story about a contact in the Parks Department who wants as many engines as he can get. Towser then asks what he should do with the engines, and Del tells him to give them back to Alfie.

Later on at the Nag's Head, Rodney proudly tells Del that he has sold the lawnmowers to Towser. He also announces that he doesn't have any money with him, since he's invested all the proceeds in buying another set of lawnmower engines from Alfie Flowers which are, unknown to Rodney, the same ones Towser has just got rid of. He thus asks Del if he can borrow some money, and Del angrily bemoans what a 42 carat plonker his brother is.

[edit] Episode cast

Actor	Role
David Jason	Del Boy
Nicholas Lyndhurst	Rodney
Lennard Pearce	Grandad
Glynn Sweet	Auctioneer
Patrick Murray	Mickey Pearce
Rex Robinson	Harry (foreman)
Dev Sagoo	Waiter
Mike Carnell	Towser

[edit] First appearances

Mickey Pearce (although he had regularly been mentioned as a friend of Rodney's before in the previous two seasons)

[edit] Quotes

Rodney: We're going into the self-catering holiday trade

Del Boy: What, on 200 nicka?

Rodney: Yeah, we're starting in a small way

Grandad: What have you got? A Wendy house?

[edit] Errors

The Trotter van is shown to be yellow inside the back door as well as outside, whereas in "A Touch of Glass", the van had a serious spray job as the complete interior of the van was dark red.