Who's a Pretty Boy?

"Who's a Pretty Boy?"
Only Fools and Horses episode
Episode no.	Series 3 Episode 7
Directed by	Ray Butt
Written by	John Sullivan
Produced by	Ray Butt
Original air date	22 December 1983 (1983-12-22) (11.9 million viewers)
Running time	30 minutes 29:25 (DVD) 29:27 (iTunes)

"Who's a Pretty Boy?" is an episode of the BBC sitcom, Only Fools and Horses. It was the final episode of series 3, and was first broadcast on 22 December 1983. In the episode, Del persuades Denzil to let them redecorate his flat, despite his wife Corrine's objections. Things go awry when they think they have killed Corrine's pet canary.

Synopsis

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 lizard -tongued wife. To dissuade Denzil from using Brendan, Del implies that on Brendan's last job he was responsible for the house burning down while he and his crew were in the pub. 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 distinctly 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 will 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 goes to a pet shop owned by his Italian friend, Louis Lombardi, and after much communication trouble, finally manages to buy a canary from him 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 already dead, meaning they panicked and bought the new one for nothing. Despite this, Corrine tries to make herself a cup of coffee and floods the kitchen through the hole in the kettle, exposing the Trotters' antics. In a rage, she throws them out.

A few hours later, at The Nag's Head, a smug 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, Del says that the Irishman could take it and do the whole job. Mike, in the knowledge that this will cost the brewery and not him, warmly agrees.

Episode cast

Eva Mottley, who played Corrine, made her only appearance in the series in this episode. She died of suicide by overdose on 14 February 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. The pair later separated.

On 15 February 2013, as part of a series of repeats, BBC One re-broadcast "Who's A Pretty Boy?" without apparent knowledge of the twenty-eighth anniversary of Eva Mottley's death being just the day before

Story arc

• Del refers to a house Brendan burnt down in the King's Avenue, which is seen five years later in "Yuppy Love", where Rodney is dropped off outside a large house in the King's Avenue, trying to impress Cassandra that it was in fact where he lived.
• 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".
• Denzil is a fan of cricket, as he asks the bird to say "Viv Richards is king". Richards was a West Indian batsman.

Notes

• This episode is one of only three in the entire run of the show that does not feature the Trotters' flat. The others are 'Cash And Curry' and 'The Longest Night'

First appearances

• Denzil
• Mike

Music

Contemporary Orchestra : High Fly

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Who's a Pretty Boy?

• "Who's a Pretty Boy?" at BBC Online
• "Who's a Pretty Boy?" at BBC Programmes
• "Who's a Pretty Boy?" on IMDb
• "Who's a Pretty Boy?" at TV.com