A Royal Flush
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"A Royal Flush" is the fifth
Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...
special episode of the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
sitcom ''
Only Fools and Horses ''Only Fools and Horses'' (titled onscreen as ''Only Fools and Horses....'') is a British television sitcom that was created and written by John Sullivan (writer), John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Ki ...
'', first screened on 25 December 1986. It was re-edited into a shorter version with an added laughter track and released on DVD in 2004. In the episode, Rodney becomes friends with the daughter of a Duke, and
Del Del, or nabla, is an operator used in mathematics (particularly in vector calculus) as a vector differential operator, usually represented by the nabla symbol ∇. When applied to a function defined on a one-dimensional domain, it denotes ...
decides to help him make the right impression.


Synopsis

As
Del Boy Derek Edward Trotter, more commonly known as Del Boy, is a fictional character from the BBC sitcom ''Only Fools and Horses'' and one of the main characters of its spinoff series, '' Rock & Chips''. He was played by David Jason in the original ...
sells cutlery to the local market crowd, Rodney encounters a pretty young woman and abandons his lookout position to talk to her. At Sid's café, she introduces herself as Vicky. As the conversation develops, Rodney discovers that she is Lady Victoria Marsham-Hales of Covington House,
Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...
, the daughter of the Duke of Maylebury, who is a second cousin of the
Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...
. She also explains that her mother died in a skiing accident. Sensing a chance to make the Trotter family millionaires, Del decides to assist Rodney's blossoming friendship with Lady Victoria by acquiring tickets for the opera ''
Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the O ...
''. On the night of the opera, Rodney and Victoria arrive, only to see that Del has also attended, along with June Snell (last seen in " Happy Returns"), an ex-girlfriend of Del and mother of one of Rodney's old girlfriends. Del and June ruin the night by obnoxiously eating snacks, talking during the performance, and arguing with other audience members. Nonetheless, Victoria invites Rodney to stay at Covington House for the weekend. Wanting Rodney to make a good impression, Del insists he dress as a country gentleman in a tweed suit. Already uncomfortable during the weekend in Berkshire, Rodney is aghast when Del arrives with a confused Albert in the van, claiming to have turned up to deliver Rodney's evening suit that he "forgot" (although Rodney knows that he packed it and Del removed it so he had an excuse to turn up). As Rodney tries to calm himself, Del introduces himself to Victoria's father, Henry, and invites himself to that evening's dinner, having "coincidentally" brought his own evening suit. Del takes part in their clay pigeon shoot using a pump-action
shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small ...
borrowed from bank robber Iggy Higgins and quickly begins to anger Henry. At dinner, Del gets
drunk Alcohol intoxication, commonly described in higher doses as drunkenness or inebriation, and known in overdose as alcohol poisoning, is the behavior and physical effects caused by recent consumption of alcohol. The technical term ''intoxication ...
and starts offending the guests with risqué jokes, implying a wedding between Rodney and Victoria is to be held, constantly talking about
Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...
and humiliating Rodney by revealing his conviction for possession of
cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...
. Del finally angers Henry enough by telling a skiing joke despite knowing Victoria's mother died in a skiing accident. In a fit of rage, Henry demands Del meet him outside. As the two leave, Victoria asks Rodney if he is still staying overnight. Rodney reluctantly declines and decides to leave, both understanding that they should not see each other again. Outside, Henry orders that Del, Rodney and Albert are to leave his house immediately. Del tells Henry that Rodney may need to be paid off to leave Victoria alone. Back at the flat, a fuming Rodney rants to a hungover Del about how he has always ruined his opportunities to make a success of his life by getting involved and injures his hand by punching a vent cover out of annoyance. After Rodney reveals that he refused the offer of a £1,000 payoff from Henry to stop seeing Vicky (infuriating Del, who had arranged the offer), Del says that had Rodney refused to stop seeing Victoria, he would probably have been assassinated by the
Special Branch Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security and Intelligence (information gathering), intelligence in Policing in the United Kingdom, British, Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, ...
because of his conviction for drug use. Del half-heartedly apologises to Rodney and asks him to shake his hand, but this turns out to be a ploy for Del to inflict pain on Rodney for refusing the £1,000 by squeezing his injured hand.


Episode cast


Production


Writing

Two things inspired this episode. One was how the younger nobility were becoming closer to the working class, and the second was stories in the newspapers about the Special Branch being employed to protect the younger royals from possible kidnap. Sullivan put these two things together when writing the episode and created the storyline of how Del would protect Rodney and at the same time "make a few bob on it". "Although Del comes across as rather cruel in the episode, his heart is in the right place".


Filming

Filming for the episode began in November 1986 in
Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...
. Scenes set at the
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and listed building, Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) an ...
were all filmed there, except for the auditorium scenes and the performance of ''
Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the O ...
'', which were instead filmed at the Buxton Opera House. Filming was delayed on two occasions due to the separate illnesses of David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst. While the dinner scene towards the end of the episode was being filmed, writer John Sullivan was filming '' Just Good Friends'' in Paris. Sullivan said he later regretted this and was unhappy with the scene. Producer Ray Butt agreed and took responsibility for the scene, stating that he thought "David
ason was a hereditary noble title in Japan, used mainly between the Asuka and Heian periods. At first, it was the second highest, below '' Mahito'', which was given to members of the Imperial family, but after the Heian period it became the highes ...
went a bit over the top" and that "Del turned too nasty and lost his warmth." Later, Jason also conceded that "perhaps that scene wasn't as good as it could have been." Intended to be recorded in front of a live
studio audience A studio audience is an audience present for the recording of all or part of a television program or radio program. The primary purpose of the studio audience is to provide applause and/or laughter to the program's soundtrack (as opposed to canne ...
, time constraints meant that this was not possible, and thus the original version of the episode does not include a laughter track.


Editing

Ray Butt and Tony Dow completed editing the episode on Christmas morning of 1986, the day it was due to be broadcast. There had been concern that the episode would not be completed on time, and a contingency plan was created which would have seen the final scene in the flat broadcast live. The original version of the episode was released for
VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...
in 1998. In 2004, when the episode was due to be released on
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
, John Sullivan oversaw a re-edit. Eighteen minutes of footage was removed, and the episode was screened for members of the ''Only Fools and Horses'' Appreciation Society, with their reaction recorded and serving as a new laughter track. Dubbed the "writer's cut", this version of the episode became the main version supplied in subsequent home video releases and on television repeats. In 2021, both versions of the episode were
remaster A remaster is a change in the sound or image quality of previously created forms of media, whether Mastering (audio), audiophonic, Cinematography, cinematic, or Videography, videographic. The resulting product is said to be remastered. The term ...
ed in high definition and released together on
Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
.


Music

*
The Smiths The Smiths were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Manchester in 1982, composed of Morrissey (vocals), Johnny Marr (guitar), Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (musician), Mike Joyce (drums). Morrissey and Marr formed the band's songwrit ...
: " Ask" *
Erasure Erasure may refer to: Arts and media * Erasure (duo), an English pop group * ''Erasure'' (album), 1995, by the British group Erasure * Erasure poetry, a form of found poetry created by erasing words from an existing text * ''Erasure'' (novel), ...
: " Sometimes * Kent Opera:
Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel ( ; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well-known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concerti. Born in Halle, Germany, H ...
's Overture for the Royal Fireworks * Kent Opera: Extracts from Bizet's
Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the O ...


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Flush, A 1986 British television episodes Berkshire in fiction British Christmas television episodes Only Fools and Horses special episodes