Rock & Chips

As others say this was an enjoyable prequel to Only Fools with a good amount of early stuff mentioned in OFAH explained. It was well cast throughout and the period detail was a good attempt! The "errors" included the tone of 1960 being very rose-tinted. Denzil for a start had a 70s afro & his manner in 1960 would have been much less loud due to how life was & the limited views of the day. The other black guy however, looking very like Muddy Waters the blues legend, was spot on.

The incessant music & record references were a bit OTT, ooh we got the original record! You could see they had no-centre ex-jukebox records & reproduction London sleeves! The music chosen was certainly the pick of the era all USA artists even though many happily listened to UK pop like Max Bygraves & other MOR artists.

The purple pill popping was wrongly called "drugs" which is not even how we spoke of such in the 80s. Slater dancing stoned saying he was like a "rock star" was foolish, such a term not used until well into the 70s.

The "intense" cinema manager was a bit out of place perhaps, it appeared to be an attempt to appeal to today's TV crowd, although it ended up hilarious & the final joke subtle enough to only be understood by those old enough, which is a nice bit of writing. The Coffee joke was nice too in typical OFAH style.

Kellie Bright & James Buckley were perfect castings. Nicholas Lyndhurst was the obvious choice for Freddy, but he wasn't consistent & ended up more like Gary from 'Goodnight Sweetheart' simply as NL is known as a nice guy.

The title itself 'Rock & Chips' was a bit feeble after the working title & only a mention of it eating such on the bus.

Overall certainly the best show of the year so far & not to continue with it would be a shame, although having covered all the story we knew about having watched OFAH anything further would need some strong writing to keep the quality. One of those shows guaranteed to please those familiar with OFAH & being over 30 but it may just confuse those younger without the show knowledge.