A Royal Flush

I've tried looking everywhere for the original that I watched and enjoyed, like all the other episodes, tirelessly, and knowing the full script in my head. This episode has been butchered for whatever reason. One of the funniest scenes is the opera, nothing to with Del being mean, but was cut out anyway. Don't bother showing it at all. Peoe don't have to watch it. But for those of us that want the original, let us have that choice.

A royal flush is an episode i have always wanted to happen, the Trotters meet royalty. And Del boy is, as usual, his wheeling and dealing self, selling dodgy spoons and ruining Rodneys big chance to become a friend of rich people. There are times i feel really sorry for poor old Rodders. I what to scream at Del to leave Rodney alone and keep his nose out. Rodney meets a fellow art student and they become friends. Rodney though, does the stupidest thing and tells Del that his friends father is extremely rich. OOPS!! Big mistake Rodders, as he finds out when Del invites himself to a swanky dinner with Rodney, his friend, her father and her fathers original guests. Trigger makes a slight appearance so you know you will get a laugh out of it.

I wanted to say that this was the worst ever episode of the entire show but it wasn't as bad as I remembered. Then I noticed the IMDB review from studioAT telling us that for the DVD release there were 20 minutes deleted and a laughter track added.

It must have been this DVD version I watched because it has a laugh-track and runs for under an hour whereas it's supposed to have a runtime of 75 minutes. I'm not hunting out the full version though. It is pretty bad although admittedly the shorter runtime makes it a little tighter.

Del is a real pain in the ass in this one. In the last episode he chooses his brother over a big chance of moving to Australia and becoming partner in a growing business but here he acts in complete contradiction to that and chooses the unlikely chance of making a profit and humiliates Rodney in the process.

If you have to watch it try to find the edited version. It's a lot less painful.

But painful nonetheless.

Widely regarded as the worst OFAH episode and disliked by the cast and writer John Sullivan, I'm afraid I have to agree.

The sign of how much it was disliked is the fact that when it re-released onto DVD it came in a much more edited form, with over 20 minutes of footage removed, and a laughter track added.

Sadly it doesn't do much to improve the fact that this is a weak episode of the show, bar a strong performance from Nicholas Lyndhurst as Rodney.

The main set pieces of the episode (the opera, the shooting, the dinner party) are all quite slow and the representation of Del isn't in keeping with how he has been portrayed previously, or throughout the rest of the show's run.

I'd love to be able to say that this is a good episode, but sadly it isn't.

I love Only Fools and Horses. It is such a brilliant show. Not this episode, though. In this episode Del's character is mean-spirited and almost cruel to Rodney at times. This episode makes Del's character look so bad I frankly wish I'd never watched it. Del has always been a handful, but at his core he's a decent man who loves his brother. But that essential quality of goodness is largely missing in this episode. If they were shooting for humor, they missed the mark with this episode. I saw the unedited version, and nearly didn't make it through without turning it off. But I stuck with it, hoping for some whiz-bang ending to make up for the dismal slog that most of this episode is. It didn't arrive. In my opinion, this episode is only for Fools and Horses completists. All that being said, this is an otherwise great series. Every television series has its clunkers, and this episode was theirs.