Who's a Pretty Boy?

One of the best of the series thanks to the brilliant script in a very familiar story of someone trying to replace a dead pet on the sly - yes, it's been done before in other shows, but they didn't have John Sullivan's genius and such a perfect cast. We are introduced to Mike Fisher, the landlord, who within two minutes of meeting Del Boy must have been double glad that he did, and another, who we would sadly never see again, Corinne, who couldn't be more displeased to see Del Boy after he mucked up her wedding to Denzil, another regular we are introduced to. We would hear of Brendan a couple of times after this episode but he was never seen again. Italian Louie was also a memorable character after having conned grandad in to buying his 'flea-bitten' canary for £45. Great mix of characters, superb twist and a win for Del Boy at the end puts this in my list of top ten OFAH episodes.

Del, Rodney and Granddad land a job decorating Denzil's living room.

This is a great episode with very strong situational comedy throughout. It starts strongly at the Nag's Head with good banter between Del, Rodney and Brendon O'Shaughnessy, before most of the rest of the story unfolds at Denzil's place.

Paul Barber and Eve Mottley both give solid performances as Denzil and Corrine, but the best moments come when the Trotters are left to their own devices during the job. This is when hilarious disaster strikes and some excellent banter flies thick and fast between them. Lennard Pearce is brilliant, with practically everything coming out of his mouth being a solid gold punchline.

Interestingly, there is a little bit of racial humour and stereotyping in the script that probably wouldn't see the light of day now. John Sullivan even included a joke about how overly white Rodney's skin is which ensures there a punchline is aimed at his own ethnicity and not just the Irish, Italian, Indian and West Indian characters who appear.

This is also the episode that introduces Mike Fisher the long serving landlord of the Nag's Head who appears in many future episodes.

It's a 7.5/10 for me but I round upwards.

First appearances of Denzil as Del's mate and Mike as the pub owner. There is also an appearance by the late Eva Mottley as Denzil's wife (who in real life had dated David Bowie for a couple of years).

Silly main plat-line aside (which is good but not all the episode has to offer) some of the jokes don't land for me (Rodney's paleness) but others are very close to the mark.

Overall though this episode helps keep the standard of series three very high.