If They Could See Us Now.....!
Christmas special, first shown 25 Dec 2001, 71 min
Our take
The comeback nobody expected after the perfect 1996 ending, and the most-watched programme of the decade. It has to undo a happy ending, which leaves it feeling uneasy, and critics at the time were not kind. The quiz show is the centrepiece and Jonathan Ross is a good sport. Seeing the family back in the old flat has its own pull, but it is watched more for nostalgia than for laughs.
What happens
Five years after striking it rich, the Trotters are broke again. A bad investment in the Central American markets has wiped out their fortune, the family has been declared bankrupt, and they are forced back from the high life abroad to the old flat in Peckham. Rodney and Cassandra, finding their love life a little flat, try spicing it up with fancy dress, with Cassandra as a policewoman and Rodney as a gladiator. Del, determined to win back what they lost, gets himself onto a television quiz, Goldrush, hosted by Jonathan Ross. With Rodney's two GCEs no help to him, he goes home empty-handed. Afterwards a phone call suggests that there was a problem with the final question and that Del might be owed fifty thousand pounds, but he is having none of it. The family are back where they started.
Can the kids watch it?
Suits most children from about 10: some innuendo around a couple's fancy dress and mild language.