Our take
The first of the feature-length Christmas Day adventures, and it plays like a caper film with the brothers dropped into it. The road trip to the coast and the hopeless sea crossing are the highlights, and Jim Broadbent's policeman makes a great sour villain. It is long and a little loose, but it set the pattern for the big Christmas episodes that followed, and the boat scenes are among the show's best.
What happens
Boycie and his associate Abdul want a courier to bring a diamond back from Holland, and offer Del a cut of fifteen thousand pounds on a stone worth ten times that. Del says no, then yes, and drafts in a reluctant Rodney. The plan wobbles when Del hears that his old enemy Roy Slater, now a Detective Chief Inspector, has Boycie and Abdul in his sights. A hurried meeting in the back of Denzil's lorry goes wrong when Denzil climbs in and drives off to Hull with Del still inside, with Rodney following. Stuck on the coast, the Trotters hire a boat and summon Uncle Albert by train to navigate them across the North Sea to Amsterdam. Counterfeit money, Albert's hazy memory and two rough crossings follow before Slater catches up with them. Del, as ever, comes out of it with the last laugh.
Can the kids watch it?
Best from about 10: a crime caper with some mild swearing, smuggling and peril at sea, played for laughs.
Cast and crew
Starring
- David Jason as Del
- Nicholas Lyndhurst as Rodney
- Buster Merryfield as Uncle Albert
- Roger Lloyd-Pack as Trigger
- Paul Barber as Denzil
- John Challis as Boycie
- Jim Broadbent as Roy Slater
- Roy Heather as Sid
Guest stars
- Tony Anholt as Abdul
Writer
- John Sullivan
Director
- Ray Butt