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CHRISTMAS SPECIALS
Only Fools and Horses: "Dates"
Sunday 25/12/88, BBC1
by Robin Carmody
December 2000
 

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Great television, and great popular television are two different things. They have different criteria for greatness, different indications of worth, different aims and intents. Put crudely, great "pure" television, not shown on the mainstream channels and not aspiring to high ratings, can and frequently does define itself by its timelessness, its removal from any trends, its lack of connections to the era in which it is produced and (initially) consumed. Great popular television, on the other hand works best when it combines instantly-recognisable time-capsule status with superb integral qualities; the two working perfectly together to make it a key part of our shared cultural memory and history. Only Fools and Horses is great popular television.

The OFAH episode "Dates" was transmitted on Christmas Day 1988 on BBC1 as a prelude to the sixth series which was due to start early the following year. It achieved an audience of 16.6 million people (even though it was paired up with a Songs of Praise special) and acts now as an instant reminder of the feel and atmosphere of 1988. This is partly because at this time episodes of OFAH were filmed only a few weeks before transmission, giving them a real feeling of the moment (filming of this episode began on 7 November 1988 - only 48 days before transmission). This was particularly noticeable in the following series when records playing in the Nag's Head could also be heard in the pop charts at the same time. That's why, in the car chase between Rodney and the rockers, where Rodney manages a superb mock-"hard" persona, the metallers' car is blasting Status Quo's Burning Bridges (On and Off and On Again), which reached its chart peak in the week of this episode's original transmission.

Many scenes in "Dates" are memorable for their culture-clash, especially where we first see Del Boy in the office of computer dating agency "Technomatch", his pre-'80s proletarian brashness contrasting wonderfully with the ultra-'80s agent of the company (played by Christopher Stanton), complete with rounded blue glasses and anglepoise lamp. The intercutting between Rodney's car chase and Del's lunch at the London Hilton with Raquel is stunningly effective, and the realisation that Del and his date have both faked their backgrounds (Del as the international trader "Derek Duvalle" and Raquel as an actress) tells us much about the times it reflects. Later on, the reaction of the regulars in the Nag's Head when they realise the real life of Del's allegedly sophisticated and middle-class date, as she appears as a stripogram girl for Uncle Albert's birthday surprise, is a highpoint of public humiliation in comedy. Del's reaction outside is likewise a highpoint of anger and rage. Indeed, it turns one of the hardest sitcom tricks - to play games with class and social standing without seeming predictable and clichéd.

Of course it's a classic episode of OFAH in every way possible. The pub scenes early in the episode are typically quickfire and memorable, and with a perfect little period reference of the type that always marks out John Sullivan's work (most of us, except when desperately trying to remember whether TSW made any networked programmes, have probably forgotten that there was ever such a thing as That's My Dog! which is referred to here). The plot is superbly constructed; the later pub conversation between Del and Raquel is memorable in its poignancy, as they attempt to work out where to go next, and it's all perfectly concluded when two police officers enter, enquiring about the speeding during the car chase. Del assumes it's another hoax and pulls open the policewoman's uniform, he then spots the police car outside and we see him being driven off as Raquel leaves for the Far East, expecting to meet him before she goes - A Slow Boat to China playing in the background. In the context of the first transmission it seemed as though Raquel might never appear again and the Trotters' lives were to remain entirely masculine, laddish when that was deeply unfashionable, and self-contained (Cassandra, of course, appeared two weeks later in "Yuppy Love"). However in retrospect we are aware of Raquel's reappearance a year later in "The Jolly Boys' Outing", and her influence on the direction of Del's character for the remainder of the series' life.

"Dates" is a superb episode all round, and the period feeling is a subtle background presence, rather than overt and now slightly embarrassing as can be the case in "Yuppy Love" and to a lesser extent some of the episodes that followed at the start of 1989 (the attitudes taken to mobile phones, videos and home computers, for example). Christmas TV as undated classic and brilliant time-capsule simultaneously: "Dates" conforms to both descriptions.