If They Could See Us Now Episode Review
Brief: Rodney and Del are living the high life. Even investing money wisely. Then suddenly it all goes wrong.Uncle Albert who had been living with Elsie Patridge dies. Dels money is all lost due to a stock market crash. Del is declared bankrupt owing almost 50K. Will Dels efforts of winning a game show “GoldRush” help or hinder Rodneys efforts to start a family? “The Trotters are back!”
Transmitted: 25.12.2001
Duration: 71 minutes
Viewing Figures: 20.3 million
Episode Observations
- In If they could Just before Kenneth Mcdonald passed away, he told the producers not to say that his character had died so they said he was i prison.
- In If they could when Del leaves rodney and cassandra in the flat after asking rodney to stay in, they go into the bedroom, the telly is off and there is music on. when Rodney answers the phone to jonathon ross the telly is on full volume.
- In If they could there is a scene where it shows Goldrush playing in the pub (where boycie, trig etc see Del), as it zooms towards the telly, in the bottom right of the screen you can see the actor that plays Maczine in Coronation Street posing as an extra!!
- In If they could see us now, has a clock on the wall of Dels flat which is clearly a BBC prop reused from Denzils flat in “Who’s a pretty boy”.
- In If they could see us now, Rodney is seen abroad yet in who wants to be a millionaire rodney is not allowed a passport as he smoked some illegal drugs.
- In If they could see us now, when del leaves rodney and cassandra in the flat after asking rodney to stay in, they go into the bedroom, the telly is off and there is music on. when rodney answers the phone to jonathon ross the telly is on full volume.
- In If they could see us now, In this episode the Capris registration is CCR 412W yet in He aint heavy hes my uncle the registration is UYD 177R!
- In If they could see us now, there is a scene where Micky Pearce is in the pub about to make a prank call to Del, if you look closly over Boycies shoulder you an see that the wall paper is not straight!!!
- In If they could see us now, when Rodney and Cassandra come back from the restaurant Del talks about Grandad having his first fit in that bed but how could he because the bed in ‘If they could see us now?’ is a double and the one Grandad slept in ‘Homesick’ was a single.
- In If they could see us now, When Del calls Rodney in the flat when he is appearing in the TV show Goldrush, Del has 20 seconds to speak to Rodney, the time that they actually spent on the phone was 30 seconds!
- In If they could see us now, Rodney is talking to Del about Uncle Albert, and he says that Albert could not go on holiday with them because he didn’t have a passport. However, in To Hull and Back Del asks Albert if he has brought all the passports when he gets to Hull and Albert says they are in his bag. Albert would obviously had to have had one when he went to Amsterdam.
- In If they could see us now, John Sullivan brings in another past link by scripting Elsie Patridge from “Sickness and Health” as being Alberts partener before he died.
- In If they could see us now, when they are flying in Concord the seat behind Rodney is empty Then when you see it again Damien is in it.
If They Could See Us Now Script
Major problems
ITV made it difficult by pulling out there support for the agreement of Chris Tarrant and the use of the popular quiz game “Who wants to be a Millionaire”. Add to this the difficult fact that the episodehad to start with the Trotters as Millionaires, then with great sadness Uncle Albert had died so the script needed to cover his sad loss and then before filming the episode, long term character Mike Fisher also passed away. Finally the critics mad no effort to make allowances and so this didn’t have the start to a new trilogy expected.
Interesting Facts
A sketch involving Rodney and a dirty mag was also missed out of the final version.
Also when Del and Rodney were in the office, Del leans on the side of a printer which spools loads of paper all over the floor, this never made it to the final cut.
In the trailers for this episode a stretch 3 wheeled van was shown but never made the final cut. It never realy existed, just a superimposed picture.
This episode was dedicated to the memory of Buster Merryfield (1920-1999) and Kenneth McDonald (1950-2001).
The producers had to say Mike was arrested for deforging the brewery because Kenneth McDonald didn’t want them to say he had died
This has just been voted the most watched television show of the decade in the UK, even beating all sports events!