It seems that in all Rock and Chips was a success. If you missed it it’s still available on BBC Iplayer and available in HD tonight – 30 Dec 2010 at 21:00
Some have said it had just enough humor to make it a perfect balance of drama and yet entertaining. If you haven’t already ready the hug number of reviews then checkout the growing list of positive comments on rock and chips 5 gold rings review
We contacted the BBC and made it clear that the positive response from the majority of fans suggests that a substantial series would be appreciated – It felt like John Sullivan is holding back a lot more laughs and tears for future episodes, so surely the green light should be brightened after a 2nd success and a 3rd episode ready for viewing at the expected 2011 Easter weekend.
The Only Fools and Horses prequel won a peak audience of 5.6million for the BBC on Wednesday.
James Buckley who plays Del Boy was pleased with it’s success and said “I wasn’t trying to do a David Jason impression, but there are very small traits of Del Boy that I tried to put in the part.”
According to most sources a third Rock And Chips episode is due in the spring.
Drama-comedy or a Comedy-drama
Now lets be clear – Rock and Chips is not a sitcom its a Drama-comedy or a Comedy-drama depending on the scene – this is fully confirmed in Johns interview with the BBC
Behind the Rock and Chips Scenes
So we have been able to find out a behind the scenes interview with James Buckley who plays Del (who i thought really excelled last night. James Buckley, the teenage Del Boy, reveals what it was like working with Nicholas Lyndhurst and meeting David Jason on the set of Rock & Chips. – you’ll enjoy this…
So lets look at the origins of Rock and Chips
Also the BBC web site caught up with John Sullivan – you can read the full details on the BBC web site – http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/comedy/2010/12/john-sullivan-on-rock-chips-five-gold-rings.shtml
“The 90-minute Rock & Chips film which was aired last January ended on the 2nd November, 1960, with the Trotter Family ensconced in their new high-rise council flat with the addition of the just born baby Rodney.
We now join them a couple of months later and find the family more impoverished than ever; Joan lost both her part-time jobs the moment The Ritz Cinema management and the Peckham Town Hall hierarchy discovered she was pregnant – in those days pregnancy was viewed as a sackable offence.
Reg Trotter has had his dole money stopped and Ted Trotter, is waiting out the next 8 years until he gets his state pension.
But despite this things are actually looking up. Del, who, although “officially” still at school, has a profitable, albeit unlicensed, spot on the corner of Peckham Rye market selling American records – records which come from the crews of various American ships which moor in the London docks, that aren’t even available in the UK shops yet and therefore making a lot of money which pays the family’s bills. And Joan’s old job of ice-cream girl at the Ritz has become available and she is desperately looking for a baby-sitter so she can get back to work again.
The one cloud on the horizon from the 12th floor balcony of Sir Walter Raleigh House (it’ll be a few more years before it’s renamed Nelson Mandela House) is the possible release of Freddy “The Frog” Robdal who has been remanded in The Scrubs for the robbery on a jewellers shop in Margate during The Jolly Boys’ Outing. Only two people (Joan and Fred) know that he is the biological father of the eight week old Rodney and Joan fears (knows) that Fred is a possessive man and may come looking for what he sees as his.
And indeed, within a few hours of his release, Fred comes looking for her – but has he come looking to cause mayhem or, in the paraphrased words of the old American folk song, has “the Frog come a courting?”
Again, as with the film, we will meet characters who until now have only been talked about, like Alberto Balsam (above) – the Spanish car-trader who Boycie is working for as a car-cleaner and from where he attains his vocation. Alberto sets himself up as something of a mentor for the teenagers, one of life’s experts on all matters masculine, advising them on women, courtship and seduction.
As with the 90-minute film, we continue the two main thrusts of the passionate but intricate (and eventually lethal) love affair between Joan and Fred and the chrysalis-like beginnings of Del and the boys (the Hounds) as they step out on the pathway of life – where we will watch in cringing incredulity the naive foul-ups, in romance and business, that all young men make – and so the saga moves on to its inevitable and pre-ordained tragic, farcical, sad and blackly-funny conclusion.
To sum up this Christmas episode:
Joan begs Fred to leave her alone and never come near her again and then seduces him, and Del gets engaged three times in the same week.
Happy Christmas from 1960 and love & peace to you all.
John Sullivan”
Phil Daniels who plays Grandad. He portrays Grandad so so well you could almost think it was Leonard Pearce!
Back in January 2010
Creator John Sullivan previously told the BBC in detail of the concept of Rock and Chips…
Rock & Chips is advertised as the prequel to Only Fools and Horses, but it’s much more than just a prequel. It’s an opportunity to solve many mysteries, bury some lies and put a few ghosts to rest.
The first episode of OFAH (“Big Brother”) was transmitted on 8th September, 1981 and within the first two minutes Del had evoked their late mother’s memory to disarm Rodney. And captured there, in that little living room on the 12th floor of Nelson Mandela House, was the heart of the whole series which, although I wasn’t to know at the time, was set to run for the next 22 years.
Del, Rodney and Grandad, representing the three ages of man, lived there in a state of almost-happy guerilla warfare and yet the most important person in the flat was never, ever seen; it was the spirit of Del’s (and Rodney’s) beloved mother Joan who had passed away 17 years before, and throughout the run of the series Del constantly referred to her and past events within the Trotter Family.
But much of his historical information was at best contradictory, and at worse outright lies. We were left with a situation where the only person who really knew what had happened was an unreliable witness, so I decided to return to those misty days of 1960 to meet all those characters we’d only ever heard about: Joan’s husband (and Del’s father) Reg Trotter. Was he really as horrible as Del always described him? The younger Grandad, what was he like back then? And what part did the villain Freddy Robdal play in the Trotters’ lives?
We also get the chance to meet the teenage Del Boy, Boycie, Trigger, Denzil, Jumbo Mills, the already snidey Roy Slater, and Del’s “bestest” friend, Albie Littlewood. It was round about 1960 that the teenagers of Great Britain invented sex and Del and the gang are enthusiastic supporters of this wonderful innovation – they see it as the future – and try to introduce every girl in the area to the new fashion.
This back-story to the Trotter saga and all its ghosts has been locked away somewhere in my mind for the last couple of decades and I thought it was about time I released them all and gave them their time in the sun. So on Sunday 24th January at 9pm on BBC One I hope you’ll join them in 1960 and embark on a 50 year journey back to the truth.
You must make a decent series BBC
Rock and Chips is by far the best drama comedy for a long time, and i love John Sullivans amazing ability to tie up loose ends
keep it going !
Love Only Fools & Horses, one of the best, if not thee best British comedy series ever made. Hope John Sullivan & co. create a lot more than three episodes of Rock & Chips because it’s the next best thing. It’s great that they kept Nicholas Lyndhurst from the original cast – makes it that bit better.. keep up the good work guys & keep creating episodes!!
I’ve watched so much Only Fools this Christmas, I almost bought a 3 wheel van yesterday! Time for a break methinks….
Sounds like you have got it bad!
I sure do buddy. Enjoyed Rock and Chips so much it got me thinking. Maybe I should own a three wheeled van!! The wife snuffed out that idea sharpish!!! But someday, when theres a few quid laying in the bank and I need something to cheer me up, on that day, I’ll get one. Lovely Jubbly!
I’m really happy to see John Sullivan making a new series of Rock and Chips and the BBC airing this great show! This show has a lot to offer fans of Only Fools And Horses as it goes into details about the meaning of past shows. Here in the US not to many people know of Only Fools And Horses or Rock And Chips so I tell everybody about these outstanding TV shows. Most Americans love British comedy, it’s one of a kind and I love it and I’m sure all those I’ve told also will! Only Fools And Horses is an English ICON and hopefully Rock and Chips will follow in it’s foot steps. I can’t wait for the next episode of Rock And Chips this Easter and can only hope the BBC will begin airing a weekly or bi-weekly series of this great British Comedy!!!
luvly jubbly !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! cant wait to see next one!!!!!!!!!!!!