Chain Gang Episode Review
Brief: Faced with the opportunity of buying 250 18 carat gold chains from retired jeweller, Arnie, Del can’t resist. Hastily a business consortium is formed. Everything’s pretty cushty until Arnie’s taken ill just as the deal is about to be sealed and Del is left feeling that all that glitters…
Transmitted: 22.01.1989
Duration: 50 minutes
Viewing Figures: 16.3 million
Del strikes up a cushty deal with a retired jewellery dealer called Arnie. When a case of 18-carat gold chains is offered to him, Del agrees buy them to the tune of £12,500.
Despite Rodney’s objections, Derek ropes Mike, Boycie, Trigger, Albert and… Rodney into a consortium in which no-one can lose.
A spanner is thrown into the works when Arnie collapses at a business lunch, seemingly struck by a heart-attack. The ambulance whisks him away, with both the jewellery and twelve-and-a-half grand still on his person.
Despite being dead, Rodney spots Arnie collapsing and being whisked away from another restaurant.
They’ve been had, but no-one pulls a fast one quicker than the Trotters and revenge is the only dish on the menu at Arnie’s next meal.
Episode Observations
- In Chain Gang, After Arnie has “spoken” to his wife and she tells him about Mr Stavros, and arnie tells Del, Del says “well i reckon that Arnie should keep his Lunch appointment with mr stavros,” yet how does Del know Arnie had a lunch appointment?
- In Chain Gang, Del and the Gang have to borrow money off Rodders to afford the chains, Then Del and Boycie sit opposite Arny but to get the table Del has to bribe the restuarant owner with money.
- In Chain Gang, Del tells Cassy that he remembers her Dad – One blue eye, one brown.. Talks with a squint… Walks with a stutter!”, to which Cassy replies “That’s him!” However, later when we see him this is clearly not the case.
- In Chain Gang, when all the gang including Arnie leave the flat to go to the restaurant to meet Mr Stavros, Rodney decides to stay at the flat and wait for Cassandra to phone him. The next scene shows the gang all watching Arnie in the restaurant waiting for Mr Stavros to arrive. Rodney is sat in the van with Uncle Albert but Rodney decided to stay at the flat so there was no way of him being there.
- In Chain Gang, Boycie puts up seven grand in the flat, yet outside the curry house after he’s been punched this has grown to ‘seven and a half grand in unlaundered money’ according to Del.
- In Chain Gang, when Rodney and Albert are in the van observing Del and Boycie in the Restaurant, a women walks by the shop in the background. On the next camera shot in the Restaurant looking out the women is nowhere to be scene.
- In Chain Gang, When Del is speaking to Arnie in the casino, they come to an agreement about meeting in the car park to discuss the chains, Arnie then hands Del his mineral water, and instead of Del drinking out of his own he drinks out of Arnies.
- In Chain Gang, You can quite easily see AND hear Rodney say:”We’ve got him, we’ve ******* got him”.This was when Albert suggested using the redial button on the mobile to get Arny. Check it out, I was quite shocked this had got through the BBC and the BBFC for a PG certificate.
Chain Gang Script
The script will be downloadable from here
Chain Gang Location
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This was taken on Grove Road , Ealing, on the junction of Oxford Road. Unfortunately there were roadworks outside when this shot was taken. The third photo shows the restaurant on the right, and further ahead the Kings Arms pub that Rodney speeds towards when they begin their chance. The irony of that scene is that the road they are heading down is a dead end, though I’m not entirely sure if it was back at the time it was filmed.
I think Rodney says ‘we’ve finally got him’, not f*****g got him
The woman with the white hair who sits infront of Del and Boycie sees that they are sitting with eachother, then later does not speak up when Boycie pretends to be a doctor and Del Boy arrests him. Although a police officer would nick anyone, even their friend, I still think the woman would have said something.
When Del and his consortium are having a board meeting in the Nags Head realising they have been fleeced by Arnie. Denzil gets introduced to Cassandra, notice how the drinks on Cassandras table go from being nearly full to half finished to nearly full again!!.
Cannot say Ive noticed that – next time I watch the episode I’ll look out for that.
another observation in this episode is that Rodney actually says the F word.
when Albert says to Del: ‘this phone has a re-dial button, press that – and you’ll be in contact with Arnies house’ – watch Rodney, he says ‘yes we’ve got him’, we’ve FFing got him’
The Rodney supposedly swearing observation has been mentioned before and I can’t say for sure that I see it. I just think he says ‘yesss we’ve got him’ or whatever.
I don’t mean to be rude but there should be a basic standard of literacy needed to post episode observations. The amount of times I have to read basic 10 year old style grammar errors really detracts from the site and makes it look so amateurish. Taking an example above:
“….a women walks by the shop in the background. On the next camera shot in the Restaurant looking out the women is nowhere to be scene.”
It’s absolutely ridiculous, and I could find much worse examples elsewhere.
‘In Chain Gang, After Arnie has “spoken” to his wife and she tells him about Mr Stavros, and arnie tells Del, Del says “well i reckon that Arnie should keep his Lunch appointment with mr stavros,” yet how does Del know Arnie had a lunch appointment?’
I’d say Del was using a generalised term here. If the time of day was early to mid-afternoon, and Arnie explains ‘Mr Stavros’ wanted a meeting about the deal, you can bet your bottom dollar (assume) that Arnie may well have met a lunch appointment. Why not, eh?!
When Arnie gets off the phone he does say Stavros is in London to meet him for lunch, so the bullet in the observations is incorrect.
When Arnie is stood in the one eleven club at the start of the episode, You hear the end of a joke he is telling.. where he says “I’ve got to have somewhere to park my bike”
Now i only found this out yesterday, But the full joke, was invented by Billy Connely, here is the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slw08b3bHFE