Dates Episode Reviews
Brief: Delboy meets an actress, Raquel, through the Technomatch Dating Agency; Rodney goes cruising (in a three wheel van) with Nervous Nerys ; and Uncle Albert is given a surprise birthday party. But who is the stnpper that Del has booked?
Transmitted: 27.11.1988
Duration: 80 minutes
Viewing Figures: 16.6 million
Uncle Albert’s birthday looms on the horizon, and Del Boy books The Nag’s Head for private drinks and a party.
Trigger surprises everyone by inviting a date he met through an agency. This arouses Del’s curiosity and soon he too has a date from the match-making company.
Rodney takes the initiative by going for the ‘James Dean’ look, though this ends in disaster due to an encounter with some punks.
Things look rosy for Del though. His date with Raquel Turner (unemployed actress) goes swimmingly… until it turns out she is works as a strippergram twice a week. Despite a small run in with the police, love conquers all in the end.
Episode Observations
- In Dates, Del storms out of The Nags Head after finding out that the stripper he booked was Raquel he opens and slams the van door. When he closes it you notice the window is open. Why would you go into the pub for the night and leave all the windows open?
- In Dates, on the video cover they spell duval with an E. Del clearly states no E in the episode.
- In Dates, the cafe is the one seen in the 1982 episode “The Long Legs Of The Law” but in the 1985 Christmas Special “To Hull and Back” it is a completely different cafe, and the same applies with “A Royal Flush”, then in Dates, it goes back to the old cafe. Make your mind up Sid where you want to base your cafe.
- In Dates, when Albert says to Rodney about his date” where u taking her scrumping” as he says those line del boy says them, i think he was reading alberts part in his head but didnt realise that he was lip reading.
- In Dates, when del first hands over his flowers to raquel, we see that they are a fairly big bunch and they are mainly the same colour, but later on when we are in her flat they have changed completely in size and their colour and we know they are the same flowers because she even says they are.
- In Dates, The police station in this episode is the same building the BBC used for the bank in the 1984 Young Ones episode ‘Summer Holiday’.
- In Dates, At the end of the episode when Raquel leaves carrying her suitcase, it’s the same house Vimal lived at in “Cash and Curry”.
- In Dates, When Del’s waiting for Raquel under the clock at Waterloo Station, you can clearly see he’s had is Hair cut,yet for the rest of the episode it’s the same length as it was before.
- In Dates, when Albert asks Rodney where he’s taking Nerys on their Date,watch Del when Albert says “where you taking her,strumping” you can clearly see Dell Miming the words!
- In Dates, Just After The Scene Where Rodney “Jumps” The Bridge you See The Van Come Around The Corner And There Is NO ONE Sat Next To Rodney!
- In Dates, In The Scene In The Pub Near The Begining, When Trigger Walks In In His Blue Suit Watch As He Goes To Grab A Glass All Ready On The Bar, But It Goes Wrong As “Nervous” Nerris Takes It Away Before He Reaches It!
- In Dates, When rodney jumps over the bridge followed by the thugs you see the roof rack come off, but in the very next shot the roofrack is firmly attached!
- In Dates, towards the end when the police are entering the pub, you can clearly see thet the police woman is wearing a black tie but after del has ripped her top open there is no sign of the tie!
- In Dates, When the police question Del just before he leaves go to Raquels, he thinks that Albert has set him up.There is a brief shot of the police car parked outside.Behind it is Dels van.There is no way the police car could park there with the van being right behind it so the van must have been parked there after the police car.
- In Dates, regarding the joke ordering a bum and rack and being lucky not to have ordered a Bucks Fizz – was also used in a Royal Flush!.
- In Dates, the scene where Rodney is speeding away from the people in the red car with Nervous Nerys, Rodney dodges the car in front and driving over the cones while going through traffic lights you can see a stunt man driving the van with a inflatable doll ment to be Nerys.
- In Dates, look at the scene where Rodney and nerys are in the van zooming over the hill geting chased my the yobs look closely you can see a ramp where the stunt man went over, just before they took off.
- In Dates, at the beginning when Mike and Boycie are in the pub, Mike is reading a paper.If you look at the back page headline you’ll see it reads”HOWDY PARTNER”. Later in the episode,weeks later,when Del meets Raquel in Sid’s cafe he is reading the same paper.
- In Dates, when Rodney picks up Nervous Nerris in the van you see him taking a puff from his roll-up, but clearly it is not lit, there is no smoke to be seen until the scene outside the van when stage smoke wafts across the camera.
- In Dates, When Del is first seen leaving the nags head to see Trigger with a girl, the front of the nags head has no turning to the right of the pub. But when he is taken away by the police car later on, they come out of the back of the pub & down a street on the right of the nags head…fast road works!
Dates Script
The script will be downloadable from here
Did You Know?
Dates is John Sullivans favourite episode
Dates won a BAFTA ‘Best Comedy’ Award in March 1989.
On Location
A different view of the stunt being filmed.
It is in fact filmed around Brabazon Road in Filton, Bristol. The scene where Rodney jumps a red light and the police car hits another car is SHELLARD ROAD, Filton, BS34 7LU and the scenes where Rodney drives past Trigger sweeping leaves and where he almost hits the lads in the red car is Roycroft Road which adjoins Shellard Road. You can see a very yellow house in the background of these sceness which in reality makes it a VERY short car chase!!!
I live in Shellard Road and although the old grey houses in the background of these scenes have now been replaced with new houses, the lay-by (parking spaces) in which Rodney drives through some road-cones are still here. It is definitely not Richmond, Surrey like your site states.
The dual-carriageway Rodney and Nerys drive down is the A4174 which is about 50metres away from my house at the end of Shellard Road.
I havent figured out where the railway bridge is yet but I guarantee it wont be far away. It doesnt seem the producers went very far to make these scenes and there is a railway line nearby too.
I will email you a photo soon if you wish so you can add it to your site.
By Andy George
PS, you can see all the roads in the map below. (and even the railway line!)
Dates Location
This road appears in Dates during the chase by the gang of “punks” in the middle of the episode. It’s actually Talbot Road, Iseworth, Richmond. The first image shows the bump that is seen when Rodney flies over the road being chased, the scound is where the roadworks were seen during the scene.
The scene with Del and the computer dating agency is 46 Old Market Street, Bristol.
This is the Goose at the Flyer pub and was used as the Nags Head in Dates. Interestingly 2 pubs were used in that episode. This one is found on Gloucester Road, Bishopston, Bristol.
This is the Police Station in Dates when Del’s arrested and can be found in Gloucester Road, Bishopston, Bristol.
The Hilton Hotel, Park Lane, London, is where Del take Raquel for there first meeting and slap-up meal.
Trigger goes for Italian with his date at 187 Gloucester Road, Bishopston, Bristol.
In Dates the hostel Raquel stays at is the same hostel Vimmal stays at in Cash and Curry.
In Dates isnt the railway bridge in either Bonnington Walk Lockleaze Bristol Or Constable Road Lockleaze Bristol.
Googling Tessa Peake-Jones singing at the end of this episode bought me here … 99% sure it was her now. And rewound to see Del Boy mouthing Albert’s line … you’re right!
I noticed in heroes and villains Rodney say let go then in he ain’t heavy he mind uncle when he get mugged he say again let go
who is singing the slow boat to china song when Del gets nicked?
is it Raquel?
Yes, I belive it is indeed Tessa Peake-Jones singing that song. It sounds very much like her singing voice.
i live in bristol: any idea where the location is where rodney picks up nerris out side of her house..
In Dates, when Albert says to Rodney about his date” where u taking her scrumping” as he says those line del boy says them…
WELL SPOTTED!
This is the first episode with the Nags Head’s new interior design. The door leading to the back room seen in “to Hull and back” and “Video Nasty” has been removed, the old archway to the right of the bar which led to the entrance in all pre “Dates” episodes has been blocked in and wall seats put there (the seats Del and Rodney are sat on when Raquel begins stripping), and the back wall now has a window which looks out to the car park, the car park being where the old back room would have been. The window may have been added espesially for this episode just for the sake of the big joke at the end when Delboy sees the police car through the window. There again showing the genius of Fools and Horses. The scripts are so good and storyline twists so important that even the set design has no limits poetic licence!!
I have to say that it’s quite bizarre that the OFAH production team mocked up quite a few different looking Nags Head pubs. They didn’t get it consistently right for a good few series.
Out of all the ‘Nags Head’ set-ups, my favorite is definitely the one featured in To Hull and Back. A really classic looking drinking pub with real characters and a good sense of an atmosphere.
Agreed.
In Dates, the arresting officers enter the pub from the back door where their “panda car” is parked. Yet, they arrest Del and take him out of the front entrance and walk him around to the car park in the back. Ironically when they entered the pub you can see a sign above the back door that reads “EXIT TO CAR PARK”.