Heroes and Villians Episode Review
Brief: Del has been refused a grant to refit his Kitchen, Rodney & Cassandra are on a heavy schedule trying for a baby. Then they get invited to a Fancy dress Party so they attend as Batman & Robin. Trouble is , with a dodgy answer phone no one told them the party was cancelled….. One of the Classics.
Transmitted: 25.12.1996
Duration: 60 minutes
Viewing Figures: 21.3 million
Rodney’s fertility schedule is wearing him down. Such is Cassandra’s need to have a baby, he buys her a rabbit, Roger, to care for until a little one arrives.
Del has a shipment of Latvian alarm clocks he can’t shift and his home improvement grant has been rejected.
It’s Rodders’ birthday, and Del buys him a cheap gold bracelet inscribed ‘Rooney’. Finding themselves on a rare boys night out, they dress up as Batman and Robin for a fancy dress party held for a local publican. En route, they prevent Councillor Murray from being mugged.
They arrive at the party, to discover it’s actually a wake, and that ‘fancy dress’ meant ‘dress well’.
The following day Del is awarded a bravery medal for tackling another mugger, and Cassandra has good news: She’s pregnant.
Episode Observations
- In Heroes and Villains, In the scene where Del Boy looks at his answer machine and claims “thats the last time I buy anything of that Ronnie Nelson”, its a pity he didnt recall the last time he got tucked up by Ronnie Nelson in Dange UXD regarding the video recorders.Maybe he would have thought twice about buying them!
- In Heroes and Villains, If you look carefully at the copy of the Daily Mirror that Rodney’s reading the headline says ‘Freddie Starr ate my Trotter’! its true, have a look!
- In Heroes and Villains, When Del and rodney are going to the party and the van breaks down, Del first tells rodney to get out of the van and check out what is wrong. Then when Del gets out, rodney gets out aswell. Although he was reluctant to get out before. Then Del tells Rodney to get back in because he looks like a ‘right wally’, Even though he told him to get out in the first place!
- In Heroes and Villains, on the bit were they break down in the van in there costume ,theres no front window in the van.
- In Heroes and Villains, When Rodney and Del are in the Garage in “Time On Our Hands”, Rodney mentions the dream he had “a couple of weeks ago”. He also says that Cassy lost the baby “a fortnight ago”. In “Heros & Villains” Rodney has the dream before he even tells everyone that they are expecting a baby, so if what Rodney says is true, technically they would have already lost the baby before he had told anyone about it.
- In Heroes and Villains, Del’s hair is medium brown, whereas in the previous episode “Heroes And Villains” it is jet black.
- In Heroes and Villains, This is the second time i’ve noticed this, the other time is in Fatal Extraction. When Del is pretending to be hurt by Rodney’s accusation, he says “here i am with my child and my WIFE gone away…”. Is there something Mr Sullivan forgot to tell us?
- In Heroes and Villains, at the scene were Rodney is geting chased by the villain watch the villain start to slow down before he’s out of view (behind the houses) it happens a few times before Del decides to cut him off.
- In Heroes and Villains, Rauquel visits her mum and dad whom she hasn’t seen for years, yet in “Jolly boys outing” she indicates that she has no family left.
- In Heroes and Villains, Del is turned down a council grant to do up the kitchen but in “Mother Natures Son”, he has brought the flat off the council.So why would he get one as a private owner?, and not a tenant?
- In Heroes and Villains, at the time Damien appears in the lounge with a baseball cap on asking Rodney if he wants to play war, the shot shows him with his cap slanted to the left, next shot its to the right and finally it ends up being straight on his head. (He was obviously quite fidgety behind the scenes.)
- In Heroes and Villains, there seems a very long time lapse between the grand entrants into the main room at the fancy dress ball and the point where Del and Rodney meet Boycie in the hall way.
- In Heroes and Villains, In Heroes and Villains Rodney buys Cassandra a rabbit because she’s feeling broody yet in 3 Men, a Woman and a Baby she says she’s allergic to fur.
- In Heroes and Villains, When Del and Rodney run in to the main room, there is a group of guests behind them, surely they would of said something about it not being a fancy dress ball.
- In Heroes and Villains, Was Rodney’s Nightmare at the start of the episode based on Back to the Future Part 2 ? It looked very like a parody of the ‘Biffworld’ scene.
Heroes and Villians Script
The script will be downloadable from here
Did You Know?
The original script featured a hidden treasure sub-plot. ‘I dropped the idea but kept the Batman and Robin image. The missing treasure eventually became the Harrison watch, which made Del and Rodney millionaires’ says Sullivan.
Heroes and Villians Locations
Upper York Street, Bristol is the area used for the famous shot of Del and Rodney dressed up as Batman and Robin in Heroes and Villains.
The newspaper reads, Freddie starr stole my trotter, not ate my trotter haha
Rodney’s nightmare has nothing to do with Back to The Future II – it’s a direct parody of Dennis Potter’s Cold Lazarus (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Lazarus ) which would have been familiar to audiences as it aired earlier in 1996.
According to Del, in Rodney’s dream at the beginning of the episode, Damien is talking to “President Reeves in Washington” We then see Damien on the phone to the president where he calls him Keanu.
I’m watching Hereos and Villains again and after all these years I’ve only just noticed that Del’s been wearing a belt buckle that looks a lot like a Batman logo the whole time.
Coincidence or foreshadowing?
Thanks Mixer Ive not noticed that either
Do you have a screenshot from the area of the episode you mean- sounds awesome if its the case?
You’ve said that by fancy dress, it meant dress well. Actually it did mean fancy dress (and there was a competition) but it was cancelled because Harry had died so they were holding a wake instead. Del and Rodney didn’t get the message because it was left on their dodgy answer machine.
Only just noticed this, in the final scene where they are celebrating, you can spot the ‘Save the Whales’ charity tub from Fatal Extraction at the back of the room. Minor observation but felt the need to share!
Rodney says ” I’m not going out dressed like some zoom”
What is this rhyming slang?
Zoom lolly wally
It was not the mirror newspaper that had the Freddie Starr headline but the daily star.
What happened to Rodney and Cassandra’s rabbit after this episode?
For a precise location of where Batman and Robin save the Councillor from the muggers, look for the crossroads of Upper York Street and a small cobbled road called Backfields.
If you are on Google Street View place yourself in Backfields looking towards Upper York Street. There is a small car park on your right which is where the Councillor was getting into her car and the old church on your left with the boarded up door is where she walked out from saying goodnight to the security guard.
Thats a great observation sqlartist – never noticed it before
I only just noticed Del wearing a Batman logo gold belt buckle with his jeans whilst in the kitchen early in the episode.
anyone know what church features at the end of the frogs legacy?
Heroes and Villians started off as one episode, and as the ideas grew it ended up being the now much loved 1996 Trilogy.