Mother Nature’s Son Episode Review
Brief: Del Boy’s latest scheme is to bottle tap water and sell it as ‘Peckham Spring’ water. It’s a great success thanks to Rodneys mate Myles. But when Rodney finds out about it he knows that it is illegal and that they must stop. But hang on – where did Del get the loan to start the venture? Maybe he’d better go along with it after all.
Transmitted: 25.12.1992
Duration: 65 minutes
Viewing Figures: 20.1 million
At Del and Rodney are strapped for Christmas cash. To make matters worse, while Cassandra finally has her promotion, Raquel is suffering from post-natal depression.
Rodney is concerned that Del has lost his drive. When confronted, Derek explains that on top of his woes, the council have approved his application to buy their flat in Nelson Mendela House, doubling the rent. On top of that, Grandad’s allotment has become a health hazard and he has to clear it.
While clearing the allotment Del discovers several barrels of yellow liquid. Enlisting Trigger and Denzil, they are disposed of during the night.
Finally spotting a gap in the market, Del decides to bottle tap water and sell it as Peckham Spring Water.
Back in the money both couples enjoy a romantic evening… until they see a news flash about a major water contamination, caused by Del’s barrels.
- In Mother Natures Son, In the allotment scene, where Myles gets up after testing the soil, if you look in the background, you can see fileds behind the housing estate. And Only Fools and Horses is meant to be set in Peckham in London, where the nearest bit of countryside is about 10 miles away.
- In Mother Natures Son, In the scene where Uncle Albert comes in and starts to ‘eat’ Del’s sandwich, many have commented that strangely he never bites into it. This is true and I believe that he was scripted to actually eat it. But look at how long Del spends cooking it. It’s not cooked properly! So perhaps Buster Merryfield got cold feet as he didn’t fancy food poisoning.
- In Mother Natures Son, When Del First Goes down to the allotment, what are the odds that 2 of your best mates are there at the same time (Trigger & Denzil)? anyway why was trigger on the allotment there is no road there!
- In Mother Natures Son, you can see Del entering the shed and leaves the door open, yet next seen the door is open slightly, what a plonker!
- In Mother Natures Son, when Denzil drives past the alotment, Del, Uncle Albert & Rodney have it in there minds that they can use Denzil’s van to remove the barrels of toxic waste, but in the Nag’s Head when Rodney is talking to Mike and Boyice, Rodney thinks Del got in some experts instead of Denzil and Trigger.
- In Mother Natures Son, when Rodney is having his dream when he is holding Damian in his arms it shows the reflection. He is holding his arms the wrong way.
- In Mother Natures Son, in the scene where the Trotter’s check in to the hotel in Brighton, the porter is carrying Del Boy’s leopard skin suitcase. This however, is the same suitcase that was stolen previously in Miami Twice Part 2!
- In Mother Natures Son, When Del and Rodney are browsing around Miles’ health food shop, Del is complaining about the prices of the items. He then notices the range of spring waters and is stunned that they actually bottle water and sell it. If he is so negative about this water, why has he bought it previously? In Class ’62, Roy wants to go in the kitchen for water but Racquel is in there so Del stops him and says “Here you are look, you can have some of this trendy water,” and pours a glass of Perrier spring water!
- In Mother Natures Son, When the Trotter household turns into the Peckham Spring production line, watch when Rodney goes out to Racquel after talking to Del. All the bottles that have been filled up with tap water and are now moving along the line for racquel to put tops on are all filled with unequal amounts. Surely to at least try and look pucker, they should be all filled the same, but then again, this is Del Boy we are talking about!
- In Mother Natures Son, Right at the beginning of the episode when Rodney is dreaming about the Christmas party in the Nag’s Head, he picks up Damien and takes him to the mirror only to see him vanish from his arms in the reflection. Just as he takes him to the mirror listen carefully. There is a very strange voice that says “HEY RODNEY!” Is this the “devil” in Damien?
- In Mother Natures Son, In one of the scenes in the Nag’s Head, Boycie is talking with Mike about Peckham Spring being shoddy. If you look carefully in the background there is a long haired lout having a pint with his mates. He then turns round to reveal himself- it is Robbie Williams the singer. See for yourself.
- In Mother Natures Son, at the part where Densil and Trigger wave at Del in the car park look very carefully you’ll see that the glowing patch on their hands moves slightly indicating that it was superimposed afterwards.
- In Mother Natures Son, Del has brought the flat off the council. but in”heroes and villains” he is turned down a council grant to do up the kitchen.So why would he get one as a private owner?, and not a tenant?
- In Mother Natures Son, just before Raquel moans of all the junk Dels left in Damiens room, she is seen walking from the bathroom across to Dels room leaving the Dels bedroom door open. Yet in the same scene when Raquel enters Damiens room complaining of the junk, you can see in the background Dels bedroom door is closed.
- In Mother Natures Son, Del goes into the kitchen to make a bacon sandwich and talks to Rodney about his “Problem”, after being showered by Damiens weetabix, Uncle Albert enters the kitchen. Del then leaves his sandwich unattended where Albert appears to eat it, but in fact doesn’t take a bite at all, very strange!
- In Mother Natures Son, when Del and Raquel are in Damien’s room you can see a box of Crowning Glory wigs that Del tried to sell in “3 Men, a Woman and a Baby”. However ‘Crowning Glory’ on the box in Mother Nature’s Son is printed in a different style to that on the boxes in 3 Men, a Women and a Baby.
- In Mother Natures Son, When Albert is talking about HOW A WIG SAVED HIS LIFE DURING THE WAR… watch closely and you will see that the continuity is all wrong!His hands shift places!
Mother Nature’s Son Script
The script will be downloadable from here
Did You Know?
The idea for the script was based on a real incident where people had there water supply closed as something had been dumped in a nearby resevoir
Yes, that bacon was defenetly RAW that Del cooked. If I remember correctly Del only had it frying on the pan for about a minute, or maybe barely just over 1 minute.
I think the kiss of life would have revived those rashers
ive just read the notes when noticing the points about the alotment scene and i can tell you that back in 1992 i was 21 years old and late in the evening i was walking along our main road in brighton when looking up at the top of an alotment nearby when i saw the spotlight of the set where they done the night scene with denzel and trigger,i also noticed when watching the series in the alotment i could see in the distance the polytechnic college in the lewes road and also the bakers forfars at the top of hill,also the nags head was converted from a local pub in brighton called the admiral napier in elm grove brighton.
Does anyone know the name/artist of the song being played in Miles’ organic shop??
It sounds like a jazzy instramental.
Does anyone know the name of the song when they arrive at the hotel?
“Money” sung by The Beatles.
If you mean the instrumental track that is on the DVD and VHS release that replaces the track ‘Money’ by the Beatles, it is Rhythm And Blues by Henry Worth and Phil And Pickett, from the Carlin Music library.
What has always fascinated me with this great special, is the lack of continuity of this story-line in later specials.
Surely Del and Rodney would have been banged up and put away for quite a long time. Even if they somehow backed down on the deal, Miles would have found a way to source the ‘Peckham Spring’ himself and quickly realise it was all a con and thus, would have grassed the Trotters to the police.
I know each episode of OFAH doesn’t really relate to the previous one in terms of storyline, but this one was pretty big!
•In Mother Natures Son, in the scene where the Trotter’s check in to the hotel in Brighton, the porter is carrying Del Boy’s leopard skin suitcase. This however, is the same suitcase that was stolen previously in Miami Twice Part 2!
–Maybe he bought another one? Just a thought..
•In Mother Natures Son, When Del and Rodney are browsing around Miles’ health food shop, Del is complaining about the prices of the items. He then notices the range of spring waters and is stunned that they actually bottle water and sell it. If he is so negative about this water, why has he bought it previously?
–Perhaps Del bought his trendy water at rock bottom prices?
•In Mother Natures Son, Del has brought the flat off the council. but in”heroes and villains” he is turned down a council grant to do up the kitchen.So why would he get one as a private owner?, and not a tenant?
–Either Del sold his flat back to the council as he quite clearly couldn’t afford it, or he simply applied for a sponsor type fund as some people are eligible to do this.
Also, didn’t Del say he ‘If they could see us now’ that he’d bought his flat? Confusing!
Regarding all the Albert not actually eating the bacon sarny – so what? As an actor, do you really want to eat on-screen food?
There is only 1 small, minor cut to this episode.
on TV Broadcasts (UK GOLD) have ‘money’ by the beatles being played when Del and family go to the hotel.
on video/DVD releases – a piece of instrumental music is being played when Del and family go to the hotel.
not really a cut as such – but a small musical difference.
I don’t remember any instrumental music being played when they goto the hotel. It was definitely a rock song of some kind.
The instrumental track that is on the DVD and VHS release that replaces the track ‘Money’ by the Beatles, is called
Rhythm And Blues by Henry Worth and Phil And Pickett, from the Carlin Music library.
where is the health food shop owned by myles located
Somewhere in Sussex in real life. Not sure where it’s meant to be the story though.
this is bit of a coincidence ,raquel finds an i.d braclet with gary on it this aired in 25 december 1992 , strangers on the shore aired in 25 december 2002 and i think you know where this is going
Regarding uncle albert not biting the sandwich. Even if the bacon was raw he wouldn’t get food poisoning, bacon is a cured meat so can be eaten straight from the packet – wouldn’t taste nice though.
Most probably didn’t bite it in case they needed to do a retake.
The diving suit prop was later used by Lloyd Scott to run the London Marathon and is now on display in the Maritime Museum at Greenwich.