Just had an interesting discussion recently with mega-fools-fan Pete Manning. He had a sneaky feeling that there are quite a few inconsistencies between Only Fools and Horses and Rock and Chips. He felt if you go with the idea that the episodes reflect the date of broadcast it would give a few mistakes.
We decided that it would be interesting to allow him to dig deeper to see whether there was any substance in his theories and asked him to set out and write an article on his findings…..over to Pete….
Are their date contradictions between Only Fools and Rock and Chips?
In the Wikipedia page there is a reference to the confusion of Del’s age and how the different
episodes contradict. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_Boy
This article will look at these facts and also add some of my own theories.
So let’s look at some other facts from Rock and Chips and compare to OFAH – taking each with a slight
pinch of salt – after all it’s only a comedy.
- We now know for certain that Rodney was born in November 1960.
- In the episode Big Brother we are introduced to the characters, this suggest that the details in this are reasonably accurate:
- Del states that Joan was 39 when she fell for Rodney
- This would mean that Joan was born in 1921
- Del states that there was 13 years between him and Rodney
- This would therefore suggest that Del was born in 1947
- However it could also mean that he was actually 14
- This is as he actually says “When she fell for you” so that would of been 9 months before.
- In Rock and Chips – Del and Co are told to “leave” School due to the leaving age being changed. This is actually incorrect as it was not even proposed that the leaving age was to be changed to 16 until 1964. Therefore as the leaving age in 1960 was 15 – then it would make Del the age of 14 and nearly 15. It was not unusual for teens of this age to be in pubs. As we know that “the Nags head” was a little dodgy this would have been fine.
- This also fits with the episode Class of 62 as Del would have been 16 by then and that would have been the age he would have had to leave school. Of course what is not clear in Rock and Chips is IF Del ever went back to school. We know for example in “fatal Extraction” that he was meant to sit his O-Levels; this would mean he would have had to have still been registered at the school at the age of 15/16. The 2nd Volume of scripts also suggests that Del did return to school however as this uses the word Dunce in the name of the school, this is doubtful.
- In Go West Young Man – Del tells Rodney not to say that he is 35. In 81 he would of been 34/35 as we do not know the time of year this was set this would tie in with Del being born in 1947
- In Happy Returns (1985) – Del meets June who has a daughter Debbie who is about to turn 19. This would mean that June was pregnant in 1966, so Del would have been either 19 or nearly 20.
- We also know that Rodney was attending college – in Big Brother he would have been 21 – we also know that in Wanted he has not yet finished his suspended sentence this would mean that at the time of BB he was at Art College or had just been chucked out.
- In Healthy Competition from Series 3 – Rodney states that he is now 24. Assuming this is based on the time of broadcast then this would be about right.
- The main issue really is when Reg left Del/Rodney – now we know this was on his 16th Birthday so assuming this would be 1963, which means that Joan must have died before ’64 as shown on the tombstone in “The Yellow Peril”. It is possible however that Del told Rodney he was 16 to enforce the idea of it being a “special” birthday and therefore how bad Reg was to leave them then.
- There is also contradiction in the 2nd volume of the scripts. As in this it clearly states that Del was born in 1948 but that Joan and Reg were married before Del was born and yet according to episode “miracle of Peckham” Del claims that he was a “babe in arms” when they were married.
Overall it seems that Del was born in ’47 with Rodney born in 1960, to tie in with what is said then Joan must of been born in 1921 – the problem here is that in Rock and Chips she looks at a picture of what we assume is herself and her Mum and she then remembers the Blitz but by which time she would of been in her 20’s.
There are certainly some areas that do not tie in – however we do know that Del Boy likes to exaggerate things about the past especially to Rodney and therefore the “mix up” of dates could be down to this or John Sullivan’s lack of checking his notes.
END
What do you think, has Pete got some interesting points, or has he missed something?
Excellent summary and I think it’s pretty much spot on. I would guess there may be a discrepancy of maybe a year or two between birth dates since I guess John Sullivan would not have expected the show to last for 29 years and ongoing!
Thanks for posting this Zane – having just re-read this I think I may of got a couple of things incorrect and the “grammer” certainly needs improving.
Would still love to know what others think and if I have indeed missed anything.
Bonjour!
Pete