Who’s a Pretty Boy? Episode Review
Brief: Delboy arranges for Rodney & Grandad to redecorate Denzil & Corrinnes’ flat. What is Corrinne going to say when she finds out that her canary is brown bread? Still a trip down to Italian Louis’ petshop should do the trick.
Transmitted: 22.12.1983
Duration: 30 minutes
Viewing Figures: 11.9 million
Del concocts a plan to get revenge on Brendan O’Shaughnessy for supplying him with apple white paint that was actually battleship grey.
Having learnt that the Irishman is painting Denzil’s flat for £200, Del begins to lie about Brendan’s reputation for drunken debauchery, and persuades Denzil that he and Rodney can do the job for a lot cheaper. Unsure about Del’s motives, but keen on the saving, Denzil agrees, despite the suspicion on his wife Corrine, who is wise to Del from the very start.
The Trotters’ begin the job the next day, but problems arise when Rodney leaves a kettle on the boil and steams the whole apartment. As well as forking out for a new kettle, the Trotter’s realise that Corrine’s pet canary is dead – seemingly killed by the fumes from the paint.
Grandad is despatched to find a replacement canary, and having forked out £45 for a substitute bird, he seems to have found the ideal candidate. It’s only when Corrine returns home that their scam is revealed – when she left that morning the canary was dead.
The Trotters are promptly out on their ears, so they reconvene in The Nags Head, where they drown there sorrows whilst Brendan gloats over them about winning the job back. Little does he know that Del has one last trick left up his sleeve.
Episode Observations
- In Who’s a Pretty Boy, In Denzil’s living room, if you look at the clock on the back wall, it’s the same clock that Del has in his flat in If They Could See Us Now.
- In Who’s a Pretty Boy, In Denzils flat on the front Door there is no handle on the outside! the first time Del and Rodney leave denzils flat if you look closley you can see that Del closes the door using the letter box!
- In Who’s a Pretty Boy, when grandad leaves the shop after buying the canary, the cage is fully wrapped. The canary couldn’t have breathed if their was no air holes in the wrapped up cage.
- In Who’s a Pretty Boy, at the beginning Rodney parks right outside the front doors of the Nags Head pub, but when Del and Rodney open the front doors to come in you can’t see the van.
- In Who’s a Pretty Boy, Del refers to a house Brenden burn’t down in the Kings Ave. We know this must be a posh area as years later in Yuppy Love, Rodney is dropped off outside a large house in the Kings Ave, trying to impress Cassandra with it.
- In Who’s a Pretty Boy, Del reminds Rodney that he’s left the kettle on the gas. They go into the kitchen to find steam everywhere – surely at least some steam could have escaped, for example, through the gap underneath the door and given them a hint! Maybe Corinne would have been better off buying one of Del’s fire damaged smoke alarms!
- In Who’s a Pretty Boy, there is no communication between Denzil and the Trotters as to what colour to paint the walls.
- In Who’s a Pretty Boy, When Del is talking to Denzil in his flat there is a clock on the wall in the background at a certain time…However a few seconds later the time has increased by about 30 minutes or something!…So that’s a continuity thing.
- In Who’s a Pretty Boy, at the point where the Trotters find the Canary dead, listen carefully , in the background you can hear chirping!
Who’s a Pretty Boy? Script
The script is downloadable from Who’s a Pretty Boy? script
Did You Know?
This episode introduced two more regulars to the cast Mike and Denzil.
Sadly
Denzil’s wife, Corrine (Eva Mottley) was also set to be a regular but in real life she tragically took a drug overdose and died.
When Michael introduces himself and shakes Del Boy’s hand, Grandad extends his hand but Mike doesn’t shake it.
Denzil is in introduced to us by saying “say Viv Richards is king…..oh you daft old bird” in a West Indian accent but later on in the series Denzil has a Liverpudlian accent and his caribbean roots suddenly vanish!
This was the last appearance that grandad was in what a shame such a lovely bloke. R.i.p lennard x
Last Granddad episode was ‘Thicker than water’.
What everyone seems to be missing is the point that Mike would NOT have to give Del any of the money he could have charged for the pub’s redecoration.
That is, unless Del would tell the brewery that it was his idea to charge that much in the first place and shop Mike for nicking his idea.
Just as well it really is all make belief, eh?
There are so many blunders in this episode that have not nor cannot be adequately addressed.
I believe that many other episodes are replete with similar gaffes and discrepancies. But that’s for another day.
I totally agree with your observation, mate.
Perhaps John Sullivan was beginning to run out of ideas even this early in his often repetitive scripts, alas.
But surely the brewery would want to know who had redecorated the pub and how much they charged. That’s where Del would come in posing as a decorator and probably providing a receipt for the more expensive price that the Irishman would then actually do it for?
Never understand that bit at the end where Del and Mike make that deal for two thousand pounds then they let the Irish man do the work?
Del offers £2000 for the job.
Brendan offers £1000.
Del suggests Mike accepts Del’s offer (privately) where they pay Brendan the £1000 he asked for to do the job and for Mike and Del to pocket the remaining £1000 between them. The money comes from the brewery so everyone’s a winner!
The only thing that bothers me about this episode is the deal Del does with Mike at the end. Brewery owned pubs would never let a landlord decide on the price of a redecoration. Only if he was a tenant would they let him decide and then he would have to pay for it himself.
What your saying is true in most cases, although the brewery would sometimes pay for re-decoration on behalf of a tenant because it is in their interest for their pub not to look grotty. But i really liked this ending, I thought it tied the episode up really well and was a good way to introduce Mike into the series. Its a good job we don’t all think alike because the world would be a pretty boring place if we did. Any comments are welcome :)
The title of the episode always makes me think of when Rodney says it at the end of To Hull and Back – Oh who’s a pretty boy Derek!
In this episode Del manages to convince Denzil that painting and decorating was the Trotter family trade for generations, but surely Denzil would know that this is a lie as Denzil has known Del since they went to school together.
In Who’s a Pretty Boy, Grandad turned up a Louis’ pet shop empty handed, he then left with a canary in a cage, they must’ve then put the canary in to Corine’s cage when Grandad got back to the flat, what did they do with the cage that Grandad bought, why didn’t Louis just give Grandad the canary in a box with holes in it from the pet shop??
When Corine got back to the flat from her shopping trip and bumping in to Grandad, Rodney was up a ladder in the front room with a sponge in his hand, with Del and Grandad at the bottom of the ladder, what had they actually done, they must have been there for hours and there was absolutely no change??
I always wondered what use Rodney was by using a wet sponge on the wall LOL.
The thing about the clock could be deliberate, after all Denzil probably bought it from Del.
Nice tribute to Sir Viv Richards in this episode..I believe another reference is made to him in Season 4.
When Del and Rodney arrive at Denzil’s flat, the clock in the background says 1:30pm. After Del tells Denzil a lie about Brendan’s latest job, the clock says 1:45pm and after, it changes back to 1:30pm
Damaged clock after if fell off the back of a lorry.
Bloody watch!