{"id":5482,"date":"2013-09-16T15:34:49","date_gmt":"2013-09-16T14:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ofah.net\/blog\/?p=5482"},"modified":"2013-09-16T15:43:16","modified_gmt":"2013-09-16T14:43:16","slug":"darker-side-del","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ofah.net\/blog\/darker-side-del\/","title":{"rendered":"The darker side of Del"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"d7386eeb5bdcd2f43c1295b58ceaf130\" data-index=\"3\" style=\"float: right; margin:5px 0 5px 5px;\">\n<amp-auto-ads type=\"adsense\"\r\n              data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1609637348681190\">\r\n<\/amp-auto-ads>\n<\/div>\n<p>We received an interesting email from Phil Clark. He is a massive Fools fan and a very keen writer. He sent us this interesting article which is part fools journalism\/part fiction, so take a look at his article entitled &#8220;The darker side of Del&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>THE DARKER SIDE OF DEL<\/h2>\n<p>It was with great reluctance that I decided to write about the dirtier side of Del Trotter, a comedy creation so easy to peg as the best of all time that he even leaves such luminaries as Basil Fawlty and Jerry Seinfeld in the shade. However upon recently revisiting a couple of Fools\u2019 episodes, <i>A Royal Flush <\/i>and <i>From Prussia with Love<\/i> I had decided that \u2013 in order for him to have become so universally loved \u2013 he would at some point have had to have stirred up in the viewer a certain distrust and disappointment.<\/p>\n<p>In <i>A Royal Flush<\/i> for example (possibly the worst of the Christmas special canon) I don\u2019t think I laugh once, not because of John Sullivan taking his eye off the ball back in \u201986 but rather Del\u2019s complete \u2013 and at times heavy handed insistence \u2013 to sabotage Rodney\u2019s burgeoning relationship with Lady Victoria Marsham Hales, daughter of a Duke and guaranteed heiress to an enviable family estate. Del clearly lives for the moment; his whole maxim is that of \u2018crash in and to hell with the consequences.\u2019 This is part of why the nation loves him, and when it involves a quick decision over a gross of fire damaged woks or Turkish raincoats then we\u2019re there with him. However when it hones in on plotting the systematic and calculated destruction of Rodney\u2019s love life for a quick bribe from the Duke then we begin to recognise the lengths he will go to in order to grease his own palms.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5483\" alt=\"The darker side of Del\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ofah.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/darker-del.jpg\" width=\"550\" height=\"327\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ofah.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/darker-del.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.ofah.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/darker-del-530x315.jpg 530w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/p><div class=\"d7386eeb5bdcd2f43c1295b58ceaf130\" data-index=\"2\" style=\"float: none; margin:5px 0 5px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ofah2-response -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1609637348681190\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"5593259115\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\n<p>The flaws in Del\u2019s character were a brave move. On the part of John Sullivan it was obvious that he wanted to try and push things, he wanted to try to emphasise that Del was a rogue, but not necessarily always a lovable one but instead a geezer who would do anything (and do over anybody) in order to earn a bit of coin. Sullivan would later master effortlessly the concept of pathos, particularly with Del as his main subject \u2013 but first he would have a good go at cognitive dissonance or creating a contradicted reaction in the 18 million viewers that tuned in to watch <i>A Royal Flush<\/i> on Christmas day 1986: or in other words we love this guy but we could have easily give him a right hook that night.<\/p>\n<p>But Del\u2019s a dirty fighter who isn\u2019t averse to going in low and grabbing when he needs to and Sullivan in the subsequent series and Christmas specials that followed would ensure that Del would successfully regain the love and empathy we all had for him and the Trotter clan. This occasional use of the odd unfair story line and Del\u2019s eye for readies would see him morally slip up in his scheme to flog a baby to Boycie and Marlene when they meet Anna, a German lass abandoned and left to roam the mean streets of Peckham \u2018with child\u2019 or even as Del roughly surmises, \u2018a belly full of people.\u2019 This occurs in <i>From Prussia with Love<\/i>, an excellently scripted episode that packs more laughs to the pound than <i>A Royal Flush<\/i> despite the dark subtext, or Del taking a chance meeting with Anna and her desire to give up the baby before heading back to the fatherland, together with Boycie and Marlene\u2019s ongoing struggle to have a baby of their own as an opportunity on making a few grand.<\/p>\n<p>But reason prevails in the end and Del informs Boycie that the deal is off. He sees the light, just like we knew he would and order is restored. In hindsight these dark and tricky advances into the character of Derrick Trotter offer a true testament to not only the strength and integrity of Peckham\u2019s finest fly-pitcher but also the genius of John Sullivan\u2019s script writing and those few but stark reminders he gave us that for all the laughter lines Del liberally dished out, there also existed the odd scowl and that occasional feeling that Rodney should organise a few more hand-gliding lessons for his older brother.<\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ofah.net\/blog\/darker-side-del\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"125\" src=\"\" class=\"alignright wp-post-image tfe\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" \/><\/a><p>We received an interesting email from Phil Clark. He is a massive Fools fan and a very keen writer. He sent us this interesting article which is part fools journalism\/part fiction, so take a look at his article entitled &#8220;The darker side of Del&#8221; THE DARKER SIDE OF DEL It was with great reluctance that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[48,53,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-characters","category-featured","category-only-fools-and-horses"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The darker side of Del<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The darker side of Del\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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