Who's a Pretty Boy?

Infobox Only Fools and Horses
episode_name = Who's a Pretty Boy?


Series = 3
writer = John Sullivan
director = Ray Butt
producer = Ray Butt
Duration = 30 minutes
Airdate = 22 December 1983
Audience = 11.9 million
Cast =

Who's a Pretty Boy? is an episode of the BBC sit-com, "Only Fools and Horses". It was the final episode of series 3, and was first screened on 22 December 1983.

ynopsis

Del Boy is jealous of Brendan O' Shaughnessy, an experienced painter and decorator, who sold him a tin of paint that was battleship grey instead of apple white. Del gets his opportunity for revenge by agreeing to decorate his friend Denzil's flat, much to the chagrin of Corrine, Denzil's viper-tongued wife. To do this, Del has to convince Denzil that Brendan (Denzil's original choice) was a good man, who was a great painter and did a fine job which Del only saw "after the fire". As Denzil begins to investigate the causes (by asking Del and taking his word for it), he learns that it was in fact an accident caused by the fact that Brendan and his friends enjoyed their lunchtime pint, and even the coroner testified to this. Denzil immediately dismisses Brendan and chooses Del for the job.

The next day, Del, Rodney, and Grandad arrive at Denzil's flat and put the kettle on for a cup of tea (even though Corrine distinclty left a note telling them to stay out of the kitchen), only to fill up the kitchen with steam, leave the kettle with a big hole, and Corrine's pet canary dead. The Trotters all panic about what will happen when Corrine returns. Del takes drastic action by telling Grandad to go out and buy another canary, while Del and Rodney try to fix everything else.

Grandad purchases another canary from a pet shop for £45. He returns to Denzil's flat, and Corrine returns to a shock when she sees the new canary. The boys appear puzzled as to how she may have immediately realised that this was not the same bird, to which she informs them that when she awoke that morning, the canary was "dead".

A few hours later, at the "Nag's Head", a smug Brendan comes in gloating to the Trotters that he will be taking over the job of decorating Denzil's flat, much to the disbelief of Del who has hitherto held a certain amount of respect for Corrine in that she was not the type to "broadcast things". Then, the Trotters meet the pub's new landlord, Mike Fisher, and convince him to increase the brewery's bill of £1000 for Brendan to redecorate the pub to £2,000 for Del to do the job. The new landlord appears puzzled since the first offer was cheaper for his brewery, so Del explains to him that from that money, he and Mike would take a quarter each. When Mike asks Del what would happen to the other half (the £1000 left), Del Boy says that the Irishman could take it and do the whole job. Mike, in the knowledge that this was costing the brewery and not him, warmly agrees.

Episode cast

tory arc

*Del refers to a house Brendan burnt down in the King's Avenue, which is seen five years later in "Yuppy Love", where Rodney is dropped off outside a large house in the King's Avenue, trying to impress Cassandra that it was in fact where "he" lived.
*The character of Brendan O'Shaughnessy would not appear again, although he would be mentioned as an important off-screen character in "As One Door Closes".

Trivia

*The episode saw the introduction of the characters "Denzil" (played by Paul Barber) and "Mike" (played by Kenneth MacDonald), both of whom would become regular cast extras for the many years which followed.
*Eva Mottley, who played Corrine, made her only appearance in the series in this episode. She died of suicide by overdose in 1985. Out of respect, writer John Sullivan never killed off the character but was mentioned in many future episodes by Denzil, played by Paul Barber. The pair later separated.

First appearances

*Denzil
*Mike

Errors

*In order to acquire the job of painting Denzil's flat, Del needed to produce a story which would discredit the originally chosen Irishman, and clear the coast for the Trotters. In doing so, Del talks of the time that "he" used to be in the painting & decorating profession; although Denzil never knew this, Del stated that it had been in the family for years (even getting a positive gesture from Rodney who wasn't quite concentrating). By the time of "The Class of '62", it will emerge that Denzil has in fact been local to the area since the boys were twelve, in which case they will have known each other from a time when Del was too young to work professionally; so Denzil would have known Del not to be a professional painter.
*When Grandad leaves the pet shop after buying the owner's canary, the cage is fully wrapped. The canary couldn't have breathed if there was no air holes in the wrapped up cage.
*Rodney mentioned at the end of the episode that Corrine ended up flooding the kitchen when she tried to make a cup of tea. Rodney made a hole at the bottom of the kettle earlier, so Corrine would have noticed it before putting any water in, thus supposedly flooding the Kitchen.

External links

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/onlyfools/series3/pretty.shtml "Who's a Pretty Boy?" at bbc.co.uk]