Rock & Chips (2010)

A prequel to Only Fools & Horses, Rock & Chips was an interesting production, nothing much at all like it's parent show. In much the same way that The Green Green Grass doesn't capture the comedy genius of Fools, Rock & Chips wasn't particularly funny either, though it had its moments. This TV movie was played more straight and filmed like a drama rather than a sitcom, and there was no laugh track. 

I think that by not trying to be Fools, Rock & Chips succeeded by being it's own entity, albeit one full of subtle references and familiar characters, plus a familiar actor in Nicholas Lyndhurst, playing the character that would be Rodney's dad. Drama fit well for the period in which it was set, in the early 1960's. Young Del Boy (James Buckley from The Inbetweeners) was relegated to a supporting role, while Rodney had not yet been born, and it was good to see a younger Grandad and Del's mates Trigger, Boycie and Denzil. The star of Rock & Chips was Del's oft-mentioned but long-departed (in Fools) mother, Joan Trotter. Kellie Bright played Joan in a wonderful, sometimes heartbreaking performance, as the long-suffering husband of useless Reg, who finds solace in the charms of Lyndhurst's Freddie Robdal. 

I really liked the period setting of Rock & Chips and the fleshing out of Del and Rodney's background, and I thought Lyndhurst was great, and was responsibly for most of the big laughs. The whole thing wrapped up nicely too, with the family, baby Rodney in tow, moving into the flat in Peckham, in Sir Walter Raleigh House, which would later be renamed Nelson Mandela House by the time of Only Fools & Horses. The worst thing about the prequel was the name which didn't mean anything as far as I could tell. I'd be happy for John Sullivan to leave the Trotters' on-screen legacy alone now. Rock & Chips was a self-contained piece that doesn't need turning into a weekly series, especially if it is as pedestrian as The Green Green Grass.