| Rock & Chips | |
|---|---|
 Rock & Chips title card |
|
| Genre | Comedy drama |
| Created by | John Sullivan |
| Written by | John Sullivan |
| Directed by | Dewi Humphreys |
| Starring | Nicholas Lyndhurst Kellie Bright James Buckley Shaun Dingwall Phil Daniels |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 1 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | John Sullivan Mark Freeland |
| Producer(s) | Gareth Gwenlan |
| Location(s) | Peckham, London, England |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Production company(s) | BBC Shazam Productions |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC One BBC HD |
| Picture format | 16:9 HDTV 1080i |
| Original airing | 24 January 2010 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Only Fools and Horses The Green Green Grass |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
Rock & Chips is a British television comedy drama and a prequel to the situation comedy Only Fools and Horses. Set in 1960s Peckham, it focuses on the lives of local villain Freddie Robdal, Joan and Reg Trotter and their teenage son Derek. Nicholas Lyndhurst, who played Rodney in Only Fools and Horses, plays Robdal alongside Kellie Bright, Shaun Dingwall, Phil Daniels and James Buckley. The Shazam Productions and BBC co-production was written by Only Fools and Horses creator John Sullivan, directed by Dewi Humphreys and produced by Gareth Gwenlan.
The 90 minute production was originally conceived in 1997 and commissioned in 2003, with the premise established in the final episode of Only Fools and Horses in 2003. However, Only Fools and Horses spin-off The Green Green Grass was subsequently produced before the prequel was again commissioned in July 2009. Filming began in October in London and the production was first aired on BBC One and BBC HD on 24 January 2010. It was the second most watched programme of the day and gained mixed reviews from critics.
Contents |
The story starts in February 1960 and begins by setting up the characters. Joan Trotter (played by Kellie Bright) is in an unhappy marriage with the work-shy Reg (Shaun Dingwall), whose father Ted (Phil Daniels) has just moved in. Her teenage son Derek (James Buckley) and his mates Boycie, Trigger, Jumbo Mills and new-in-town Denzil (Stephen Lloyd, Lewis Osborne, Lee Long and Ashley Gerlach) are still in school following an increase in the school leaving age. She works at the local cinema with her friend Reenie Turpin (Emma Cooke) and Raymond (Billy Seymour) for cinema manager Ernie Rayner (Robert Daws), and at the Town Hall as "a part-time filing clerk who sometimes makes the tea". Convicted thief Freddie Robdal (Nicholas Lyndhurst) has just been released from Dartmoor Prison and has returned to Peckham with explosives expert Gerald "Jelly" Kelly (Paul Putner).
At the Town Hall, Joan enquires to Mr. Johnson (Colin Prockter) about applying for a flat in the new high-rise estate; she is told she is unlikely to get a tenancy as preference will be given to those with young children. At The Nag's Head, Freddie and Reg meet and Reg invites him to his to continue drinking. Freddie has a dislike for the Trotters, however he has the opposite view of Joan, whom he realises is a Trotter after he buys her a drink. After they return to the Trotter's, Freddie shows his affection for Joan. At the cinema, Joan is promoted to part-time assistant manager; Rayner tells her that the safe sometimes contains over £2000 at weekends, which she later tells Freddie after he goes round to her house to offer Reg some work (after telling him to meet him at the pub). They talk about art, and he invites her (and Reg) to his house-warming party.
As March comes, Joan has a Marilyn Monroe hairstyle and the safe at the cinema is broken in to. Freddie gives Reg the use of his car to return unused decorating materials to Guildford. He takes his father, Reenie and her boyfriend Clayton (Roger Griffiths), and they run out of petrol on the way, leaving Freddie an Joan the only ones at the party. They dance, and Freddie admits that he wanted to be alone with Joan so they could talk about art. They end the night sleeping together.
In June, Reenie accompanies Joan to a pregnancy testing clinic while the boys are on the Jolly Boys Outing to Margate (providing Freddie and Jelly the opportunity to rob a jewellers). On their journey home, Reenie tells Joan about Freddie's time in prison and she realises he robbed the cinema. After Freddie tells Kelly he thinks he's in love with Joan, Reg announces her pregnancy in the pub. While Joan is completing a housing request form, Freddie goes to see her and she fails to acknowledge the baby is his.
Their application is successful in August, September sees the Trotters view a flat in the new Sir Walter Raleigh House, which they have moved into in October. In November, Joan has her baby, which she calls Rodney (after the "handsome actor" Rod Taylor, and to the surprise of everyone else). The closing scene sees Joan enter the balcony of her flat with Rodney in her arms. After telling him that Del will be very rich one day, she sees Freddie on a balcony in a tower opposite; she shows him Rodney and nods her head, to his delight.
Throughout, the story tells of Del's dislike for his father and his affection for his mother, Reg's affair with the barmaid at The Nag's Head, Del and Jumbo selling goods from the docks out of the back of a van, Del and Boycie's attempt at dating Pam and Glenda (Jodie Mooney and Katie Griffiths), and provides an introduction to Roy Slater (Calum MacNab) and Albie Littlewood (Jonathan Readwin).
Writer John Sullivan had the idea for a prequel to the sitcom Only Fools and Horses in 1997;[1] its commission was announced in 2003[1] and the premise for the series was established in the final Only Fools and Horses episode "Sleepless in Peckham" in 2003, where a photograph from 1960 of the Jolly Boys' Outing included Freddie Robdall, who bore a remarkable likeness to Rodney. Titled Once Upon a Time in Peckham, it would see young versions of Del, Boycie, Denzil and Trigger, and Sullivan said "Joanie will be a key character, and during the film will give birth to Rodney."[1] However, the prequel was shelved and spin-off The Green Green Grass was then developed to follow secondary characters, Boycie, Marlene and their son Tyler as they escape the London Mafia and attempt to live in the Shropshire countryside. It was then reported in January 2009 that the prequel was being considered again following the success of The Green Green Grass.[1] In April 2009, Sullivan told The Mail on Sunday that he started writing the prequel and that Lyndhurst was "keen" to play Robdal, a local criminal and Rodney's biological father, although it had yet to be commissioned.[2]
On 3 July 2009, the BBC announced that the prequel had been commissioned as a 90 minute comedy drama, titled Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n' Chips, co-produced by the BBC and Sullivan's production company Shazam Productions.[3][4] Originally scheduled for August,[3] filming began in October 2009 in London,[5][6] lasting 19 days.[7] Nicholas Lyndhurst, who played Rodney in Only Fools and Horses, would play villain and art connoisseur Freddie Robdal in a reprise of his role in the "Sleepless in Peckham" photograph, Kellie Bright (Bad Girls, The Archers) would play the "glamorous" Joan Trotter, her husband Reg would be portrayed by Shaun Dingwall (Soldier Soldier), and his father by Phil Daniels (Quadrophenia, EastEnders). James Buckley (The Inbetweeners), would play the teenage Derek, Joan and Reg's son, portrayed by David Jason in Only Fools and Horses. Dewi Humphreys (The Green Green Grass, My Family) would direct. It was announced in January 2010 that the production would be shown on 24 January on BBC One with the title Rock & Chips.[8]
Sullivan said when the production was announced that it would "give us a bit of an insight into why Del and Rodney turned out they way they did" in a period "before The Beatles and Mary Quant made London the coolest place on the planet" when "the staple diet was rock salmon and chips and the flicks offer the only hint of glamour".[3] Expanding further on the basis for the prequel, he said:
... the most important person in the flat [in Only Fools and Horses] was never, ever seen; it was the spirit of Del's (and Rodney's) beloved mother Joan who had passed away 17 years before, and throughout the run of the series Del constantly referred to her and past events within the Trotter Family. ... But much of his historical information was at best contradictory, and at worse outright lies. We were left with a situation where the only person who really knew what had happened was an unreliable witness, so I decided to return to those misty days of 1960 to meet all those characters we'd only ever heard about ...[9]
The drama was produced by Gareth Gwenlan, who worked on Only Fools and Horses between 1989 and 2003. Speaking to the Western Mail, he described it as "essentially a love story" between Joan and Freddie, and he said that Lyndhurst "told me he thinks it's the best thing he's ever done". Speaking about the casting of Lyndhurst, he said he "would make a marvellous villain, which is something people will never have seen him do on TV before".[10]
In an interview in the press pack for the production, Lyndhurst described Freddie Robdal as "a villain – charming, but nasty", and comparing him to Rodney, said that: "They're from two entirely different suitcases as far as I'm concerned. I didn't want to bring into it anything that I'd already done with Rodney and fortunately there wasn't any opportunity to do so. They're like chalk and cheese."[11] Speaking about the 19 day filming schedule and the "not great" budget, he also told Michael Deacon of The Daily Telegraph that:
I was very pleased it was made at all. ... There were people who said, 'I don't think we're going to do this', and we had to wait months to get the green light. We thought, 'Well, we haven't got the budget we want, we haven't got the schedule we want, so we're going to have to make it as brilliant as we can.' It was a costume drama and it needed a costume drama budget, and it didn't get that.[7]
Speaking out continuing the story, Gwenlan said that the production was "run on the idea it'll be turned into a series. This one lays the groundwork and John [Sullivan] has enough for about two more series."[10]
Overnight figures estimated Rock & Chips was seen by 7.4 million viewers with a 28% audience share, winning the slot against ITV1's Wild at Heart and the Dancing on Ice results show. It was the second most-watched programme of the day, behind the first Dancing on Ice programme of the evening.[12] Final figures showed it was seen by 8.42 million viewers on BBC One and 279,000 on BBC HD.[13]
Sam Wollaston for The Guardian said he was missing the interplay between Rodney and Del Boy from the original, and that only fun in the drama was "recognising the nods, working out who's who and how it all fits into place. Otherwise, it's pretty lame."[14] The Daily Mirror's Jim Shelley didn't find the storyline "interesting or convincing", finding Lyndhurst's performance as Freddie "laughable" and saying it was "bizarre" that the storyline "virtually abandoned its main character (the young Del Boy) and its best actor (the engaging James Buckley from The Inbetweeners) who played him".[15] In The Independent, Tom Sutcliffe said that "the narrative's focus was blurred and the pacing weirdly off – quite a lot of the time you were well ahead of the drama and hanging around for it to catch up with you".[16] Benji Wilson from The Daily Telegraph also wasn't impressed saying the viewer would have been disappointed if they "tuned in wanting to be entertained, enthused, or anything in between", and that it was an "ocean-going stinker".[17]
However, The Scotsman's Paul Whitelaw said that, despite a "disjointed" plot and it being "overstretched at 90 minutes": "It was actually pretty good. Not great, not perfect, but a watchable production from which everyone emerged with their dignity intact." He said that Buckley "delivered a charming performance in what was effectively a supporting role. Wisely choosing to suggest Del's familiar mannerisms without opting for outright impersonation, he carried off a difficult task with modest élan."[18] Andrew Billen from The Times described Bright's portrayal of Joan as "winsome", said Lyndhurst "produced a detailed performance" and that "Rock & Chips was better than the sequel that preceded it."[19] Keith Watson in the Metro also praised the performances of Buckley and Bright, saying "They deserved a show all to themselves." Although he found the period detail "squeaky clean" and "unconvincing", he closed his review by saying: "Somehow it made me care about the Trotters in a way decades of Only Fools and Horses never came close to."[20]
Rock & Chips will be released on DVD on 5 April 2010.[21]
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