Only Fools And Horses - The Complete Series 7 Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

only fools and horses at its best....

only fools and horses is in my family's opinion the best british comedy ever. so we were really looking forward to watching this boxset. we were not disappointed. this box set has some of the funniest episodes ever shown - other than the christmas specials. our favourites include stage fright and three men and a baby.

well worth watching.

Excellent

Following the hilarious chaos seen in the 1989 Christmas Special The Jolly Boy's Outing there was a change of mood for the seventh series of Only Fools and Horses. Although technically the 1990 Christmas Special, Rodney Come Home was an essential scene-setter for what was to come, and if Rodney's courtship of Cassandra in series six had been a bit of a dream then series seven was the nightmare. Focussing on their marital difficulties and looking at the theme of male insecurity following his partner's career success, the change of tempo demonstrated John Sullivan's tremendous, and sometimes overlooked, ability to blend wonderful comedy with pathos. By The Sky's The Limit Rodney was back living at the flat and boozing his sorrows away, while Del causes airport chaos when he tries to help Boycie with a replacement satellite dish, unknowingly disrupting Rodney's hopes of a reconciliation with Cassandra. Life was also about to change forever for Del Boy when Raquel drops a bombshell in The Chance of a Lunchtime. For most of the episode he's worrying about her leaving to take a job on a theatre tour, but her decision becomes a simple one when she discovers she's pregnant. Rodney then drops his own bombshell by resigning from his job at Alan, his father in laws, printing works, after mistakenly thinking Alan wouldn't accept it. If Rodney Come Home was rather downbeat in tempo then Stage Fright can only really be described as full-speed Only Fools at its very best. It's a classic John Sullivan script with the sort of twist that makes the show stand out of from the rest. Del turns impresario when he hires singing dustman Tony Angelino - a bravado performance by Philip Pope - to sing at a birthday party and everything goes fine until Del decides to play around with Tony's usual repertoire, or rather his wepertoire. The climax of the episode was clearly as hilarious for the cast as well as the viewers, for if you look carefully, you can almost see them laughing. The Class of '62 saw the return of Slater, oily played by Jim Broadbent, one of the men considered for the part of Del back in 1981. Slater has been languishing in jail since To Hull and Back and it looks like he's turned over a new leaf. A classic ensemble episode, Trigger gets the best line. Misty eyed while recalling their school football team and talks about camaraderie. 'Was that the Italian boy?' wonders Trig. Rodney's problems and Raquel's pregnancy are knocked down Del's worry list in He Ain't Heavy He's My Uncle when Albert goes missing, following a mugging. Del feels responsible for Albert's disappearance after his attempt at motivating him goes terribly wrong. Now Del's Hooky Street goods rarely have quite the positive effect that his latest line has in Three Men, a Woman and a Baby. Yet his rat-tail wigs prove just the ticket for rekindling Rodney and Cassandra's love life, albeit in not quite the fashion they were designed. In great contrast to how it began, the series ended on a joyous note, well maybe not for Rodney who saw the coming of the evil one, following the birth of Raquel and Del's son Damian. But it's Del's moving monologue that ends the episode and the series. We know that Damian is going to be a chip off the old block if Del has anything to do with it when Del tells him: 'This time next year we'll be millionaires.'