Rock & Chips (2010–2011)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

John Sullivan managed to keep the Only Fools and Horses legend running for nearly twenty five years, and delivered something that is undoubtedly a true British institution that grew so it couldn't be constrained by the mere format of a TV show. Although it had undoubtedly been stretched as far as it could go by the time the last feature length special was shown in 2003, there was something in the sub-conscious of each fan, that could easily take on knowing, something even just a little bit more about the characters, so durable in the memory were they. The easiest, but probably the most effective thing to do, would be to re-trace the story of Del's early life, before becoming the character we stuck with for so many years.

And so we are taken to Peckham in the 1960s, where the mystical Joan Trotter (Kellie Bright) lives in a run-down street with her thoughtless, abusive pig of a husband Reg (Shaun Dingwell) and the young Del boy (James Buckley.) She ekes by a living as a cinema usherette, having to put up with her pervy boss and the thought of never escaping this run down life...until a chance encounter with recently released con Freddie Robdal (Nicolas Lyndhurst) comes by, setting the course of her life and the lives of those closest to her on a rickety collision course that will change everything forever.

The shiny, camcorder like lens that it's filmed in gives it a cheap look that detracts from it a bit, but this is something you just learn to overlook. The Inbetweeners's Buckley is an inspired choice as the young Del Boy, as well as Daniels as a younger version of Leonard Pearce's Grandad. Lyndhurst is quite a subversive choice to play Robdal, but given who we later learned who he was in relation to Rodney, who better? What's disappointing is the under developed younger side characters in the shape of Del's mates, including Boycie, Denzel, Trigger, Slater et al...which could have been quite interesting.

Played more for drama than for laughs, this has a reputation that precedes it and so makes it even more affectionate for long time fans. Doesn't quite deliver in every way, but not a bad effort for something that was always going to come along eventually. ***