Friday the 14th

The Trotters go for a weekend fishing, and as usual it leads to disaster. A mad axe fisherman killer is on the loose.

"Friday The 14th" was the 3rd episode of the 3rd series of Only Fools And Horses. The Trotters go for a weekend fishing in Cornwall. But a fisherman killer has escaped from the local institution. And is the Chief Inspector really who he says he is?

Synopsis

Derek "Del Boy" Trotter comes home with lost of fishing gear. He has met Boycie at a local fish bar and Boycie has agreed to lend the Trotters his weekend cottage in Cornwall for a few days. They are going fishing for a few days. Rodney Trotter is a bit suspicious as to why Del went to a fish bar and the next minute they are all going fishing. Del has struck a deal with Boycie and a fish restaurant owner to poach fish for the weekend with the restaurant owner offering £10 for each fish caught, and this means bribing the local gamekeeper to allow them to do salmon poaching. Rodney is reluctant at first but is eventually persuaded.

On the way to the cottage, they are stopped by a policeman who asks why they have 3 fishing rods on their roof rack. Del fobs them off and the cop swallows Del's patter. He says that as there is a thunderstorm, it has bought a lot of power lines down, and even put the lights of the local mental hospital down, and a inmate has escaped. 10 years ago he killed a party of weekend fisherman. The copper says he could even be watching them now. He wishes them a happy evening. Del insists they go on, and he will look after them.

They arrive at the cottage and someone is watching them from nearby trees. Rodney is the more nervous of the group and claims to have seen a movement in the trees, and finding an axe in the cupboard, but Del stops him from phoning the police. Later that night, Rodney opens the curtains of the front window to check outside and is confronted by a man on the other side staring through the window. Rodney is horrified but Del and Grandad are reluctant to believe him when he tells them. Eventually they are interrupted by a man calling at the door, whom they allow in when he introduces himself as Chief Robson, the head of security from the institution, and shows them his identification documents.

Reassured by the man's insistence that the escaped patient will be long gone, Del feels safe to use the outside toilet. When leaving the toilet, he opens the door and inadvertently knocks out the man whom Rodney had seen at the window earlier.

Presuming this man is the escaped patient, Del alerts Rodney and Grandad, who tie up and take the unconscious man to the local police station, leaving Del and the head of security at the cottage. The police quickly identify the man not as the escaped murderer, but as the local gamekeeper, Tom Witton. The police also reveal that the real chief of security is in the hospital, working. The escaped patient had overpowered him, knocked him unconscious and stolen his uniform and ID documents, meaning Del is trapped in the cottage with the real axe-murderer.

Back at the cottage, Del receives a phone call from Rodney informing him of the truth, leaving a nervous Del to experience the manic side of the murderer alone. Del tries to escape but the man is stood at the door. The murderer reveals that he hates people who kill fish and asks about the fishing rods, but Del makes excuses, saying they belong to his brother and Grandad. The situation is defused however when the murderer proposes that he and Del play a game of snooker together, albeit an imaginary one with no cues or table and insisting that he hates to win in competitive environments, giving Del a chance to bide his time until the police arrive. Del seizes on the murderers aversion to winning by proposing they play for money, a tenner a frame, with the pair beginning their game.

Cast

Main cast

• Derek "Del Boy" Trotter - David Jason
• Rodney Trotter - Nicholas Lyndhurst
• "Grandad" - Lennard Pearce

Guest cast

• Gamekeeper - Bill Ward
• Policeman - Ray Mort
• Charles "Chopper" Winters - Christopher Malcolm
• Police sergeant - Michael Stainton

Locations seen

• The Trotters flat (living room, hallway)
• Dual carriageway in South London
• Unknown country road
• Boycie's weekend cottage exterior (outside lavatory)
• Boycie's weekend cottage (living room, kitchen)
• Police station