Strangers on the Shore

"Strangers On The Shore" was the 2002 Christmas episode and the second part of the trilogy, airing on the 25th December 2002 with a viewing figure of 17.3 million. This episode saw Derek "Del Boy" Trotter and Rodney Trotter go to France, but bring back what they think is a stowaway, whose great grandmother was friendly with Albert Trotter in the war, and whose father looks a bit like a younger Albert.

Synopsis[]

It has been a year since the Trotters lost all their money and went back to how they used to be. Derek "Del Boy" Trotter has a job as part time driving for Boycie. He is cleaning Boycie's car and spins a yarn to a passer by who knows Boycie and Marlene, that he is from the drug squad. Boycie teases Del over losing his millions and when he leaves the kitchen, Del squeezes a tube of onion puree into his hair gel. The puree and gel is the same colour so Boycie won't know, at least not immediately.

At the flat, Cassandra Trotter is heavily pregnant. Del is on the phone to Monkey Harris says what he did with Boycie's hair gel. Del wants to buy some log effect gas fires and says he will take 20 of them. Rodney Trotter reminds Del that he is in charge of Trotters Independent Traders now as Del has been banned from running a business by The Inland Revenue. They still owe them £50'000. Del and Rodney then leave and Raquel says there is a letter her from The Seamans Mission.

At a market, Rodney struggles to park the van and when he does, Trigger says Rodney cannot park outside a council owned storage facility on the pavement which is freezing salts. Del bribes Trigger into keeping quiet. Trigger accepts. They all head off down The Nag's Head. Marlene reckons the neighbours have turned against them, making them feel like criminals. Boycie says they are jealous because he has signed a deal with a billionaire car manufacturer in Lebanon. Raquel comes in with the letter saying it is for the late Albert Trotter. Del opens it and says Albert has been invited to a naval reunion in a village in Normandy, France. The reunion is for a troop that Albert was in who went to Normandy in 1944, on board HMS Cod. The Mission does not yet know Albert has died. Del and Rodney say they will go to represent Albert. He wants Denzil and Trigger to to travel with them in Denzil's lorry, to allow them to purchase a large amount of duty-free alcohol which they can sell to Sid at the pub and make some money, and then do more trips. Del tells Denzil and Trigger not to tell Rodney about the scheme.

A week or so later, Del and Rodney are on the ferry going to Calais, France. They scatter Albert's ashes at sea. Several hours later they are driving through rural France to St Clair La Chapelle, the village where Albert's old war mates are going to, to attend the reunion. They park up and Del as usual gets his French phrases wrong when introducing himself. An old man overhears them say Trotter and asks if they are related to Albert. The old man is George Parker, an Irishman. He sailed with Albert in the war in 1944. George says he is the only one in the fleet on HMS Cod who have turned up. He says all the others are either dead, in old people's homes, or could not be bothered, as it is almost 60 years later. George is saddened to hear the death of Albert.

Ofah sots 2002 — Del Boy munching on his grub in France and "pretending" to be local with that hat on.

An hour or so later, George is shown a photo of Albert and says it is the right Albert Trotter. George says how the ship crashed and the troops all ended up in this village and while there, Albert was a ladies man and kept himself busy. And George says Albert and some others escaped and got back to England when the French resistance rounded them all up one day. Del and Rodney then notice lots of bearded men, aged about 50 to 58, who look just like Albert. Del says they should rename the place "Trottersville".

On the way back to the ferry port at Calais, Del and Rodney say how Albert has put it about all over the place, and how he met a Middle Eastern woman in the war. At the ferry port, Rodney notices Denzil and Del pretends to be surprised to see Denzil in France at the same time. They then see Trigger, and Rodney realises Del is up to something. Del says he is doing a few booze cruises as they need the money. As they load up they all forget they did not put their watch forward an hour to French time and there is only half an hour until the ferry leaves. Del quickly hijacks a forklift truck and he loads the booze onto the back of Denzil's lorry. They then head back to England.

That night, Denzel and Trigger are unloading the packets of booze into Del's garage. Up in their flat, Del and Rodney are celebrating their safe return from France. Rodney accidentally mentions Denzil and Del says they bumped into him over there, it was a coincidence. Down on the estate, 12 floors down, Denzil and Trigger find an illegal immigrant in the back of the lorry and inform Del. Del admits to Raquel that they need the money to do the booze cruises. Him and Rodney go down to see Denzil to discuss what to do with the immigrant. Del suggests they just let him go or take him to an immigration centre in Croydon, London. They then agree to take him up to the flat. Denzel and Trigger carry on unloading before going home.

Del Boy and Rodney bring him up to the flat and introduce him to Raquel, Damien, and Cassandra as "Gary", a friend who Rodney met at evening school. But the immigrant says "Gary", and Raquel realises he is an illegal immigrant. Boycie then turns up asking to stay the night at the flat because a gas leak from the log-effect gas fires Del sold him has filled his house with gas and the fire brigade has evacuated the entire road. Marlene and Tyler are staying at her mother's, who won't allow Boycie to stay because of a row at the wedding caused by the onion puree Del squeezed into Boycie's hair gel. Feeling guilty, Del reluctantly allows Boycie to stay. He then feeds him some curry, which is so hot it burnt "Gary"s mouth.

That night, Boycie is on the camp bed while "Gary" is on the sofa. Boycie cannot sleep and the curry is doing a conga in his colon. As he heads to the kitchen, Gary gets up and heads for the front door, wanting to escape but Boycie, with a sandwich knife, asks Gar if he wants cheese, and a frightened-looking Gary sees him with the knife. Boycie thinks Gary is cold so tells Gary to get into bed if he is cold. Gary thinks Boycie is holding him hostage and guarding him.

A few days later, down the market, Boycie says he has been given the all clear to move back into the house. Boycie wants Del to drive him to Paris so he can sign the contract to make him a millionaire. Rodney suggests they could take Gary with them and drop him off on the continent. Boycie says Damien took Gary to play football with some friends, and that Gary was last seen hitchhiking around The Elephant And Castle and has gone.

A day or so later, Del drives them in a van as he wants to pick up more cheap alcohol. At the flat, on the news a news bulletin says that the missing billionaires son has been found, it is "Gary" and his real name is Rashid Mamoon. He says to an interpreter that he was kidnapped when loading up a lorry in France and was taken to an apartment. He had no idea where it was and was kept there 4 days and night, and a man with a large knife guarded him at night, and his head smelt of onions. The police are searching for "The Gary Gang" and they may have South London connections. 3 mugshots of drawings of Del, Rodney and Boycie appear on the TV screen as the news bulletin continues. These are drawings of the descriptions given by Rashid to the police.

In Paris, Boycie meets with Mr. Mamoon who is the billionaire business partner of Boycie. Mr Mamoon says he has always admired the British and his grandmother met an English sailor in the war. Del and Rodney look at Mr Mamoon and see he looks like a younger version of Albert Trotter, and must be his illegitimate grandson. Mr Mamoon introduces them to his son, who is "Gary" aka Rashid Mamoon. Rashid panics Believing the trio are there to demand a ransom, Rashid claims Boycie and the Trotter brothers are the kidnappers. Mr. Mamoon calls the police and Del, Rodney and Boycie are arrested for kidnapping. Boycie asks Del and Rodney if they can smell onions. Del and Rodney both say "Shut up" to Boycie at the same time.

Cast[]

Rashid Mamoon - Nabil Elouahabi
George Parker -

Previous Episode If They Could See Us Now[]

Next Episode Sleepless in Peckham[]

Observations[]

Perry Agajenoffa, president of the OFAH Appreciation Society and founder of the OFAH Museum, appears in the background of The Nag's Head.
The pyjamas that Gary wears are the same ones that Del wore in "Sickness and Wealth" (the red pyjamas) and "Modern Men" (the lime green pyjamas).
Albert was found to have been a bit of a lad in the war and when Del and Rodney visit the French village Albert and his naval mates stayed at during the war, they see a few men who look like Albert. Albert wooed a lot of women whose husbands were away fighting. Del and Rodney also remember Albert telling them about a woman in The Middle East who he dated. Near the end of the episode, the Lebanese billionaire, Mr Mamoon says he has always admired the British people and his grandmother met an English sailor during the war. Del and Rodney remember Albert saying about a woman he met in The Middle East and they look at Mr. Mamoon and see he looks a bit like Albert, and deduce that he is Albert Trotter's illegitimate grandson.

Blunders[]

Del says that Albert Trotter passed away a few months ago, as seen in "If They Could See Us Now", but that episode was a year before, and in this episode, Denzel says Christmas is coming, and Cassandra was heavily pregnant, yet in "If They Could See Us Now", she was not yet pregnant, so the Trotters had clearly moved on about 11 or 12 months from when Albert died to Del and Rodney going to France.
While in The Nag's Head with Del and Rodney, Raquel and Cassandra claim that Albert met Elsie Partridge before the war, but in "The Unlucky Winner Is...", Rodney tells Cassandra that Albert met Elsie at bingo. Del would actually confirm in his 2015 autobiography He Who Dares that Albert and Elsie did indeed meet before the war.
When Boycie comes to the flat after his mansion is set on fire, he claims that all he has are the clothes he's wearing. But at the market a few days later, Raquel tells Del that she is sick of Boycie putting on the hair gel that smells of onion (because of Del). It is completely unknown how Boycie could use the hair gel if it was still in his house. However given his character, he probably carried it around everywhere or that Del had one spare.
Albert's war stories are proven to be true in this episode, especially when George Parker says he sailed with Albert during the war and they ended up in France. Yet in "Hole in One", the judge says that Albert spent the entire war stationed on the Isle Of Wight. However, the IOW reference was originally written for Grandad but due to the death of actor Lennard Pearce who played Grandad, the scripts were then transferred to Albert, hence why this may go against future references to when Albert travelled a lot during WW2.

Locations seen[]

Boycie's house exterior (driveway, garage)
Boycie's house (kitchen)
The Trotters flat (living room, kitchen, entrance hallway)
Street market in Peckham
The Nag's Head (main bar)
P&O ferry (deck area)
North Sea
Unknown country lanes in France
War memorial and cafe in French village
Unknown warehouse in Calais (car park, loading bay)
Cafe interior (dining area, entrance doorway)
Duty free shop at Calais ferry port (aisles, counter)
Nelson Mandela House exterior (garage block, towerblock)
Arc De Triomphe, Paris, France
Business meeting hall (dining table, desk area)
Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

Strangers on the Shore

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