Yuppy Love

"Yuppy Love" was the first episode in the 6th series of Only Fools And Horses, airing on the 8th January 1989, starting at 7:15pm on BBC1, with a viewing figure of 13.9 million, even if "Dates" has been considered the official first episode of the 6th series. Del Boy has adopted a yuppy image and is frequenting wine bars and bistros. And Rodney Trotter is attending evening classes where he meets a "posh tart" called Cassandra. And to impress her, rather than admit that he lives in a 12th floor flat in a council built Lego set, he has another idea in the form of a posh house down Kings Avenue, Peckham, London, SE15. Also this is the episode with the memorable scene of Del falling through the bar.

Synopsis[]

It is morning at the Trotter's flat. Rodney Trotter is typing on the computer. Albert Trotter tells him off for being lazy and not helping him get the tea ready. Rodney says that he is practicing for a computer course at evening school. He says he wants to break free from Trotters Independent Traders and get a proper job. He also says how Del Boy has been going all high powered and trendy lately, adopting a yuppy image with Gordon Ghekko braces and an aluminum briefcase. Rodney says that attending evening school will be his passport to freedom as he wants to get a diploma and break away from selling dodgy gear down markets, such as Del's latest line in raincoats with dry clean only on the label.

Del walks in from the hallways dressed in his yuppy gear. He mocks Rodney for not bothering to load the van up and just sitting on the computer. Del says he has applied to buy the flat and this leads to a row between him and Rodney. Del says he can then sell it and get a nice drum in the suburbs. Rodney says that council properties were built so the poorer classes would have somewhere to live though. Del says they will be millionaires but accidentally wipes Rodney's computer work off when he presses the wrong button. He asks is it supposed to do that.

That afternoon, Del is driving Rodney to the evening school but does a detour and drives down Kings Avenue, Peckham, London, SE15. Rodney just wants to get to the evening school. Del says that we will be living in one of these houses one day. Rodney says that they could house thousands of people on this land rather than build posh houses with big gardens. Del says "What more towerblocks?" Rodney asks Del if he is going to drive him to the evening school or will they spend all night admiring the privies. Del says any money and power he earns with his success he will spend.

Del drops Rodney off at the evening school and jokingly embarrasses him. Rodney is drawn to an attractive woman who walks into the evening school, wearing the same coat as Rodney. Meanwhile Del sees 2 yuppies going into a wine bar and Del gets his Filofax and walks towards the bar, waving his Filofax around. Del thinks this will make people think he is rich. No one is fooled by Del's patter. Del orders a posh wine and starting chatting up the female yuppies, who are not impressed. Trigger comes in and joins Del. They get chatting and Del says that these female yuppies love to chat about money, it is their fave subject. Trig turns round and says loudly that he saw one of them old £5 notes the other day, hoping to attract the ladies attention. Del shakes his head in disbelief then explains that he did not mean about their coin collection but their wealth.

After evening school, at night time, Rodney meets the same woman he saw earlier, who is wearing the same coat. They are in the cloakroom and after lessons, Rodney accidentally takes her coat, and she does his. She tells him. Rodney asks how she knows it is his coat, she says it has his name in it. Rodney is so embarrassed, and says he did not write it, but it must have been his brother. The lady introduces herself as Cassandra Parry. Rodney offers to take her for a drink but as he is walking her to her car, Del calls across the road to say he hung about to give Rodney a lift home. Rodney says it is just someone he knows. Cassandra drives off, saying she will see Rodney in class tomorrow. When she goes Del asks "Who's the tart?". Rodney frogmarches Del back into the wine bar and angrily asks why did Del write in his coat. Del says Mum told him to so no one would nick his stuff and he is just keeping the promise. Rodney leaves a few minutes later. He meets up with Mickey Pearce and Jevon and go to a club. By chance, they see Cassandra there with her friend Emma. Mickey and Jevon and Rodney place bets at to whether Cassandra will dance with him. Rodney offers and dances with Cass.

Back at the wine bar, Del and Trigger's attention is caught by 2 women who smile at them. The barman lifts up the bar flap. Del is unaware of this, tells Trig they may be in with their luck and to play it nice and cool. As he goes to lean on the bar he falls right over. Trigger looks round wondering where Del is. Del gets up and says to Trig they are leaving.

Back at the nightclub, Cassandra offers to give Rodney a lift home on her way back to Blackheath, she says she will give her friend Emma a lift home, and Emma lives next to Cassie, then Cassie will take Rodney home. Jevon is staying at the nightclub. Mickey asks if Cass can give him a lift as he is going to a club in Blackheath. Rodney says she just has a 2 seater, and Mickey says if that is the case why is she giving him and her friend a lift home. Rodney says Mickey better not mess it up and embarrass him in front of the 2 women. On the way to drop Emma off, Mickey jokes and laughs and annoys Rodney. They drop Emma off and Mickey says he will walk to the One Eleven Club. Rodney apologises for Mickey's behaviour. He says he danced with Cass for a bet but his friends reckoned he would not have the bottle to ask. Cassandra says she better drop Rodney back off at the Nelson Mandela House, Nyrere Estate in Peckham but Rodney says Mickey lives there, and he doesn't. He lies to her. He says he will show her where he lives.

Rodney gets Cass to drive down Kings Avenue. He asks her to pull up outside this big mansion, saying he lives there. He gives her his phone number. Rodney walks into the driveway, and quietly says to himself, for Cass to please drive away. The owners come to the window upstairs, wondering why this stranger is stood in their driveway. Rodney is now quite amusingly scared. He waves at them in front of Cass and she drives off into the night. Rodney gives her a few seconds to drive off and quickly runs off. It starts raining, and as he gets his coat out, he realises again he has taken Cassandra's coat as it is too small for him. He has to walk home in the rain. Cosmic, he says, cos bloody mic.

Back at the Trotters flat, Del is listening to The Who on his Walkman and Albert gently smacks his arm to get his attention. Del yelps out in pain. Albert says he did not realise his own strength. Del says it has nothing to do with his strength but he fell down in a wine bar. Albert is worried for Del, he is not eating, as eating is for wimps and he is getting so drunk he is falling down in boozers. Del says he was not drunk or in a pub but in a wine bar. Albert offers to make Del some grub and Del agrees. Albert goes to the kitchen.

Rodney comes home, soaked. Del sarcastically asks what the weather is like. Rodney says he got a lift home from the girl he saw at the evening school. Del asks if the car was a convertible. Rodney says he fancied a walk so got her to drop him off halfway. Del says people who enjoy walking in the rain are usually recaptured. Del says he can read Rodney like a book so puts £20 to guess what happened tonight. He says he saw Mickey Pearce at the One Eleven Club who said this girl was called Cassandra and offered Rodney a lift home after showing him her house.

Del guesses that after Cassandra showed Rodney her house, the snob in him came racing to the surface and he thought he cannot take her back to Nelson Mandela House, a council towerblock so got her to drop him off in a right posh road, somewhere like Kings Avenue and got her to drop him off outside a right posh drum and pretended that's where he lived. Rodney admits it and Del wins the bet. He goes off to the hallway for a second and Rodney bins Del's Filofax in the rubbish. Albert chucks the rubbish down the chute. Del comes back into the living room with a towel for Rodney.

Del tells Rodney not to be ashamed of where he lives. He wants better than a flat in a towerblock but is not ashamed. Del says he went through the same emotions years ago with a girl from Texas. She was an oil baron's daughter, and they met when he was selling cameras outside the Tower of London. Del says they started to fall in love with one another. She said meeting him reminded her of the day President Kennedy was assassinated. Del says he bought her back to the flat and after that he never saw her again, she went back home to America. She never even wrote to Del, so it does seem she thought less of Del after he showed her his flat in a towerblock, especially as she was a rich oil baron's daughter.

Albert says to Rodney that he got a phone call from a young lady who said Rodney had left her coat in the back of her car and she went back to Kings Avenue to drop it off and the owners had never heard of him. Rodney demands Del give him the money back, but Del says he won't as Rodney has learned a valuable lesson, never gamble as the cards may be stacked. Albert says he told Cassandra where Rodney lived. Rodney worries she won't want to see him again now she knows he lives in a council flat. Yet Albert says she wants him to ring her back. Rodney asks Del where the number is, Del says the number is in his Filofax, Rodney goes to get it then realises he threw it in the rubbish and quickly bolts towards the door.

Cast[]

Main cast

Guest cast

Emma - Francesca Bell
Barman - William Thomas
Snobby Lady - Hazel McBride
Marsha - Laura Jackson
Dale - Diana Katis
Girl in disco - Tracy Clarke

Previous Episode Dates[]

Next Episode Danger UXD[]

Observations[]

First appearance of Cassandra Parry.
The idea for the script was based on Gordon Gekko from the movie Wall Street, to reinvent a new image for Del, and bring in Cassandra and Raquel into the series.
The scene where Del falls through the bar was reportedly based on a real life event where a man that John Sullivan knew was in a pub once and went to lean on the bar, unaware the bar flap had been lifted up and begun to fall but quickly put his hands out and stopped himself.
Del falling through the bar was the inspiration behind the scene of a subsequent episode shown 25 years later, Beckham in Peckham, which was a mini episode for Sport Relief in March 2014. In the 2014 sketch, Del and Rodney meet David Beckham and David leans on a portable rack. He signs a young boys autograph but as he goes to lean back on the rack, the rack has been moved an David falls to the floor. Del says "What a plonker".
When stood down Kings Avenue, Del was showing Rodney one of the huge houses saying they will be in one of these one day. This would become true when they became millionaires 8 years later. Millionaires for five years then they lost it all and went back to their old flat with a put you up, damp patch and a JaKhazi.
The scene where Rodney is dropped off at a posh area called The King's Avenue is based on a real-life occurrence for John Sullivan as a schoolboy. John knew of a posh tree lined avenue in the area so said to a girl that he lived there.
The building that BBC used for the wine bar is the same building they used in "Fatal Extraction" for the One-Eleven Club. It is known as the Old Granary in Welsh Back, Bristol.

Blunders[]

When Rodney is going to his evening class, attends it, and then tells Del that he isn't going back to the flat ("Not with Albert there"), he is wearing a black suit. But when Rodney goes to the disco instead, dances with Cassandra, gets dropped off at the King's Avenue in the rain, then comes home soaking wet, he is wearing a grey suit.
David Jason nearly slips out of character when Rodney chases him around the sofa after fooling him out of a bet. He starts to chuckle when he says, "Now, stop it...!"
As mentioned in previous episodes, Boycie and Marlene live on The King's Avenue. But when their house is shown, it appears to be on a completely different street.
Mickey says that Nelson Mandela House is on the Nyerere Estate, but in previous episodes (such as "Hole in One"), characters have said that Nelson Mandela House is on the Dockside Estate. Then again, characters have also said that Nelson Mandela House is actually on the Nyerere Estate.

Locations seen[]

The Trotters flat (living room)
Kings Avenue (main street, pathway, large houses, a large house, garden of large house)
Evening school exterior (entrance stairway, path, street)
Wine bar exterior (entrance area, stairs leading to the bar in the basement)
Wine bar (bar area, seating area, stairwell)
Nightclub (bar area, dance floor, entrance hallway)
Inside Emma's car (driving to Blackheath)
Unknown streets in Blackheath
Cassandra Parry's house exterior (street, gateway)