Happy Returns

Del and Junie.

Detailed sypnosis

The latest object of Rodney's lust is a pretty newsagent worker named Debbie, who is also keen on him, though acts slightly more coolly about it. Meanwhile, Del Boy saves a 9-year old boy from getting hit by speeding traffic. That night, Del comes across the boy again, who tells him that he got in trouble with his mother for letting the air out of the tyres on the Trotters' van. Del tells him that they'll go and tell his mother that it was a fun challenge for Rodney to reinflate the tyres.

Del is pleasantly surprised to see that Jason's mother is June Snell, one of Del's old girlfriends from the 1960s. When Rodney turns up, Del realises that June is Debbie's mother too, and in order to leave the young lovebirds together, he and June go to the Nag's Head to talk about old times, although June is reluctant to reveal why she left Del so suddenly when they were a couple. However, when she unwittingly reveals that Debbie's 19th birthday is imminent, Del does the maths and suspects with some shock that she left him because she was pregnant with his child - who turned out to be Debbie. Quickly, he returns to June's flat to stop Rodney committing an act of incest (or "incense", as he calls it) and - after much threats and pleas from a confused and humiliated Rodney - tell him the truth back at their own flat. Rodney is distraught, and pleads with Del to find out from June about the truth.

The next night, June comes clean to Del by saying that Debbie's father is actually Albie Littlewood, Del's old friend, who June was cheating on Del with. Albie died while cycling on railway lines on his way to meet Del in the pub. Del Boy had carried the guilt around with him for 19 years as he wasn't at the pub, he was with Deidre, Albie's girlfriend at the time. Mickey Pearce then comes in with Debbie and the two make it clear they are going to her room - and Del warns him not to take the short cut across the railway line afterwards.

Stats

Season: 4
Writer: John Sullivan
Director: Susan Belbin
Producer: Ray Butt
Duration: 30 minutes
Airdate: February 21, 1985
Audience: 15.2 million

Featured characters

• Del Boy
• Rodney
• June Snell (first appearance)
• Debbie Snell
• Jason Snell
• Mickey Pearce
• Maureen (barmaid) (first appearance)

Other notes

Miscellaneous trivia

• June's flat is quite clearly a re-dressing of the Trotters' flat. It is excusable as on an estate of flats, it's quite feasible that the layout of each flat would be almost identical.
• Grandad didn't appear in this episode, as Lennard Pearce had died during filming "Hole in One". John Sullivan didn't want to start the fifth season with a funeral, so he wrote this episode as a filler, where it is mentioned that Grandad is in hospital.

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Next episode: Strained Relations