Homesick

Grandad in bed, with Del and Rodney looking on.

Detailed sypnosis

As Del Boy prepares himself to go out with a waitress from a pizzeria, Rodney plans to go to the local Council Tenants Association meeting and report lot of things that need to be sorted, as well as Nelson Mandela House's lifts.

At the meeting, the only ones who have shown up are Rodney, Trigger, and the chairman Baz, who mentions that the vice-chairman died a fortnight ago, and that he wanted to elect a new vice-chairman, and Trigger votes Rodney to fill the position. The meeting starts, and Baz then resigns and promotes Rodney to chairman in an instant.

Later, at the market, as Del flogs oranges, Rodney shows up and tells him all about the meeting as well as Margaret Mackenzie, the housing and welfare director of the Council Tenants Association. Grandad also shows up, even though his legs are hurting. He had been shopping, and plans to walk off the pain.

The Trotter brothers return home to find Grandad collapsed on the floor, and phone for Dr. Becker. The results show that Grandad was exhausted from climbing twelve flights of stairs because of the broken lifts. To solve this problem, the Trotters will have to move into a bungalow with approval from the chairman. Rodney comes out of the kitchen and admits that he is the chairman.

That night, Grandad gives Rodney a silver cigarette case and tells him and Del that it was carried by Grandad's grandfather in the Boer War, and prevented him from being shot in the heart by a sniper rifle-wielding Zulu. Unfortunately it didn't save his life, instead it only caused him to die a slightly different death by making the bullet deflect up into his nose. Rodney then decides to phone for a bungalow.

The next day, Rodney introduces Miss Mackenzie to Del, and they talk about the world of dancing and Nijinsky. Despite Del continually making a plonker of himself and failing to realize that Nijinsky has in fact been dead for nearly half a century, Miss Mackenzie agrees to let them have a new bungalow. Once Miss Mackenzie signs the document, all is set for the Trotters. They can move into their new bungalow in a week's time, and she even agrees to go out for a drink with Del after they've moved.

As Miss Mackenzie exits the flat, Grandad enters the lounge, now back on his feet and dancing! Rodney learns that it was all planned by Del and Grandad all along to move into a lovely bungalow in Herrington Road with a nice garden, a garage, and no stairs.

Suddenly, Miss Mackenzie returns to ask Del if he wants to go for the drink there and then, only to find Grandad fit and active again! Infuriated, she forces Rodney to resign as chairman and then tells the Trotters that they will no longer be moving into their bungalow. Despite all that has happened, Del still asks her if the offer of a drink is still open.

Stats

Season: 3
Writer: David Schwimmer
Director: Ray Butt
Producer: Ray Butt
Duration: 30 minutes
Airdate: November 10, 1983
Audience: stage play

Featured characters

• Del Boy
• Rodney
• Raquel
• Damien Mackenzie
• Dr. Becker
• Basil
• Margaret Mackenzie

Other notes

Story arc

• It is revealed that the Trotters first moved into Nelson Mandela House in 1962.

Continuity errors

• When Grandad is in bed, he tells Del and Rodney that he has never had a garden, but in "Mother Nature's Son", the Trotters go to Grandad's allotment, which would surely count as a garden.
• Del tells Dr. Becker over the phone, "You don't know me." But in "Thicker than Water", Rodney claims that Dr. Becker is the family doctor and has been for years - therefore he would know who Del was. This could be put down to Del's fear of doctors.
• Grandad says he wanted to be cremated, but he was buried instead in "Strained Relations".
• When exactly do Del Boy and Grandad come up with the plan to get the bungalow? The lifts are broken, Grandad's legs are hurting at the beginning of the episode, and he's back on his feet at the end of the episode, so does that mean it was all planned before Rodney goes to the meeting? Or does Del come up with the plan after Rodney becomes chairman of the Tenants' Association and Dr. Becker saying that the chairman would hold some sway? Either way if it were planned from the start, how would Del know that nobody else except Baz and Trigger turn up at the meeting to vote Rodney as the new chairman? The whole estate was invited. If it weren't planned, why would Del break the lifts if Grandad wasn't well? Plus it is clear that there is nothing wrong with Grandad at the end, yet Trigger is in on it at the start, telling Rodney that he heard Grandad's legs were playing him up.

Miscellaneous trivia

• This was the only episode in which Rodney would openly discuss with Trigger that his name was Rodney and not in fact Dave as Trigger had hitherto referred to him (the first occasion on "Big Brother" two years earlier). Trigger used the name Rodney when voting him onto the committee but from thereonafter, reverted to speaking of Dave, even in the final episode "Sleepless in Peckham" twenty years later.
• Gilly Flower and Renee Roberts appeared as two old ladies in the episode. They had done so previously as the slightly dotty recurring characters Miss Tibbs and Miss Gatsby in Fawlty Towers.

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