Only Fools And Horses: A Royal Flush - Alternate Edit on BBC1 at 5:45

[Darrell]

The new 'edited version', with loads of cuts and a new laugh track - released on DVD in lieu of the original proper version - is on BBC1 in 15 minutes...

[Darrell]

I'm loathe to say it, but they've actually done a bloody good job of this.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

They have cut the 'Del starts whistling along' bit from the opera scene, though. Unforgivable.

I don't see what's wrong with this much-derided episode, anyway. Loads of great lines. 'I don't have to get dressed up like a free-range wally' etc.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

What else has been cut? Is there a list anywhere? I don't have the full version to hand.

Vicky being confused by the bubble and squeak in Sid's Caff was snipped.

[Darrell]

What else has been cut? Is there a list anywhere? I don't have the full version to hand.

Vicky being confused by the bubble and squeak in Sid's Caff was snip.

I was trying to follow the published script from the Bible Of Peckham Vol 3 book but it's based on too rough/loose a draft to be a reliable resource.

[Darrell]

Actually, I fail to see what any of the edits achieve - they don't make Del seem any less nasty.

The laugh track's quite nice, but, no, this is certainly not any improvement over the 1986 original, which similarly I see little wrong with.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Don't the objections to this episode rest largely on whether Del intentionally acted like a twat from the word go, or whether he acted like a twat and then tried to make money out of it/justify it afterwards. I'd always assumed the latter, which is why I never had a problem with the episode.

Mind you, the handshake at the end is pretty nasty.

[Darrell]

Don't the objections to this episode rest largely on whether Del intentionally acted like a twat from the word go, or whether he acted like a twat and then tried to make money out of it/justify it afterwards. I'd always assumed the latter, which is why I never had a problem with the episode.

Same here, but the problem is that Jason plays it too ambiguously. Just from reading the script the intentions are clear, but he doesn't make a good job of translating it to the screen.

Mind you, the handshake at the end is pretty nasty.

I think that's what seals its 'reputation', to be honest. I'd forgotten all about it - it really is the bit that goes too far.

Then again, I don't suppose Sullivan ever said any of the characters were heroes of any form. Which is sort of the point, isn't it? Throughout series 5 (the preceding run to this special) he acts just as nastily at times (Rodney on the sunbed, trying to sell the German girl's baby to Marlene and Boycie etc) so it's hardly as though it was a one-off.

Whatever the case, I still reckon it's fairly below standard of Fools at that time. Given that 'To Hull And Back' was the offering the Christmas before and that the following year would see 'The Frog's Legacy', anyway. Series 5 as a whole's too thin and slapdash, really. The first noticeable quality dip after its can-do-no-wrong glory years. 'The Longest Night' and the rhino scene from 'Video Nasty' aside, it's hardly a masterpiece.

[The Mumbler]

Missed it.  I haven't seen this for years, possibly not since it first went out, actually.  (Its last terrestrial showing (which was uncut) was the same night as TV Hell, incidentally - 31/08/92).

[El Unicornio, mang]

There's some trivia about the episode here:

http://www.ofah.net/immediacy-307

[The Mumbler]

Series 5 as a whole's too thin and slapdash, really. The first noticeable quality dip after its can-do-no-wrong glory years. 'The Longest Night' and the rhino scene from 'Video Nasty' aside, it's hardly a masterpiece.

Not even Tea for Three?  The pre-handgliding sequence is a corker, although I concede the ending is rather desperate.

[Paul Dee]

So was it just edited to make Del seem less nasty then?

I watched it tonight for the first time (I think anyway; those clay pigeon scenes seemed overly familiar) and a lot of the cut shots and laughter seemed really out of place somehow in a couple of scenes.

[Gypsum Fantastic]

I'm just wondering how and why the audience sustained applause throughout the entire closing credits. It lasted ages. That doesn't usually happen does it? It was as if it was on a loop. I've never heard applause go on that long. What's going on? WHAT?

[The Mumbler]

The half-hour shows often had applause right to the end.  That's why it took me a long time to actually decipher what John Sullivan's singing.

[trotsky assortment]

Was the previously available VHS the original unedited version?

(for the life of me, I can't recall ever seeing this episode, though I'm convinced I must have seen them all by now...)

[Darrell]

Was the previously available VHS the original unedited version?

It was. I had it, and got rid of it. Bah.

[weirdbeard]

Was the previously available VHS the original unedited version?

Yeah.  I picked it up at a shop a few weeks back for a few quid.  

The original, uncut version is available on DVD, however, it's on Disc 13 of the Magazine/DVD collection along with A Frog's Legacy.  They're pretty sought after though, for obvious reasons, one copy is on eBay at the moment for £16 with just under 2 days to go.   Although the official site for the collection - http://www.onlyfoolsdvd.com/ - is advertising back issues including Issue 13 for sale at the standard price of £7.99.

[TJ]

I'm just wondering how and why the audience sustained applause throughout the entire closing credits. It lasted ages. That doesn't usually happen does it? It was as if it was on a loop. I've never heard applause go on that long. What's going on? WHAT?

Used to happen all the time back in the 1970s/1980s - Citizen Smith, Are You Being Served, It's A Knock-Out! etc...

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

I think there was a thread on the subject of audience applause over end credits before, either on here or The Mausoleum Club. Was Bottom the last series to do it? Or dinnerladies?