10 Best Only Fools And Horses Episodes
7. Thicker Than Water
A lot of British sitcoms seem to have a common theme of dead mother and/or absent father. In this Christmas special, we finally get to meet Del and Rodney's father, Reginald.
Del is not happy to see him but despite this Rodney wants to give him the opportunity to make amends, especially since he might be dying of a blood disorder that may have been passed onto the two brothers, prompting them to be tested. When the results come back, Del discovers that his blood group is different to the rest of the family and Reg uses this to ostracise him from the family.
It's good to get answers about the Trotter family patriarch, played by the original Gollum Peter Woodthorpe, and just how eerily similar he and Del are, however loathed he is to admit it. Though Woodthorpe does portray Reg as the absolute scum that his eldest son always described him as by the end of the episode, attempting to pit the brother against each other for his own gain. It's the first time the show got some emotional moments which would soon be a staple of the writing and set the groundwork for the years to come.