I didn't think it was very good. Not that interesting and Nicholas Lyndhurst really, really doesn't make a good gangster. Trigger is completely redundant - if you want him as the comic relief, give him some funny lines.
Rock & Chips Page 10
Quote: Ben @ December 30 2010, 10:04 PM GMTI didn't think it was very good. Not that interesting and Nicholas Lyndhurst really, really doesn't make a good gangster.
Maybe it would have been better if Freddie was more Rodney-ish, rather than just look like him?
Quote: bigfella @ December 30 2010, 7:45 PM GMTDifferent flat, different building isn't it?
Sir Walter Raleigh House.
I assumed that there was no reason for the building to be named after an unknown Nelson Mandela in 1960. And is there not reference in OFAH to the family having lived in the same flat since around that time?
It's definitely supposed to be the same building and flat. The original 'Nelson Mandela House' in the OFAH series was a topical reference to the practice by some London councils of naming municipal resources after black writers or activists.
Dalston Library became the CLR James Library in 1985 for example.
Quote: Godot Taxis @ January 1 2011, 4:42 PM GMTIt's definitely supposed to be the same building and flat. The original 'Nelson Mandela House' in the OFAH series was a topical reference to the practice by some London councils of naming municipal resources after black writers or activists.
Dalston Library became the CLR James Library in 1985 for example.
This.
It was supposed to be a joke.
Quote: Ben @ December 30 2010, 10:04 PM GMTNicholas Lyndhurst really, really doesn't make a good gangster.
I really rate Nicholas Lyndhurst as an actor and I think he puts in a really good performance only outshone by Kellie Bright.
Is it me or does Nick Lyndhurst seem to be basing his portrayal of Freddie on Peter Vaughan's Grouty from Porridge?
The first episode of Rock & Chips, I thought, was fantastic. Great acting, great music, great story. However, the follow up was disappointing.
Once I'd seen the first episode I was one of the people saying 'This should certainly get a series'. However, when I watched the second installment, John Sullivan didn't really do what I thought he would with it.
Therefore I was left thinking, the first episode of Rock & Chips said it all. No real need to return to it. Hope the next Special is better.
Nicholas Lyndhurst, in the first episode of Rock & Chips, in my opinion gave one of his absolute best acting performances.
The last episode of this (presumably) is on tonight, let's not forget. I've enjoyed these shows. An enjoyable embellishment of the originals.
I think I've just seen Gary Sparrow with a moustache.
I enjoyed it last night, but felt genuinley upset all the way through knowing it was the last work of the legend that was John Sullivan. Still shocked he's gone. I think there would probably have been a final episode, containing Freddie and Joanie's deaths, but it's a work that will be left unpublished. Such a shame, Sullivan takes the cause of Joanie's death to his grave.
This is worth watching if you didn't see it go out for the clever and moving scene near the end with Samantha Spiro, which was John doing proper writing, and is at least as effective as Alan Ayckbourn.
Rock and Chips is/was neither fish nor fowl and is/was hampered severely by containing the tyro forms of Delboy, Grandad, Boycie etc. Their story is un-engaging, because we know that they didn't develop into anything other than what they are now.
However the Freddie Robdall character played by Nicholas Lyndhurst is interesting and would work in a series by itself - a sort of 60s gangster drama where people didn't get cut up and put in dustbins or 'topped' at every occasion.
I've looked at Sullivan's writing quite closely over the years and it can be heartless and fairly crass, but this show definitely had/has potential to become something a little different. I wonder how many more scripts he'd written/blocked out?
Quote: Godot Taxis @ April 29 2011, 11:51 PM BSTI've looked at Sullivan's writing quite closely over the years and it can be heartless and fairly crass
Surely, in the cold light of day, all sitcom writers can be accused of this to some extent? Even the great ones? (And JS was a great one when really on-song.)
The end was melodramatic tosh - padding, really, in lew of any jokes. There was no need for the F word to be used, either. The best bits were with Nick Lyndhurst in it. The Trotters shouldn't be in it, just Freddie. Plus, the ending was rather ambiguous.
Didn't think this last one was great though when I thought it was hinting that Freddie Robdall and Joanie had run off, faking their own deaths or something and neither had actually died. That would have been more interesting, as it would have blown the mythology of Fools and Horses out of the water. As Godot said, it needs that sort of character thing going on.
Dan