Tea for Three

"**Tea for Three**" is an episode of the BBC sitcom, *Only Fools and Horses*. It was the fourth episode of series 5, and was first broadcast on 21 September 1986. In the episode, Del and Rodney find themselves battling for the affections of Trigger's niece Lisa.

## Synopsis

It's Talent Night at *The Nag's Head*, and Uncle Albert is depressed because his wife Ada is in the hospital, even though the two have been estranged. Trigger tells Del Boy and Rodney that his niece Lisa will be arriving shortly. Del and Rodney both seem to remember her back from their childhood days. When Lisa, now aged 25, arrives, Del and Rodney are immediately shocked to discover that the untidy girl they once knew has evolved into an attractive woman. Intrigued, they both invite her over to Nelson Mandela House for tea the following evening. In the meantime, Albert gets up on stage and sings the song "Hey There" (though he pronounces it as "Ada") in tribute to his dear sick wife Ada, and wins the talent contest.

The next day, Albert is trying out the new solarium to cure his hangover, and Del enters the flat with a big bag of food for the tea with Lisa. Rodney says that he also made a contribution: cheese, because it's all he can afford. As the Trotter Brothers start to argue, Albert tells them both to pack it in, and decides to go down to the Legion. As Rodney has a go at the solarium, Albert talks about the time that he and Grandad fell out over the affection of Ada and never spoke to each other again. But Rodney falls asleep. Albert leaves, and Del turns up the timer on the solarium before leaving too.

Later that night, Del and Lisa are getting on well, while Rodney nurses his sunburnt face. Lisa tells the Trotter Brothers that she has some friends who run a hang-gliding club, in which Del lies by saying he enjoys it. This gives Rodney an idea in order to exact revenge for having his face burned. Rodney tells Lisa privately that they should give Del a chance to hang glide as a surprise for his "46th" (according to Rodney) birthday.

The following morning in Winchester, Del is shocked to hear that he is going to hang-glide. He and Rodney meet the owner of the hang-gliding club, Andy. Del also knows that Rodney did this just to humiliate his older brother. Rodney, with a "change of heart", decides to help Del out with the following plan: Del will pretend to be keen to hang-glide, and he'll put all the gear on. And just when Del is about to take off, Rodney will come up to him and say that they've got a very important telephone call from London, and have to go back. Del agrees to this plan. But just as Del does everything on his part, Rodney betrays his older brother at the last second. Del, not wanting to lose face in front of Lisa, actually flies the hang-glider - right out to sea.

Twelve hours later, back at the flat, Rodney, feeling guilty about what he did, is studying a map. Then Trigger and Mike show up with a wheelchair-using Del, who apologizes to Rodney for tampering with the solarium controls. Rodney, on the other hand, thinks that Del is faking his injury just to gain sympathy, and is proven right when Del leaps out of his wheelchair. Del then tells the story about how he flew all the way to Redhill, only to crash into a television transmitter and fall on top of an unsuspecting courting couple in their Ford Sierra, and how he has to pay for a new sunroof due to damage to the car, and on how the couple will have to postpone their upcoming wedding because of some injury sustained by Del and his glider falling on them, alongside a situation in Dymchurch where a group of children mistook Del for a spaceman and also may have to pay Radio Rentals for the damage to the transmitter. The mention of the husband and wife to be who Del injured, in turn reminds Trigger to tell the others of Lisa's wedding to Andy, who she has actually been engaged to for over a year, has been set. Mike offers to open The Nag's Head early for a celebration drink, and Trigger and Albert join him, while Del and Rodney both realise their efforts towards Lisa were all for nothing.

## Featured characters

* Del Boy
* Rodney
* Uncle Albert
* Mike Fisher
* Trigger
* Lisa
* Andy

## Other notes

### Continuity errors

* Rodney says he used to play with Lisa when they were children, but in "Big Brother", Rodney had to be introduced to Trigger as if they had never met before.

### Miscellaneous trivia

* When the hanglider scene was filmed, David Jason, who is a trained hang glider pilot, scuba diver, and swims with dolphins, wanted to actually fly the hang glider himself, but the BBC said it was too risky for him to fly it, for insurance reasons.
* When Del panics about being scared to Rodney, Rodney responds: "No, you can't do that. A Green Beret with a headache?" in reference to Del's lie about being in the Parachute Regiment. This is incorrect: the green beret belongs to the Royal Marines, whilst the Parachute Regiment sport a maroon beret.

### DVD cuts and edits

* The scene where Albert gets on the stage and sings "Hey There" was edited out of the R2 DVD version of the episode for contractual reasons, yet can be seen in repeats on G.O.L.D.

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