The Green Green Grass

***The Green Green Grass*** is a BBC television sitcom, created and initially written by John Sullivan, produced by Shazam Productions for the BBC. It is a spin-off of the long running sitcom *Only Fools and Horses* and stars John Challis, Sue Holderness and Jack Doolan. Four series and three Christmas specials were originally broadcast on BBC One between 2005 and 2009.

The series follows three characters from *Only Fools and Horses*; Boycie (John Challis), his wife Marlene (Sue Holderness) and their teenage son Tyler. In the first episode, they are forced to move from Peckham to escape the Driscoll brothers. They decide to set up home on a farm in rural Shropshire.

## Synopsis

Boycie (played by John Challis) is forced to flee Peckham after providing crucial evidence against the infamous Driscoll brothers regarding illegal immigrants and drug smuggling, resulting in the Driscolls' imprisonment. He is the lead witness in the case and finds himself in trouble when every single other witness changes their statement and the Driscoll brothers walk free. In an attempt to live to old age, Boycie and his wife, Marlene (Sue Holderness) and son Tyler (Jack Doolan) move overnight to the secluded town of Oakam, Shropshire, along with their pet Rottweiler, Earl. Upon arrival at Winterdown Farm, Boycie begins to realise that confronting the violent Driscolls, was maybe the easier option.
The situation focuses primarily on their futile attempts to run the farm efficiently through utilising the current staff consisting of Elgin Sparrowhawk (David Ross), Bryan (Ivan Kaye), Jed (Peter Heppelthwaite) and Imelda Cakeworthy (Ella Kenion) – the farm's loyal, if a little eccentric staff. As the series progressed, Boycie and Marlene began to settle into their surroundings however, situations arose occasionally – usually involving their Welsh neighbour, Llewellyn. Tyler was soon sent to school to finish his GCSEs, something he really did not want to do but again problems arose as Tyler fell in love with his English teacher.

The snob in Boycie is often his downfall, as he found out when he attended the Agricultural Ball in 2005, where his photo was taken and published in a magazine that stated where he would be that Christmas. However, luck ensured that Boycie remained at home when he was snowed in and missed his plane, thus not getting scammed by con artists and not getting killed by the Driscoll brothers, who had travelled to meet him.

As the series progressed further, Boycie started to use artificial fertiliser on his organic farm, applied to be mayor, fired Mrs Cakeworthy, only to rehire her and, to Marlene's disgust, became infatuated with Tyler's promiscuous French exchange. He also ended up naked in front of Tyler's girlfriend through a massage gone awry, and took part in a pub quiz, in which a £10,000 bet with Llewellyn – of his own money – was up for grabs.

In 2006, a whole year after they escaped, Boycie allowed Marlene to invite her sister Petunia up to stay; she was, however, followed by the Driscoll brothers, without anyone knowing. They attacked the farm's staff and tied them up in the barn (including Boycie's Rottweiler, Earl). When Boycie realised something was wrong he went to investigate the barn only to come face to face with two sawn-off shotguns.

Following the Driscoll brothers' visit, life on Winterdown Farm is calm. Marlene, Tyler and Boycie have settled down and are beginning to enjoy village life. However, they cannot return to Peckham due to a deal between the Driscoll brothers and Boycie – he would allow them to bury a secret item (later revealed to be 5 million Spanish pesetas in cash) on his land and he must protect it. The events of 2006 still had repercussions in 2007, even though Farm Idol was accepting auditions and Earl was missing in the woods. Also, Boycie began to worry about his health after finding out about a genetic similarity between him and past generations (but still worrying about it after finding out that his biological father was a captured Nazi-German pilot). A death was about to hit the farm hard though, Brian's pet turkey, Paxo.

The departure of Lisa Diveney as Beth was then filled with the arrival of Samantha Sutherland, who played Sara, Tyler's new girlfriend. Boycie fell in fear of the Driscoll brothers once more when they turned up at The Grange and machine gunned his front door down when he refused to answer it. Also, paranormal experts investigate the house, Boycie decides to take some old items to the *Antiques Roadshow* and Boycie and Marlene decide to renew their vows for their fortieth wedding anniversary, but realise they might not be legally married at all.

The humour comes from several sources. The interaction between characters is essential and much is made of the character's individual traits, such as Boycie's snobbery, Elgin's façade of stupidity, Bryan and Jed's general daftness, Imelda's non-cleaning habits and Llewellyn's constant underhand moves. There are also several running gags, including Boycie's attempts to be a gentleman farmer and his yearning for respect which he never gets, Boycie's fear of the Driscoll brothers and Marlene's supposed long-time affair with a now-unseen Del Boy, and the fact that Tyler is hinted to be Del's son.

## Cast

*Main article: List of The Green Green Grass characters*

## External links

* *The Green Green Grass*  at the Internet Movie Database
* *The Green Green Grass* at British TV Comedy

Rodney Trotter ·
Grandad ·
Uncle Albert ·
Trigger ·
Boycie ·
Marlene ·
Mike ·
Raquel ·
Cassandra ·
Damien ·
Denzil ·
Mickey Pearce ·