Who's a Pretty Boy?

"**Who's a Pretty Boy?**" is an episode of the BBC sitcom, *Only Fools and Horses*. It was the penultimate episode of series 3, and was first broadcast on 22 December 1983. In the episode, Del persuades Denzil to let them redecorate his flat, despite his wife Corrine's objections. Things go awry when they think they have killed Corrine's pet canary.

## Synopsis

Del Boy is jealous of Brendan O' Shaughnessy, an experienced painter and decorator, who sold him a tin of paint that was battleship grey instead of apple white. Del gets his opportunity for revenge by agreeing to decorate his friend Denzil's flat, much to the chagrin of Corinne, Denzil's viper-tongued wife. To do this, Del has to convince Denzil that Brendan (Denzil's original choice) was a good man, who was a great painter and did a fine job which Del only saw after the fire. As Denzil begins to investigate the causes (by asking Del and taking his word for it), he learns that it was in fact an accident caused by the fact that Brendan and his friends enjoyed their lunchtime pint, and even the coroner testified to this. Denzil immediately dismisses Brendan and chooses Del for the job.

The next day, Del, Rodney, and Grandad arrive at Denzil's flat and put the kettle on for a cup of tea (even though Corinne distinctly left a note telling them to stay out of the kitchen), only to fill up the kitchen with steam, leave the kettle with a big hole, and Corinne's pet canary dead. The Trotters all panic about what will happen when Corinne returns. Del takes drastic action by telling Grandad to go out and buy another canary, while Del and Rodney try to fix everything else.

Grandad goes to a pet shop owned by his Italian friend, Louis Lombardi, and after much communication trouble, finally manages to buy a canary from him for £45. He returns to Denzil's flat, and Corinne returns to a shock when she sees the new canary. The Trotters appear puzzled as to how she may have immediately realised that this was not the same bird, to which she informs them that when she awoke that morning, the canary was already dead, meaning they panicked and bought the new one for nothing. Despite this, Corinne tries to make herself a cup of coffee and floods the kitchen through the hole in the kettle, exposing the Trotters' antics. In a rage, she throws them out.

A few hours later, at *The Nag's Head*, a smug Brendan comes in gloating to the Trotters that he will be taking over the job of decorating Denzil's flat, much to the disbelief of Del who has hitherto held a certain amount of respect for Corinne in that she was not the type to broadcast things. Then, the Trotters meet the pub's new landlord, Mike Fisher, and convince him to increase the brewery's bill of £1000 for Brendan to redecorate the pub to £2,000 for Del to do the job. Mike appears puzzled since the first offer was cheaper for his brewery, so Del explains to him that from that money, he and Mike would take a quarter each. When Mike asks Del what would happen to the other half, Del says that the Irishman could take it and do the whole job. Mike, in the knowledge that this will cost the brewery and not him, warmly agrees.

## Featured characters

* Del Boy
* Rodney
* Grandad
* Denzil (first appearance)
* Corinne
* Mike (first appearance)
* Brendan O' Shaughnessy
* Karen (barmaid)
* Louis Lombardi

## Other notes

### Story arc

* Del refers to a house Brendan burnt down in the King's Avenue, which is seen five years later in "Yuppy Love", where Rodney is dropped off outside a large house in the King's Avenue, trying to impress Cassandra that it was in fact where he lived.
* The character of Brendan O' Shaughnessy would not appear again, although he would be mentioned as an important off-screen character in "As One Door Closes".

### Continuity errors

* In order to acquire the job of painting Denzil's flat, Del needed to produce a story which would discredit the originally chosen Irishman, and clear the coast for the Trotters. In doing so, Del talks of the time that he used to be in the painting & decorating profession; although Denzil never knew this, Del stated that it had been in the family for years (even getting a positive gesture from Rodney who wasn't quite concentrating). By the time of "The Class of '62", it would emerge that Denzil has in fact been local to the area since the boys were 12, in which case they will have known each other from a time when Del was too young to work professionally; so Denzil would have known Del not to be a professional painter.

### Production goofs

* When Grandad leaves the pet shop after buying the owner's canary, the cage is fully wrapped. The canary couldn't have breathed if there was no air holes in the wrapped up cage.

### Miscellaneous trivia

* Eva Mottley, who played Corinne, made her only appearance in the series in this episode. She died of suicide by overdose in 1985. Out of respect, writer John Sullivan never killed off the character but was mentioned in many future episodes by Denzil. The pair later separated.
* This episode is the second of only three episodes of *Only Fools and Horses* in which the interior of the Trotters' flat is not seen. The other two are "Cash and Curry" from the first season, and "The Longest Night" from the fifth season.

"Go West Young Man" ·
"Cash and Curry" ·
"The Second Time Around" ·
"A Slow Bus To Chingford" ·
"Ashes to Ashes" ·
"A Losing Streak" ·
"No Greater Love" ·
"The Yellow Peril" ·
"It Never Rains..." ·
"Healthy Competition" ·
"Friday the 14th" ·
"Yesterday Never Comes" ·
"May the Force Be with You" ·
"Wanted" ·
"Strained Relations ·
"Hole in One" ·
"It's Only Rock and Roll" ·
"Sleeping Dogs Lie" ·
"Watching the Girls Go By" ·
"The Miracle of Peckham" ·
"The Longest Night" ·
"Tea for Three" ·
"Video Nasty" ·
"Danger UXD" ·
"Chain Gang" ·
"The Unlucky Winner Is..." ·
"Sickness and Wealth" ·
"The Chance of a Lunchtime" ·
"Stage Fright" ·
"The Class of '62" ·
"He Ain't Heavy, He's My Uncle" ·
"Diamonds Are For Heather" (1982) ·
"Thicker than Water" (1983) ·
"Licensed to Drill" (1984) ·
"To Hull and Back" (1985) ·
"A Royal Flush" (1986) ·
"The Frog's Legacy" (1987) ·
"Dates" (1988) ·
"The Jolly Boys' Outing" (1989) ·
"Rodney Come Home" (1990) ·
"Miami Twice" (1991) ·
"Mother Nature's Son" (1992) ·
"Fatal Extraction" (1993) ·
"Heroes and Villains" (1996) ·
"Modern Men" (1996) ·
"Time On Our Hands" (1996) ·
"If They Could See Us Now" (2001) ·
"Strangers on the Shore" (2002) ·
"Sleepless in Peckham" (2003)
"Beckham in Peckham" (2014)