As One Door Closes

"**As One Door Closes**" is an episode of the BBC sitcom, *Only Fools and Horses*. It was the final episode of series 4 and first broadcast on 4 April 1985. In the episode, Del and Rodney hunt for a rare butterfly.

## Synopsis

Del Boy's latest get-rich-quick scheme involves super-sharp hair combs, and louvre doors funded by Denzil's £2,000 redundancy money. But unfortunately, Brendan O' Shaughnessy and Teddy Cummings don't want the louvre doors, which lands Del in hot water with Denzil, who's demanding his money back.

Rodney reads an article about a rare butterfly, and a butterfly collector's desire to catch it and pay a large sum of money to whoever brings it to him. Later, while on the run from Denzil's angry brothers, the Trotters see the butterfly in the local cemetery. Rodney eventually captures it in the lake of the nearby park.

He hands it to Del, but Denzil, after hearing that Del has got him his money back, skates by and gives Del a high five, crushing the butterfly - much to the annoyance of Rodney.

## Featured characters

* Del Boy
* Rodney
* Uncle Albert
* Denzil

## Other notes

### Episode concept

* The idea for the script was based on a true story of a rare butterfly that John Sullivan had read about.

### Continuity errors

* When the Trotters are in the cemetery, Del says that Grandad is in the garden of "external peace" which surely means he was cremated, yet in "Strained Relations", Grandad had been buried.

### Production goofs

* At the scene when the Trotters visit Joan's gravestone, the bench is several footsteps away and the ground directly behind the bench is clear, yet in "The Yellow Peril" when Del and Rodney visit Joan's grave, the bench is one step away from the elaborate gravestone, and also directly behind the bench are other gravestones, clearly a different cemetery.

### Miscellaneous trivia

* This episode contains a rare instance of the series using video rather than film for location scenes. This came about because the location sequences in some of the earlier episodes this series (most notably "Hole in One") had been pre-filmed with Lennard Pearce prior to his death. When Buster Merryfield joined the show, the earlier episodes had to be re-filmed, which left them with only enough money to film half of the location sequences in this episode. The BBC agreed to cover the budget shortfall, but on the condition that video be used instead of film, due to its lower cost.

"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)