The Inbetweeners: a brand new quality TV comedy about teenage life in the sixth-form…And who should they pick to choose to play the young Del Boy in Rock And Chips, the prequel to much beloved English TV series Only Fools And Horses? James Buckley from that show, that’s who! Great, I was impressed! The foul mouthed boy seemed like the perfect choice for the young Del Boy role; and then, stop the press, it was announced that the one and only Nicholas Lyndhurst—yes, lanky Rodney Trotter himself!—was to step into the role of Del Boy’s dad. Could life get any better?

It seemed too good to be true and yes–you’ve guessed it–Rock And Chips is; In fact, putting Good in the same sentence might be a little generous. The feature length ‘comedy drama’ is certainly funny, but the laughs don’t come from the jokes themselves. Mainly because there are no jokes, tragically. Somehow, as impossible as it might seem, the man who made Only Fools And Horses and also its prequel has managed to create an hour and a half long farce which is almost entirely deadly serious.

I didn’t want to admit any of this to myself at first, though; no, I watched and I waited for at least half an hour before I admitted that it had all gone sideways. At the one hour mark I was almost wanting to switch it off. That’s how let down I was.

But there is one saving grace. If you really, really love Fools then you may find some pleasure—absurd pleasure if you ask me—in tying up all those loose ends, such as who did what when they were young and where so and so came from. But, If you’re not someone who would gladly chop their right arm off to shake Del Boy’s hand then I suggest you give it a miss and stick to re-runs of the original.

I was just talking to my sister the other day and she told me that she has just gotten this amazing gig at a brand new Health and Beauty PR firm. I was really surprised to hear that she was interested in that stuff in all that stuff, but looking back at when we were little it does actually make sense. She was always the one who was playing with all the girly toys while I was in the backyard playing with trucks. Thankfully we have each other to balance it all out!