Rock & Chips - BBC1 Comedy Drama - British Comedy Guide (original) (raw)
Genre
Broadcast
Channel
Episodes
Stars
James Buckley, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Kellie Bright, Shaun Dingwall, Phil Daniels, Robert Daws, Lewis Osborne, Stephen Lloyd and more
Writer
Director
Producers
Gareth Gwenlan, Mark Freeland and John Sullivan
Companies
It's February 1960 in Orchard Street, Peckham, and the glamorous Joan Trotter is off to work at the Ritz Cinema, strutting down the road with her clickety-clack heels and swinging hips, drawing disdainful glances from her jealous neighbours.
Through a leafy country lane, a 1959 Jaguar Mark 9 races towards London with Freddie "The Frog" Robdal at the wheel, Gerald "Jelly" Kelly alongside.
And a young Del Boy sits with his mates Trigger, Boycie, Denzil and Jumbo Mills polishing off their half-pints of beer while Bobby Day's Rockin' Robin plays on the jukebox of the Nag's Head.
Joan Trotter is stuck in a loveless marriage to the workshy Reg, her only escape is the movies, working as an usherette at the Ritz Cinema and losing herself in the glamour of the black-and-white films on the silver screen.
Here she shares a joke with her friend Reenie and does her best to evade the "hands on" approach to uniform inspections from her manager, Mr Raynor. Outside, life is hard as she holds down two jobs to feed her family including Reg's dad, who has moved in with them.
Then Freddie arrives back in town, fresh from a stay at Her Majesty's Pleasure. He soon spots Joan and starts to befriend the family, offering Reg work as a way to ingratiate himself. But he also has big plans which need paying for... despite his best intentions to stay on the straight and narrow!
Meanwhile, Del is making use of his new friend Denzil's dockyard connections, taking care of "damaged" stock that's arrived from America. LPs, watches, clothes, and even some brand new carpet, Del can sell anything: "I guarantee you, one day I'm gonna be a millionaire," he boldly claims.
This bittersweet love story sheds new light on the lives of South London's most famous family, the Trotters.
Five Gold Rings and The Frog & The Pussycat picked up the Trotter story following the birth of baby Rodney in 1960 and follow the fortunes of the family as Del progresses to manhood in Sixties London, alongside faithful muckers, Boycie (Stephen Lloyd), Trigger (Lewis Osborne), Denzil (Ashley Gerlach) and Jumbo Mills (Lee Long).
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Additional details
Also known as
- Once Upon A Time In Peckham (Working title)
- Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n' Chips (Working title)
Production
Location
Camera set-up
Single camera
Picture
Colour
Website links
- Production Photos On Flickr
A series of snaps from the filming on the photo sharing website. - IMDb
- Wikipedia
Broadcast details
First broadcast
Sunday 24th January 2010 at 9pm on BBC One
Most recent repeats