"A Touch of Glass" is an episode of the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 sit-com, Only Fools and Horses

Only Fools and Horses

Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003...

, first screened on 2 December, 1982 as the final episode of series 2. It was the first episode of the show to attract over 10 million viewers.

The famous episode, which came second in the poll to find best Only Fools and Horses

Only Fools and Horses

Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003...

 moment, was repeated on 25 April 2011 on UKTV Gold

UKTV Gold

GOLD is the original channel of the UKTV network, broadcasting to the United Kingdom and Ireland. It launched on 1 November 1992 as UK Gold, and is currently available on Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk TV and terrestrial subscription via Top Up TV. It shows repeats of classic programming from the BBC...

 after John Sullivan

John Sullivan (writer)

John Richard Thomas Sullivan OBE was an English television scriptwriter responsible for several popular British sitcoms, including Only Fools and Horses, Citizen Smith and Just Good Friends....

's sudden death from pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

, as it is considered the best episode of the show he wrote.

Synopsis

During a trip out to the countryside to buy a consignment of musical china cats which play the song "How much is that doggie in the window?

(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?

" That Doggie in the Window?" is a popular novelty song written by Bob Merrill and Ingrid Reuterskiöld in 1952. The best-known version of the song was recorded by Patti Page on December 18, 1952 and released by Mercury Records as catalog number 70070, with the flip side being "My Jealous Eyes". It...

", Del Boy

Del Boy

Derek Edward Trotter, better known as "Del Boy", is the fictional lead character in the popular BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses and one of the main characters of its prequel, Rock & Chips...

, Rodney

Rodney Trotter

Rodney Charlton Trotter is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, played by Nicholas Lyndhurst.-Personality:Rodney's personality was based on the experiences of series creator John Sullivan, who also had an older sibling and, like Rodney, claimed to have been a dreamer and...

 and Grandad

Grandad (Only Fools and Horses)

Edward Kitchener "Ted" Trotter better known simply as Grandad, was a character in the popular BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses from 1981-1984...

 stop to assist a woman whose car has broken down. The woman turns out to be a member of the aristocracy

Aristocracy

Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...

, Lady Ridgemere. They tow her home and are grudgingly invited in by the snobbish Lord Ridgemere.

The Trotters quickly outstay their welcome at the mansion. Whilst there. Del overhears Lord Ridgemere haggling with someone on the telephone

Telephone

The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...

 about the cost of cleaning their two priceless Louis XIV

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

 chandelier

Chandelier

A chandelier is a branched decorative ceiling-mounted light fixture with two or more arms bearing lights. Chandeliers are often ornate, containing dozens of lamps and complex arrays of glass or crystal prisms to illuminate a room with refracted light...

s. Del then persuades the Lord that chandeliers are the Trotters' family business and agrees to carry out the necessary work cheaply.

The Trotters return to the mansion a week later to clean the chandeliers, though the Lord and Lady are nowhere to be seen. Grandad goes upstairs to undo the holding bolt for one of the chandeliers while Del and Rodney climb up on step ladders with a blanket ready to catch it. However, unknown to Del and Rodney (and the audience

Audience

An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...

), Grandad is actually loosening the bolt for the adjacent chandelier. He hits the bolt out, and as Del and Rodney are waiting to catch their chandelier, the other one falls down and smashes. After verifying with the butler that they never gave any of their contact details to the Ridgemeres, the Trotters quickly run out of the mansion and speedily drive away in their van.

Episode concept/production

John Sullivan's father was the inspiration for the smashed chandelier storyline. Working as a plumber in the 1930s, he and several others were fitting a new heating system into a stately home, and had to move some chandeliers. As with the Trotters, there was a mix up and the wrong one was undone and smashed. David Jason

David Jason

Sir David John White, OBE , better known by his stage name David Jason, is an English BAFTA award-winning actor. He is best known as the main character Derek "Del Boy" Trotter on the BBC sit-com Only Fools and Horses from 1981, the voice of Mr Toad in The Wind In The Willows and as detective Jack...

 and Ray Butt agreed that the storyline ought to be used, meaning Sullivan had to write the script backwards, starting with just the end point and then working out how the Trotters would come to be in a mansion.

The smashed chandelier was made by props company Trading Post. Despite being a fake, it was still worth about £6,000 and only one was made, meaning the scene could only be filmed once. It was initially intended that this would be the final scene in the episode, so after the incident Jason and Lyndhurst were required to stand and stare at each other in silence for 30 seconds while the camera rolled. Lyndhurst later recalled that Butt threatened him with the sack if he ruined the scene by laughing. Many of the cast and crew struggled to contain their laughter in the aftermath of the shot; Butt himself stuffed a handkerchief into his mouth and left the room.

Given the task of finding a suitable "Ridgemere Hall", production manager Janet Bone eventually settled on Clayesmore School

Clayesmore School

Clayesmore School is an independent school for boys and girls of the English public school tradition in the village of Iwerne Minster, Dorset, England. It is a member of The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference ....

, a boarding school

Boarding school

A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...

 in Iwerne Minster

Iwerne Minster

Iwerne Minster is a village in North Dorset, England, situated under Cranborne Chase in the Blackmore Vale just off the A350. The village has a population of 889 . A cheese shop employs 57 persons...

, Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

. The school would not give permission for any of its floorboards to be pulled up however, and so the scene with Granddad undoing the fastening nut was filmed in a house that belonged to Ray Butt's sister. The auction house seen at the beginning of the episode is the village hall

Village hall

In the United States, a village hall is the seat of government for villages. It functions much as a city hall does within cities.In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building within a village which contains at least one large room, usually owned by and run for the benefit of the local...

 of Sutton Waldron

Sutton Waldron

Sutton Waldron is a village in north Dorset, England, situated on the A350 road between Iwerne Minster and Fontmell Magna, in the Blackmore Vale under the scarp of Cranborne Chase, eight miles north of Blandford Forum and five miles south of Shaftesbury. The village has a population of 192 . It...

, Dorset.

Reception

"A Touch of Glass" was the first episode of Only Fools and Horses to attract a UK television audience of over 10 million. Owing to the chandelier scene, it is one of the show's best known episodes. In December 2006, the scene came second in a UKTV Gold

UKTV Gold

GOLD is the original channel of the UKTV network, broadcasting to the United Kingdom and Ireland. It launched on 1 November 1992 as UK Gold, and is currently available on Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk TV and terrestrial subscription via Top Up TV. It shows repeats of classic programming from the BBC...

 poll to find the Top 40 Only Fools Moments, second only to Del Boy falling through an open bar flap in the episode "Yuppy Love

Yuppy Love

"Yuppy Love" is an episode of the BBC sitcom, Only Fools and Horses. It was the first episode of series 6, and was first screened on 8 January, 1989...

". It was also voted the best British comedy moment in a 2000 poll.

Episode cast

Actor	Role
David Jason David Jason Sir David John White, OBE , better known by his stage name David Jason, is an English BAFTA award-winning actor. He is best known as the main character Derek "Del Boy" Trotter on the BBC sit-com Only Fools and Horses from 1981, the voice of Mr Toad in The Wind In The Willows and as detective Jack...	Del Boy
Nicholas Lyndhurst Nicholas Lyndhurst Nicholas Simon Lyndhurst is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Rodney Trotter in Only Fools and Horses, Gary Sparrow in Goodnight Sweetheart, and as Adam Parkinson in Carla Lane's series Butterflies...	Rodney
Lennard Pearce Lennard Pearce Lennard Pearce was an English actor who worked mostly in the theatre, but also appeared in a number of British television programmes. He landed his most notable TV role during the final few years of his life, starring as Edward "Grandad" Trotter in the popular sitcom, Only Fools and Horses from...	Grandad
Elizabeth Benson	Lady Ridgemere
Geoffrey Toone Geoffrey Toone Geoffrey Toone was an Irish-born character actor.Most of Toone's film roles after the 1930s were in supporting parts, usually as authority figures, though he did play the lead character in the Hammer Films production The Terror of the Tongs in 1961Toone was born in Dublin, Ireland to English...	Lord Ridgemere
Donald Bisset	Wallace (Butler)