This was a shamefully underrated ITV comedy of 1976, written by Terence "There's a girl in my soup" Frisby and produced by Humphrey Barclay. Also set in south-east London, the basic set-up can be seen as a dry run for Only Fools and Horses, except with David Jason playing the "Rodders" part. There are two brothers: a sex god (Randolph Mepstead, played by Peter Armitage) and a shy nerd (Shorty Mepstead, played by Jason). The nerd is in love with a girl (Cheryl Hall); the girl is sexually infatuated with the sex god. Put like that it sounds a fairly standard romcom, but the quality of the writing was high and the comedy of social misunderstandings was highly inventive.
It was attacked by critics and only lasted one series, axed by the production company London Weekend Television. Years later it was reported in the press that LWT, presumably hoping to make some money out of the popularity of Del Boy Trotter, had approached David Jason to ask if it could be reshown. Alas, Jason turned them down. He apparently still felt aggrieved that LWT had not got behind such a superior project. But this is the kind of show that is ripe for revaluation.
