History Recap / OnlyFoolsAndHorsesS4E08ToHullAndBack

* BigDamnMovie: Arguably the nearest to one the series got. It is feature-length, shot entirely in film, and involves one of the Trotters' most high stakes money-making schemes; a smuggling job all the way to Amsterdam.

* BigDamnMovie: Arguably the nearest to one the series got. It is shot entirely in film, and involves one of the Trotters' most high stakes money-making schemes; a smuggling job all the way to Amsterdam.

-->'''Slater''': Look Hoskins, Terence, use your loaf, help me out of this and I'll make you a rich man — the money from them other diamonds is in a bank account, I'll let you have half. What do you think?
-->'''Hoskins''': ''[turns, revealing a hidden microphone on his lapel]'' [[TheDogBitesBack You seem to forget sir, I don't think, I only do my job.]]

-->'''Del''': No. that's how we got to Zeebrugge. It was going the wrong bloody way!

* NobodyHereButUsBirds: Rodney is left on lookout while Del discusses diamond smuggling with Boycie and is told to make an owl noise if the police arrive. The strangled noise he actually makes is mistaken by Slater for a crow. Not that it really matters, as Slater actually has no interest in stopping them, since they're just patsies in ''his'' smuggling operation.

* PaperThinDisguise: While waiting for the Trotters to arrive at Gatwick Airport, Slater wears a sombrero to make it look like he's a tourist who's just got back from Spain. Even though he's wearing a suit and tie.

* TheCon: Not only is [[DirtyCop Roy Slater]] aware that diamond smuggling is going on, he's in league with Van Kleefe (the Dutchman who's selling the diamonds to the British smugglers) and so knows when a courier will be coming to London with the diamonds. He then intercepts the courier and lets them go free in return for the diamonds, which he can then sell on for his own profit; Van Kleefe, for his part, gets to keep the money that the couriers gave him in return for the diamonds. By the start of this episode, he has successfully carried out this particular con three times, but what he doesn't know is that the police are onto him...

** When Del realises that Denzil's avoiding him, he wonders why he would do this. Rodney points out that he has several reasons -- Del ruined his wedding reception (as mentioned in [[Recap/OnlyFoolsAndHorsesS3E07WhosAPrettyBoy "Who's a Pretty Boy?"]]), wrecked his kitchen (as ''seen'' in the same episode) and stole his redundancy money (as seen in [[Recap/OnlyFoolsAndHorsesS4E07AsOneDoorCloses "As One Door Closes"]]).

* OddballInTheSeries: The only episode of the series to be shot entirely on film, and correspondingly, the only one with no laugh track in any release -- [[Recap/OnlyFoolsAndHorsesS04E07ARoyalFlush "A Royal Flush"]] was mostly shot on film, but still used videotape for the scenes of the Trotters' flat, and had a laugh track added in later releases.

* TheDogBitesBack: Fittingly, Slater ends up the victim of this himself when his dogsbody, PC Terry Hoskins, sets him up and he gets busted for his diamond-smuggling scheme.

-->'''Slater''': Look Hoskins, Terrance, use your loaf, help me out of this and I'll make you a rich man — the money from them other diamonds is in a bank account, I'll let you have half. What do you think?

* MoneyToThrowAway: At the end, Del Boy throws away £15,000 thinking it's counterfeit. It's not.

* OddballInTheSeries: The only episode of the series to be shot entirely on film, and correspondingly, the only one with no laugh track in any release -- "A Royal Flush" was mostly shot on film, but still used videotape for the scenes of the Trotters' flat, and had a laugh track added in later releases.

After having to stop at an oil rig to ask for directions, the Trotters arrive in Amsterdam and collect the diamonds; Del spots that the money Boycie gave him to pay for them is fake, but Van Kleefe, the Dutch diamond merchant, does not pick up on this. Meanwhile, back at the police station, Slater deduces that Del is the courier and waits at the airport for the Trotters to arrive. In the event, Albert gets lost on the way back, and the Trotters eventually return to London somewhat later than planned. Nevertheless, all seems to have gone well until Slater catches Abdul, Boycie and the Trotters with the money and the diamonds.

->''I've been to Amsterdam, I've been to Hull and back, and for what?''

* CounterfeitCash: Del acts as a courier between Boycie and some Dutch diamond smugglers. Del quickly realises the cash Boycie gave him for the transaction is counterfeit. What he doesn't realise is that his own payment for services isn't fake, and the episode ends with him throwing it away.

--> '''Del:''' Just get me back to Peckham or I'll be saying "Eh-up!" and breeding whippets before I'm much older!
* PaperThinDisguise: While waiting for the Trotters to arrive at Gatwick Airport, Slater wears a sombrero to make it look like he's a tourist who's just got back from Spain.

* CounterfeitCash: Del quickly realises the cash Boycie gave him for the transaction is counterfeit. What he doesn't realise is that his own payment ''isn't'' fake, and the episode ends with him throwing it away.

* ShoutOut: The title is a play on the 1955 war film ''To Hell and Back''. Speaking of war films, the one Albert's watching in the pub at the beginning is ''Film/TheCruelSea''.

* {{Headscratchers}}: If Del, who has never (as far as we know) been involved in international diamond smuggling before, can figure out that he won't be able to get the diamonds past airport security (which, combined with his inadvertent trip to Hull, is what leads him to hire a boat to get to and from Amsterdam), how come Slater and Hoskins are convinced that the couriers ''will'' come from Amsterdam to London by air?
** Since the previous couriers have all travelled by air, Slater thinks this lot are going to do the same. Hoskins, of course, is not paid to think.

* WorthyOpponent: Slater, for his part, sees Del as this.