Recap / Bottom Digger

I don't think I've got time to grow a beard.

The dating episode. The boys haven't had much (or indeed, any) luck with the ladies so they go to a dating agency where they both manage to get set up with dates. Eddie, though, refuses Sarah Ferguson. The two go back to the flat to prepare for Richie's (apparently) aristocratic date, which almost results in Richie almost having sex.

Tropes

• The Alcoholic: Eddie again. No opened bottle in his vicinity escapes his attention.
  Richie: Have you opened the wine yet?
  Eddie: Yes.
  Richie: Well, where is it?
  Eddie: I opened it half an hour ago. Where do you think it is?
• Ass Shove: The potato masher has yet to be retrieved from inside Harry "I'll do anything for half a pint" Grundy.
• Comically Missing the Point: When reading his sex manual, Richie laments that he probably doesn't have time to grow a beard, and hopes that the man in the pictures has cleaned his teeth.
• Domestic Abuse: Discussed, as that is what the charity collector is collecting money for.
  Collector: I 'm collecting for victims of domestic abuse.
  Eddie: Oh, thank you very much. [takes the collection tin from her]
• Drunk on Milk: Richie reels from a nerve-steadying shot of Tizer ^note  a kind of soft drink popular in the UK .
• Everyone Has Standards: When told that the dating agency has matched him with Sarah Ferguson ^note  as in, the Duchess of York who had at the time recently separated from her husband and was often the subject of ridicule by the tabloid press , Eddie refuses.
• Fake Aristocrat: In order to get a date, Richie claims to be the Duke of Kidderminster, an eccentric (and inbred) millionaire. He later claims that he must have some noble blood in him, given that all aristocrats give blood and he's had a lot of transfusions over the years.
• Gender-Blender Name: According to Eddie, his mother's name was Adolf.
• Gold Digger: When Richie goes up to his room to get ready for sex, Natasha confesses to Eddie that she's one of these — her family has no money, so she's come to England to marry the first rich aristocratic idiot she could find.
• Groin Attack: Eddie is on the receiving end of a few of these, from the charity collector as well as Richie.
• Head-Tiltingly Kinky: Richie and his sex manual.
• I Ate WHAT?!: Richie takes a gulp of caviar before Eddie informs him it is fish poo. Very expensive fish poo ^note  it 's actually very expensive fish roe (eggs), but Eddie could hardly be expected to know that . He reacts by trying to spit it out (and scrape what's left of it off his tongue) without Natasha noticing.
• Innocent Innuendo: Eddie offering hors (pronounced like 'whores') d'oeuvre and pork to Lady Natasha.
• Literal Metaphor: Eddie boasts to Natasha that he has a few quid flying around. To illustrate this, he reaches into his pocket for change and throws it on the floor.
• Lousy Lovers Are Losers: Invoked at the end of the episode. Richie loses out on his chance to sleep with Natasha after he passes out due to the excitement of seeing her strip naked. When he wakes up in an ambulance, Eddie accidentally lets it slip that while they were waiting for the ambulance, she seduced him. He tries to comfort Richie by saying she was "crap", but it's clear the opposite is true and Richie zaps Eddie with the heart defibrillator in revenge.
• Mock Millionaire: Richie and Eddie join a dating service, and Richie gets a date with Lady Natasha Letitia Sarah Jane Wellesley Obstromsky Ponsonsky Smythe Smythe Smythe Smythe Smythe Oblomov Boblomov Dob, third Viscountess of Moldavia. To impress her, Richie pretends to be an eccentric millionaire aristocrat with Eddie as his butler.
• Ms. Fanservice: Natasha is probably the closest this show gets to one of these.
• Oh, Crap!: Richie when he throws away what he thinks is mould on the plates, only to be told that it's actually the expensive caviar that he sold a kidney for.
• Overly Long Name: Lady Natasha Letitia Sarah Jane Wellesley Obstromsky Ponsonsky Smythe Smythe Smythe Smythe Smythe Oblomov Boblomov Dob, third Viscountess of Moldavia ^note  Sounds great, we'll have half a dozen! .
• Pun: The Polo Lounge has a tray of Polo mints.
• That's What She Said: A rare straight example when Eddie recalls a lost love.
  Richie: Let's just forget it, shall we?
  Eddie: That's what she said!
  Richie: Let's just drop it.
  Eddie: She said that as well!
  Richie: Edward Hitler, I'm really not interested.
  Eddie: This is uncanny! Were you there?
• Shout-Out to Shakespeare: Attempted when Richie (while trying to impress Natasha) asks Eddie what it was that Shakespeare used to say. Eddie, being Eddie, comes out with the following gem (which, to be fair, is something on the lines of what the Bard might have said when pitching Hamlet):
  Eddie: What do you mean, it's crap? There's eight bodies at the end, and he gets to shag his mum!
• Tuckerization: The owner of the dating agency is called Lily Linneker and the charity collector is a Mrs Gascoigne. This refers to Gary Lineker and Paul Gascoigne, footballers who played for Tottenham Hotspur and England in the early 1990s ^note  although by the time this episode was broadcast in late 1992, neither of them did — by then, Lineker had transferred to the Japanese club Grampus Eight and from international football, while Gascoigne had transferred to the Italian club Lazio .
• Use Your Head: Richie makes use of Eddie as a potato masher.
• Would Hit a Girl: Played for Laughs. Eddie gets into a brief tussle with a somewhat violent female charity collector before taking her collection tin and knocking her out with a hammer. She presumably dies as a result, as Natasha (who arrives shortly afterwards) says that she had to walk over a dead body in the corridor. The number of collection tins Eddie has in the cupboard strongly implies that it's not the first time he's done this.

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