The pregnant German girl episode. First broadcast 31 August 1986.
In the Nag's Head one night, the Trotters encounter a frightened 19-year-old German woman called Anna who, after some initial problems with the language barrier, tells them that she has been working in England as an au pair but has recently been fired and has no money and nowhere to go. After Del and Albert go home, Rodney takes pity on her and invites her to stay at the flat. It's only when she gets up that she is revealed to be very heavily pregnant.
Back at the flat, Anna explains that she was working for a Mr. and Mrs. Wainwright. When they threw a party, she got drunk and was taken advantage of by their son, Spencer. When she found out that she was pregnant as a result, she told her employers, but they fired her. Not wanting her family back home to know what had happened, she planned to stay in London, have the baby and then give it up for adoption. But she's run out of money.
This gives Del an idea. Boycie and Marlene have dreamed of having a child for years but have been unable to conceive — and, thanks to Boycie's criminal record, they've been unable to adopt either. Since Anna is almost due and wants to give up her baby, Del approaches Boycie and Marlene and gets them to adopt the baby. For £3,000. This causes Rodney and Albert to get angry with Del, even though — as he points out — everyone is going to get what they want; Anna will have her baby adopted, and Marlene will get the child she's so desperately wanted. Del's even going to give Anna £300 to take back to Germany with her.
After Anna gives birth, Boycie and Marlene come over to the flat to pick up the baby. But they're in for a surprise — not only is the baby a girl (Del having previously told them that Anna had had a scan which said the baby was going to be a boy), but she's of mixed race — as a smirking Rodney reveals, he had previously tried to tell Del that the Wainwrights had come over from Jamaica in 1956, but he hadn't listened. An irate Boycie calls the deal off, and leaves with a distraught Marlene. Anna, for her part, has bonded with her baby and now wants to keep her.
Tropes:
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: As a younger man, Boycie did time in prison for "perjury, embezzlement, conspiring to pervert the course of justice, the fraudulent conversion of travellers' cheques and attempting to bribe the Mayor of Lambeth".Marlene: With your record, I'm surprised we're allowed to keep a dog!
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Albert claims to be able to speak German. Unsurprisingly, he can't.Albert: [to Anna, with a questionable German accent] Vot - iss - your - name?
- Bilingual Bonus: Anna, the pregnant German au pair, does speak some lines of French fluently.
- Chocolate Baby: Once Anna's baby is born, it turns out that the father is black (specifically, a second-generation West Indian immigrant). Marlene still wants to go ahead with the adoption, but Boycie doesn't see how they can claim it's theirs.Marlene: We could say it's a throwback.Boycie: For God's sake, Marlene! I might be able to con people into buying my cars, I might even be able to convince them you conceived and gave birth in seven days flat, but how the hell am I going to persuade them my grandad was Louis Armstrong?
- Continuity Nod: When Del and Rodney go round to Boycie's place to pitch the adoption idea, Rodney gets lumbered into playing with Duke, the dog who'd previously been looked after by the Trotters in "Sleeping Dogs Lie".
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Zigzagged. Del eventually feels guilty about trying to sell Anna's baby and tries to abort the deal with Boycie. Unfortunately, while it redeems him in Rodney and Albert's eyes, it's too late as Boycie and his wife have noticed the baby is clearly of mixed race, putting Del in a bad light and landing him in hot water with the very irate Boycie. Marlene on the other hand, still genuinely wants the baby, leading to a rather sympathetic interaction with Del.
- Not Now, Kiddo: Del shoots down Rodney's rebuttal after the pregnancy, convinced he's laying into him again. He is objecting, but he's also trying to point out the key issue of the baby being a Chocolate Baby.
- The Reveal: Twice. It's not until Anna gets up that she is shown to be heavily pregnant. Once she's given birth, it's revealed that the baby is a Chocolate Baby. Rodney knew this (because Anna had told him more about her circumstances than she did the others) but had not been able to fully explain the situation to Del.
- Separated by a Common Language: Anna speaks excellent English. This causes some problems, given that she did not learn Peckham English...Anna: Does anyone speak English?Del: English! You saucy mare, course we speak English, we invented the lingo, didn't we?
- Shout-Out: The title of the episode is a play on From Russia with Love.
- Translation: "Yes": From Oxford English to Peckham English when the trio meet Anna, a German girl who has just been fired from her job as au pair because she's pregnant. As the slightly more educated one in the family, Rodney is forced to translate for Del and Albert.Anna: Mr Wainwright said that my disruptive influence on Spencer makes it inexpedient for me to remain.[Del and Albert look at Rodney for a translation]Rodney: He said, "On yer bike".
- What the Hell, Hero?: Rodney makes perfectly clear he's uncomfortable with Del planning to sell Anna's baby to Boycie and Marlene. Even Albert, despite initially agreeing it's likely for the best, admits he's not sure anymore when the moment comes.
