Dates (Only Fools and Horses) Dates (Only Fools and Horses) "Dates" is the seventh Christmas special episode of the BBC sitcom, "Only Fools and Horses", first broadcast on 25 December 1988. In the episode, Del Boy joins a dating agency and meets Raquel. Rodney also goes on a date, with Nag's Head barmaid Nerys. The Trotters have been earning a lot of money recently, and Uncle Albert's birthday is approaching, which Del Boy and Rodney pretend to have forgotten. Meanwhile, after seeing a girl Trigger has met through a local dating agency, Del also decides to sign up. Styling himself "Derek Duvall", managing director of
Raquel Watts the star itself has gone." Reviewing the two-hander episode between Raquel and Curly, Banks-Smith called it "profoundly melancholic", describing Raquel as, "the barmaid every man dreamed would serve him, leaning like the blessed damozel from the gold bar of heaven, backed by shining spirits in bottles. A barmaid in excelsis. Beautiful as a daffodil though not as bright. A fine comic creation but entirely without a sense of humour." Ross, a long-standing fan of "Coronation Street", classes Raquel as one of the programme's greatest characters, alongside Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix) and Hilda Ogden (Jean Alexander), all "as brilliantly watchable as