ONLY Fools And Horses is Christmas staple up there with roast turkey and Brussels sprouts.
The last new episode of the sitcom may have aired 20 years ago, but the Trotters remain very much in our hearts, especially at this time of year.
6
Sir David Jason is set to star in a new TV documentary celebrating the best moments of Only Fools and HorsesCredit: Alamy
6
Only Fools and Horses attracted a record audience of over 24 million viewers at its peak Credit: PA
Del Boy himself, Sir David Jason, 83, is rarely on screen these days, but he stars in a new documentary Only Fools on Christmas Eve talking about his favorite moments from the legendary holiday special.
And he pays tribute to his colleagues, along with the crew, who made the sitcom the creme de la menthe.
Here we discover his words of wisdom. Sir David on . . .
NICHOLAS LYNDHURST
DEL Boy and Rodney are considered the greatest double in British sitcom history.
They appeared in every episode, from 1981 to 2003, and turned Sir David and Nicholas into a national treasure. Co-stars including Roger Lloyd-Pack as Trigger and John Challis as Boycie were also big hits in the show.
About his teammate, Sir David says: “You couldn’t have had a better teammate than Nic.”
“We loved and respected each other so much, we were truly good friends.”
TRIGGER
The snoozing cleaner with the dead delivery was one of the most loved characters on Only Fools, regularly getting the biggest laughs.
Also appearing in the documentary, Only Fools editor Chris Wadsworth said: “John got complaints if Trigger wasn’t in an episode long enough.
“The Trigger fan club would write and say ‘Trigger only got half a dozen lines this episode, what are you doing?'”
Tessa Peake-Jones, who played Del’s partner Raquel, added: “Roger was brilliant. His secret was a very serious face. He treated it like a tragedy, like he was playing Hamlet.”
Donal Woods, production designer, said: “I remember David and Nic saying that Trigger always gets the laugh at the end. They would set it up.”
Director Tony Dow added: “Everyone would be doing dialogue, dialogue, dialogue and Trigger would come in with one line — and it would bring the house down. That must have driven Nic and David crazy.”
6
One of the funniest moments in the series was when Del Boy and Rodney mistakenly turned up at a black tie party in fancy dress Credit: BBC
CHRISTMAS CRACKERS (1981)
The debut series ONLY Fools aired in 1981 to mixed reviews.
Despite the shaky start, the BBC wanted writer John Sullivan to make a festive special at the end of the run – but only told him six weeks before Christmas, causing panic among the crew who filmed the episode just a week before transmission.
Sir David explains: “Luckily for him, John Sullivan was under a lot of pressure. There really wasn’t enough time for that at Christmas. Two weeks before Christmas we asked ourselves ‘Are we going to the play?’.
He said, ‘Yes, yes’. We asked, ‘Where’s the script?’, he said, ‘We don’t have a script yet’.”
ONLY FOOLS AGAINST MINDERS
BY 1985, Only Fools had become a huge TV favourite. The BBC saw the show as the jewel in its crown in the run-up to Christmas and put it up against ITV’s biggest show, Minder, at a time when few could film a show they hadn’t watched.
John Sullivan was given a budget of £850,000—huge at the time—to film the episode, To Hull And Back, in which the Trotters traveled to Amsterdam by boat, driven by Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield).
Sir David says: “I remember we were disappointed because Minder was one of the big, successful shows that ITV had.
It was so dangerous because we thought we were going to lose a lot of audience to ITV. He adds: “I suppose in Michael Grade’s (former BBC controller) mind it was, ‘Well, we’re going to pinch your audience because we’ve got the best show’.”
Only Fools reigned supreme, attracting 17 million viewers, compared to Minder, starring Dennis Waterman and George Cole, which brought in 12 million.
6
David explained how one expensive joke took up almost the entire budget of one episodeCredit: BBC
THE MOST EXPENSIVE JOKE
DURING Hull and Back, one scene took up most of John Sullivan’s huge budget.
The ship that Del Boy and Rodney were traveling on veered off course as expected, given that the experienced sailor Uncle Albert was at the helm.
To get back on track, Sullivan came up with the idea of sailing the ship to the North Sea, where they would encounter an oil rig and ask a confused worker for directions to Holland.
Sir David explains: “We were going to Amsterdam and getting there was a bit of a problem, so we thought we’d hire a boat. We set off, but the problem was that we soon realized that Uncle Albert was not quite as equipped to navigate as he claimed.
“The joke was that we pulled up at the bottom of the oil rig and Derek Trotter was yelling ‘Hey, John, which way to Holland?’
“That episode was one of, if not the most expensive prank ever pulled by the BBC, if not television in the world.”
The footage was only 40 seconds long, but involved a 12-hour round trip.
6
The Trotters finally became millionaires in the series finale, before being brought back for three more hilarious episodes Credit: BBC
TRILOGY FROM 1996
ONLY Fools was set to go out with a bang in 1996 with three new episodes, including one where the Trotters would finally become millionaires.
The first episode, Heroes and Villains, featured the iconic scene when Del Boy and Rodney dress up as Batman and Robin for a pub party that, unbeknownst to them, is canceled and replaced by a vigil. On the way, in their costumes, they prevented a street robbery of a local councilman.
Bosses were so desperate to keep the scene under wraps that they had to close down High Street in Bristol, where the Only Fools location scenes were shot.
Production designer Donal Woods explains: “We blocked off the streets with fences and black curtains and set up scaffolding. We just wanted to keep it a secret for Christmas.”
In the second episode, Modern Men, the brothers showed rare emotion after Rodney’s wife Cassandra (Gwyneth Strong) suffered a miscarriage, but the scenes won praise from viewers who felt the tragic story was beautifully handled.
Tessa Peake-Jones says: “I remember John Sullivan talking about it and saying, ‘I don’t know how this would go in the sitcom world, but I wanted to do it’, so I think it was very important to him. As usual , he liked to push the boundaries a bit.”
The final installment, Time On Our Hands, became synonymous with Del Boy and Rodney passing out at Sotheby’s auction house as a marine stopwatch they found in a garage fetched £6.2 million.
They were finally the millionaires Del Boy had always predicted they would be.
The episode was watched by a record 24.3 million viewers.
FINALS 2001-2003
The BBC was so desperate for more Only Fools after 1996’s Swan Song that they convinced John Sullivan to write three more episodes: If They Could See Us Now. . . !, Strangers on the Shore and Sleepless In Peckham.
David Jason admits that he and the cast missed the show so much that they switched from filming their other projects to back-to-back episodes.
However, one of the Trotter clan was missing. Uncle Albert star Buster Merryfield died in 1999, but his character was still at the center of the special.
After losing their money in the stock market crash, the last episode, Sleepless In Peckham, saw Del and Rodney back in the money after discovering that wily Albert had left them £145,000 each.
Recalling that final scene in history, director Tony Dow says: “I remember being in that studio and saying to the manager, ‘That’s it, that’s the end of Only Fools and Horses.’ The whole place exploded, the audience left.”
Sir David added: “We had a standing ovation in that studio for seven minutes. They didn’t let us go.”
- Only Fools And Horses: Greatest Christmas Moments airs tomorrow at 9pm on Channel 5.
6
Del Boy’s first episode with wife-to-be Raquel Turner saw him greet her with the biggest bouquet of flowers he could find Credit: BBC
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education