Rodney, you plonker ... you’ve missed your big opening night!

FORMER stars of Only Fools and Horses swapped the streets of south London for the red carpet last night as they attended the opening night of a West End musical adaptation of the show.

There was one notable absentee, however. Just around the corner, Nicholas Lyndhurst, who played Rodney in the series, was launching a musical of his own.

The British actor will star alongside Frasier actor Kelsey Grammer and Danielle deNiese in Man of La Mancha, inspired by Cervantes’s Don Quixote, at the Coliseum Theatre in April. Meanwhile,

Part played by an up-and-coming star

actors John Challis and Patrick Murray were photographed at the first night of Only Fools and Horses: The Musical at London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket.

John Challis, who played Boycie, posed next to the yellow threewheeled Reliant Regal van owned by Del Boy.

The new musical stars Tom Bennett as Del Boy and was created to honour the late John Sullivan, who wrote the sitcom, which ran from 1981 to 2003. Rodney is played by up- and- comer Ryan Hutton. Paul Whitehouse takes on Grandad, played in the sitcom by Lennard Pearce until his death in 1984.

Premiere: John Challis with Del Boy’s van

Co-stars: Nicholas Lyndhurst with Danielle de Niese

Peckham boys: Boycie and Rodney in the sitcom