Fools’ gold
IT’S 40 YEARS SINCE ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES INTRODUCED US TO DEL AND RODNEY TROTTER. MARION McMULLEN TAKES US THROUGH THE A TO Z OF THIS CLASSIC SITCOM
AIRED: Only Fools And Horses launched on BBC1 40 years ago on September 8. 1981. The first episode was called Big Brother and saw Rodney joining the Trotter family business. The latest get-rich-quick scheme involved briefcases with the number of the combination lock already sealed inside them.
BOYCIE: The dodgy car dealer, who liked to flaunt his wealth, was brought to life by actor John Challis. John now has his own website where fans can purchase Boycie merchandise.
CASSANDRA: Gwyneth Strong played the love of Rodney’s life in the sitcom, but Elizabeth Hurley also auditioned for the role.
DEL BOY: The streetwise wheeler dealer and onetime aspiring yuppie has become one of TV’s most memorable comedy characters, but writer John Sullivan originally had Jim Broadbent in mind for the role.
Sir David Jason made the part his own and developed Del’s look by adding gold jewellery and his trademark camel coat. Jim Broadbent did appear in the comedy, as bent copper Roy Slater.
EIGHT: A series of stamps have been brought out this year to mark the anniversary. Eight feature characters and catchphrases from the show such as Grandad saying “I’ve always wanted to go to Benidorm. Where is it?”.
FANCY DRESS: Del and Rodney famously dressed as Batman and Robin for what they thought was a fancy dress party only to find themselves looking very conspicuous at a funeral wake.
GRANDAD: Lennard Pearce, who played Grandad, was one of the first to be cast in the sitcom. Del once accused Grandad of being lazy saying: “You’re an out of work lamp-lighter waiting for gas to make a comeback.”
HAIRPIECE: David Jason wore one while first playing Del and switched to a full wig.
INSTRUMENTAL:
The original theme tune by musical director Ronnie Hazlehurst was an instrumental with no words. It featured in the first series, but was later replaced by the now famous song which was sung by John Sullivan.
JOHN SULLIVAN: Created and wrote the sitcom. He had worked as a street trader himself in the past and originally planned to call the sitcom Readies. It was later changed to the Cockney saying “Only fools and horses work”.
KNIGHT: David Jason was knighted in 2005 and John Sullivan was among the 50 guests who attended a party for him afterwards.
LAST EPISODE: The final show in 2003 was a Christmas special called Sleepless In Peckham...! Sir David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst and Roger Lloyd-Pack were the only cast members to appear in both the first and last episodes.
MILLIONAIRES: Del always promised “This time next year we’ll be millionaires”. It came true when the brothers discovered a rare pocket watch worth more than £6m in their lock-up garage.
NAG’S HEAD: The regular drinking hole of the Trotters and their mates. Sid (Roy Heather) was the original landlord followed by Mike Fisher, played by Kenneth Macdonald.
OUTDOORS: Many of the outside scenes in Peckham were actually filmed in Bristol.
PECKHAM: The Trotters lived in a council flat in Nelson Mandela House in Peckham.
QUOTES: Del was never tonguetied even though his attempts at the French language were often rather garbled. Del thought Mange Tout meant no problem, pot pourri (I don’t believe it) and Chateauneuf du Pape (It’s all gone crazy).
RODNEY: Nicholas Lyndhurst played Del’s younger brother over the course of 64 episodes. Rodders was the academic member of the family – he left school with two GCEs in art and maths – but was expelled from art college for smoking cannabis.
SPIN-OFFS: There have been a number off spin-offs including The Green Green Grass and prequel Rock & Chips. Only Fools And Horses has also been enjoying success on the West End stage as a musical with The Fast Show’s Paul Whitehouse playing Grandad.
TRIGGER: The real name of Roger Lloyd-Pack’s character was Colin Ball, but everyone called him Trigger because he a had “a face like a horse”.
UNCLE ALBERT: The seafaring member of the Trotter family was played by bank manager-turnedactor Buster Merryfield.
He did not seriously start acting professionally until he was 57 and Only Fools was his first TV role. Rodney once told Albert: “I don’t think I’ll ever laugh again.” Uncle Albert reassured him with: “Well, as long as yer happy, son”.
VIEWERS’ FAVOURITE: The series holds the record for the highest UK audience for a sitcom episode – 24.3 million viewers tuned in to watch Time On Our Hands the final part of the Christmas trilogy in 1996.
WORDS: The comedy introduced viewers to phrases and words like plonker, lovely jubbly and cushty. Lovely jubbly was listed in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003.
X-RATED. Blow-up dolls proved an explosive product for Del to shift in the episode Danger UXD. The faulty sex toys had a tendency to explode when exposed to heat.
YELLOW: The colour of the threewheeled Reliant Regal that was the company transport for Trotters Independent Traders, with “New York, Paris, Peckham” painted on its side.
ZANY DRINKS: Del was known for his love of concocting cocktails and during the course of the show knocked back everything from Baileys and cherryade, to Tia Maria and Lucozade and Tequila Sunset... made with gin.