This time next year, we’ll be millionaires!

As Britain’s best-loved TV comedy Only Fools and Horses gets a musical makeover, Christina Quaine meets its cast and crew in rehearsals

It’s 38 years – yes, really! – since the iconic sitcom Only Fools and Horses hit our TV screens. Now it has been reimagined into a West End musical, with comic Paul Whitehouse and Jim Sullivan – son of the original writer, John Sullivan – at the helm. CaRoliNE Jay RaNGER, 54, is the show’s director and choreographer.

We’ve been flexible with chronology so events don’t necessarily happen in the order in which they did in the tV series. We’ve had to distil seven series and various Christmas specials into two hours of a stage show!

the show’s enduring appeal is that it has a huge amount of heart – one minute you’re laughing, the next you’re crying. It’s about a dysfunctional but very loving family and you can see the vulnerability of the characters. It’s very working class, an insight into what life was like at the end of the 80s – people relied on family and community. I think people feel nostalgic for those times. My crew for this show is very femaleoriented. I wanted to balance the male energy of the show. We have an excellent set designer, liz, who I worked with on Fawlty Towers Live. My deputy stage manager, sarah, essentially runs the show.

“Only Fools and Horses has so much heart”