Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003. Episodes are regularly repeated on TV.
Set in Peckham in south London, it stars Sir David Jason as ambitious market trader Derek "Del Boy" Trotter, Nicholas Lyndhurst as his younger brother Rodney, and Lennard Pearce as their ageing grandfather. After Pearce's death in 1984 his character was replaced by Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield).
Backed by a strong supporting cast, the series chronicles their highs and lows in life, in particular their attempts to get rich.
Derek "Del Boy" Trotter (played by David Jason), a fast-talking, archetypal cockney market trader, lives in a council flat in a high-rise tower block, Nelson Mandela House, in Peckham, South London – though it was actually filmed in Harlech Tower in Acton and later Bristol – with his much younger brother, Rodney Trotter (Nicholas Lyndhurst), and their elderly Grandad (Lennard Pearce). Their mother Joan died when Rodney was young, and their father Reg absconded shortly after his wife's death, meaning Del effectively became Rodney's surrogate father and the family patriarch. Despite the difference in their ages, the brothers share a constant bond throughout.
The situation focuses primarily on their futile attempts to become millionaires through questionable get rich quick schemes and by buying and selling a variety of low-quality and illegal goods, such as Russian Army camcorders, luminous yellow paint and sex dolls filled with an explosive gas. They own an unregistered company, Trotters Independent Traders, based in a grubby three-wheeled Reliant van, trade primarily on the black market and generally neither pay taxes nor claim money from the state; as Del says, "The government don't give us nothing, so we don't give the government nothing".
Initially, Del Boy, Rodney and Grandad were the show's only regulars, along with the occasional appearances of dopey roadsweeper Trigger (Roger Lloyd Pack) and pretentious used car salesman Boycie (John Challis). Over time, the cast expanded, mostly in the form of regulars at the local pub The Nag's Head. These included pub landlord Mike (Kenneth MacDonald), lorry driver Denzil (Paul Barber), youthful spiv Mickey Pearce (Patrick Murray) and Boycie's flirtatious wife Marlene (Sue Holderness). Although the show still centred around the Trotter family, these characters became popular in their own right, contributing to the plots and humour.
As the series progressed, the scope of the plots expanded which saw comedy often mixed with drama. Many early episodes were largely self-contained, with few plot-lines mentioned again, but the show developed a story arc and an ongoing episodic dimension. The character of Grandad was killed off following the death of Lennard Pearce, and his long-lost brother Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield) emerged to restore the three generations line-up. After years of fruitless searching, both Del and Rodney found long-term love, in the form of Raquel (Tessa Peake-Jones) and Cassandra (Gwyneth Strong) respectively; Del also had a son with Raquel, Damien (played by five actors, most recently Ben Smith).
Rodney and Cassandra married, separated and then got back together again. Cassandra miscarried, but then she and Rodney eventually had a baby. Rodney found out who his real father was. The Trotters finally became millionaires, before losing it again, and then gaining some of it back.
The humour comes from several sources. The interaction between Del and Rodney is key, with each an ideal comic foil for the other in both personality and appearance. Much is made of the traits of individual characters, such as Del's lack of cultural refinement, despite his pretensions, best seen in his misuse of French phrases or his claims to be a yuppy; Rodney's gormless nature, resulting in him being labelled a "plonker" or a "dipstick" by Del; the general daftness of Grandad and Trigger, and the rampant snobbery of Boycie. There are also several running gags, including Trigger's belief that Rodney's name is actually Dave, Uncle Albert's "during the war..." anecdotes, Del's supposed long-time affair with Marlene and the dilapidated Reliant Regal van
Filming of the first series began in May 1981, and the first episode, "Big Brother", was transmitted on BBC1 at 8.30 pm on 8 September that year. It attracted a respectable, though unspectacular (by those days' standards) 9.2 million viewers and generally received a lukewarm response from critics. The viewing figures for the whole first series, which averaged at around 7 million, were considered mediocre but owing to the BBC's policy of nurturing television shows, a second series was commissioned for 1982. The second series fared little better and the show was close to being cancelled altogether. However, both the first and second series had a repeat run in June 1983 in a more low-key time slot, but attracted respectable viewing figures, which convinced Davies to commission a third series. From there, the show gradually built up a following, and began to top the television ratings. Viewing figures for the fourth series were double those of the first.
Mid-way through the filming of the fifth series, David Jason told Sullivan that he wished to leave the show in order to further his career elsewhere. Sullivan thus wrote "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", which was intended to be the final episode and would see Del accepting a friend's offer to set up business in Australia, leaving Rodney and Albert behind.
Plans were made for a spin-off entitled Hot-Rod, which would have followed Rodney's attempts to survive on his own with help from Mickey Pearce, but leaving open the prospect of Del's return. Jason then changed his mind, and the ending of the episode was changed to show Del rejecting the offer.
Sullivan had a tendency to write scripts that were too long, meaning pages of material had to be cut. Shortly before filming of the sixth series began, he requested that the show's time slot be extended and it was agreed to extend its running time to 50 minutes. This coincided with the show becoming one of the BBC's most popular programmes, according to producer Gareth Gwenlan, and allowed for more pathos in the series and an expansion of the regular cast.
The seventh series, which was to be the last, was aired in early 1991. Sullivan and the major actors were all involved with other projects, and it was confirmed that there were no plans for a new series. The show continued in Christmas specials up until 1993, when the burgeoning careers of the key personnel made it impossible to find the time to continue. But Sullivan wanted a "final" episode to tie up the show and see the Trotters finally become millionaires.
When the actors were all available in late 1996, Sullivan wrote three one hour episodes, to be broadcast over Christmas 1996. All three were well received, and given the happy ending it was widely assumed that they were to be the last. After a five year break, however, the show returned again in 2001 with another Christmas special, followed by two more in 2002 and 2003. There are currently no further plans for Only Fools and Horses to return, though a fan fiction community continues to exist. In an interview with the Daily Star Sunday on 10 February 2008, Sullivan was quoted as saying: "there will not be another series of Only Fools And Horses. I can say that. We had our day, it was wonderful but it is best to leave it now.
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