Only Fools and Horses
British television sitcom created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series originally aired on BBC One in the United Kingdom from 1981 to 1991, with sixteen episodic Christmas episodes airing until the end of the show in 2003. The action takes place in Peckham in southeast London. David Jason plays ambitious market trader Derek. “Del Boy” Trotter and Nicholas Lyndhurst as his younger brother Rodney Trotter along with supporting actors. The series is about the ups and downs in the lives of trotters, particularly their attempts to get rich.
Lennard Pierce appeared in the first three episodes as the elderly grandfather of Del and Rodney. After Pierce’s death in 1984, Grandpa was replaced on the series by Uncle Albert, the boys’ great-uncle, played by Buster Merrifield. Since 1988, the series has featured the usual characters of Del Boy and Rodney’s love interests, Raquel (Tessa Peake-Jones) and Cassandra (Gwyneth Strong), respectively. Other recurring characters include car dealer Boycie (John Chellis), janitor Trigger (Roger Lloyd-Pack), truck driver Denzil (Paul Barber), sleeper Mickey Pierce (Patrick Murray), Boycie’s wife Marlene (Sue Holderness) and bartender Mike ( Kenneth MacDonald).
The show did not immediately become popular with viewers and received little publicity early on, but later received consistently high ratings, and the 1996 episode “Time in Our Hands” (originally announced as the last episode) is the record-breaking sitcom series in the UK. with 24.3 million viewers. Critically and popularly acclaimed, the series has won numerous awards, including recognition from BAFTA, the National Television Award and the Royal Television Society, as well as individual accolades for both Sullivan and Jason. It was voted Britain’s best sitcom in the 2004 BBC poll. In a 2001 Channel 4 poll, Del Boy was ranked fourth on their list of the 100 Greatest Television Characters. The series influenced British culture by adding several words and phrases to the English language. It spawned a wide range of merchandise, including books, videos, DVDs, toys and board games. Episodes are frequently repeated on the comedy channel UKTV Gold.
The spin-off series “Green Green Grass” ran in the U.K. for four episodes from 2005 to 2009. The prequel “Rock & Chips” ran in three specials in 2010 and 2011. In March 2014, a special episode of Sport Relief was shown. starring David Beckham. In July 2018, John Sullivan’s son, Jim Sullivan, announced that the musical adaptation of the show was nearing completion and would begin at the Royal Haymarket Theatre in London on February 9, 2019.