Original subtitles

Someone came up to me and said,

"When you fell through the bar, was it an accident?"

"Did you mean to do it?"

There are hundreds of feet of film of us just laughing —

trying to get the dialogue out.

Ray said, "This chandelier we are about to drop cost £6,000,

"and if you laugh, I'LL fire you."

(DIRTY LAUGH)

I think I can sum up the formula for its success in four words —

John Sullivan, John Sullivan.

(DAVID JASON) From this very, very quiet, ordinary guy

comes this amazing comedy.

He's had no formal education.

To produce out of his head what he produces...

it does make you think it's a bit spooky.

# My name is Ginger, I'm getting so much stick

# 'Cause of my banger 1 need to get rid of it

# If you's a drinker, then get drunk I insist

# If you's a raver then please bubble to this... #

My father was a very funny man.

The whole family were great comedians.

Very Irish — a mixture of Irish and English.

My father's family come from Cork, my mother's from Kent.

Every Christmas and birthday was hilarious.

The street I lived in was full of characters.

Anywhere you go in the country — Newcastle, Liverpool —

when you get these ghetto—type streets,

you do get these wonderful characters and incidents.

You don't realise how colourful they are ill you move out.

and realise the rest of the city's boring.

So I had the comedy all around me.

As a kid, coming down Monday morning to go to school...

and the living room's filled with a fog of cigarette smoke

and six men playing poker.

They'd been playing since Sunday night all night.

My dad was this great gambling man.

It wasn't anything that shocked you. That was life.

How many?

Un, deux, trois, quatre.

Four?!

1 had a very good teacher — Jim Trowers. Brilliant man.

He excelled at understanding — understanding the characters.

In particular, I taught them Dickens.

1 taught the characters by acting them.

For example, I would use an accent —

"Barkis be willing, my lad!" — which they enjoyed.

He was a good enough teacher

to understand all these difficult sentences

and then explain what the man was saying,

so you could get into the flow of Charles Dickens.

And he was a very funny writer.

Not many people realise how funny he is.

1 fell in love with his work

because he was the first serious classic writer

who wrote about an area I knew — a London I understood.

He also wrote about poverty.

1 enjoyed writing at school

We used to do these compositions — not essays —

and I used to do well at them.

A little while after I met him,

I gave him an essay to write —

I gave the whole class an essay —

and it was one of those usual things that a teacher does.

I said, "You have the Epsom races.

"Write me a short piece from any aspect at all

"Perhaps a bookie or someone laying a bet."

And they all did this, except John Sullivan.

He wrote it as though he were one of the horses in the race,

which I found fascinating.

It showed incredible inventiveness at the time.

English, history and football, basically,

were the only things I liked at school.

Other than that, I hated every minute of it.

So I had that love of writing even then.

When I left, I took that with me.

1 think I really wanted to get out from this slum area

and move somewhere nice — I wanted money...

which everyone else did.

That's why I tried the car trade — there was money in that —

but I wasn't tough enough.

Then, I remember one night...'62, "63...

watching the BBC Comedy Playhouse.

And there was one called "The Offer" by Galton and Simpson,

which was "Steptoe and Son".

I watched that and I realised what you can do with comedy.

It was so funny and filled with drama and pathos.

So you've made up your mind, have you?

Yes, I have! I've got a full life in front of me.

I could have been a company director, but you held me back!

You and that rotten horse and cart keeping me back.

But I'm going to strike out on me own

and you ain't gonna stop me.

Believe me, Harold Steptoe's going up!

1 thought, "That's what I want to do."

For the past two weeks, I've been taking stock of my Life.

Who I am, what I am, and where I'm going.

That's taken you a fortnight?!

I could have answered all them during a commercial break!

What I'm trying to say is...

I'm thinking of breaking up the partnership.

What partnership?

In '67, I worked in a brewery and met a friend from school —

a guy called Paul Saunders —

who was a great comedian, a very clever guy.

He was the one who suggested that we write a script,

which we did, and it got turned down.

He kind of lost interest immediately we'd been rejected,

but I loved it, I so enjoyed the process of inventing characters

and writing the dialogue

that it just became, basically, a hobby.

It kept me off the streets

and I didn't spend too much money on beer

because I was writing every evening.

I suppose the dream was I still hoped to get into this business.

1 sent in these ideas to the BBC over maybe ten years.

Sometimes I'd change the titles or my name to try to fool them,

but they realised they were crap.

And you'd just get reject notes come back.

So I thought, "I'll have to get a job in the business."

1 wrote to the BBC, and they came back

and said, "You've got a job, but don't annoy the stars."

1 started off working on props

and then I did dressing the actual sets.

Then I did scene shifting, building sets.

I worked on the Morecambe and Wise "Singing In The Rain" one.

I actually put down all the waterproofing

and the kerbstones.

One Sunday, we were sitting having lunch in the BBC Club,

and my foreman said, "You know who that is?" about this guy.

I said, "No." He said, "Dennis Main Wilson."

He did "Till Death Us Do Part", "The Goons"

and "Hancock's Half Hour."

Hancock's Half Hour.

It was the first time I had a target to go to.

Eventually, I plucked up the courage to go and talk to him.

"f thought I'd introduce myself. I'm john Sullivan.

"We're going to be working together."

He said, "What on?" 1 said, "I haven't written it."

And he just laughed and said, "Let's have a drink."

Great guy. Of all the people I could have seen, he was perfect.

1 went to see Ronnie Barker on the "Porridge" set.

I said, "Do you read sketches by anyone?" He said, "Yeah."

This time, I did actually have a couple of sketches.

And he gave me a contract.

1 worked on the Ronnies for five seasons, I think.

I've never had a racing pigeon before.

You bought a racing pigeon?

But you're illogical to feathers.

— But this one was going cheap. — All birds go cheep!

In the meantime,

Dennis Main Wilson had read the "Smith" script.

Dennis Main Wilson walked into my office and he said,

"I've just seen the most fantastic script

"from a new guy who's working as a scene shifter here.

"I'm not going to go on about it, just read it."

So 1 read it and it was instant with me too.

You were just so relieved and pleased

to have a script that didn't need any work on it

It was ready for production.

The structure was right, the characters were right.

It was beautifully worked out,

very funny, the settings were original

Power to the people!

(BABY CRIES)

And that's how I really started.

First, by taking scripts home.

Learning the layout.

1 never had any idea how to lay a script out.

What I didn't realise was that these were camera scripts,

so you'd have lines there such as...

"Fletcher reacts" in "Porridge".

In the original script, you'd have put what the reaction was.

1 used to write my scripts —

the first ones I did — "Rodney reacts."

He still writes that. "Rod reacts."

You go up to him and say, "Do you want...?

"What reaction do you want?"

He says, "I don't know. You do the faces. I'll do the writing."

It took me four years to realise

that I should be telling them what to do.

That Sidney Potter's a good actor, in't he, Rodney?

He was marvellous in "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner".

Yeah. Knockout, Grandad.

Sidney Potter?

So "Smith" had finished and I had no work. I had nothing...

I was out in the real pubs — the south London pubs —

but you weren't seeing that in comedies.

It was still an old-fashioned London.

There were no black people, except in the background.

There was so much new stuff out there

and I just wanted to try and bring in the real characters

that were out there in the pubs and streets now, at this time.

We met in my local pub in North End Road,

and we chatted and chatted.

At that time, in the press,

one headline was the "black economy" and we discussed that.

We got on well. We come from a similar background.

He's east London, I'm south.

We both worked in markets.

His parents, I think, had a stall in the Roman Road

and I used to work in Hill Street Market.

So we'd always talk about markets a lof,

and we realised nobody had ever done a market comedy.

He asked me, "Who was your favourite market character?"

It was the fly pitcher, because they had to be comedians.

(PITCHER) These slips will not cling to your knickers.

I can't promise you I won't, but these slips...

They always had a younger lookout.

The young guy used to be the target for most of the gags.

See how stylish it is as modelled by my brother Rodney.

(LAUGHTER)

They must be related. Nobody else would stand it.

Cousins or something.

..And quilted in natural nylon.

This jacket would set you back about £120 at Lilywhites,

but this can be yours for a mere £35

and it comes in all sizes.

All this equipment is manufactured

by a country that leads the world in Alpine clothing —

namely Fiji.

Just a moment. This is probably the Austria Olympic squad

wanting to increase their order. Hello?

Trotters Independent Traders, Arctic Clothing.

All right, Dave?

Ray said, "Why don't you put it forward?"

"Readies", it was called then.

"Have another go with that."

1 went and saw jimmy Gilbert and he just agreed.

And instead of saying, "Do a pilot," he gave me the series.

I don't know if that was out of pity —

he's a nice man and I was in trouble —

or because "Minder" had started about seven months before

and that had gone down very well.

When you start reading a new script,

you can tell in three pages if it's going to work.

It doesn't matter who's in it or who's working on it,

if you ain't got the script, you ain't got the show.

That's why "Fools and Horses" has worked — a great script.

It was a good real situation,

and there were at least three good gags on every page.

Some shows have one good gag every three pages.

Chinese, Japanese, it's all the same to me.

If you go for a job interview, what are you going to say?

"I've got qualifications and experience.

"Two GCEs, an 18—month suspended sentence

"and I know a good joint when I puff one"?

Your feet won't touch, bruv.

No. I'm afraid not, Rodney.

At the ripe old age of 23, you are a social leper.

Society's put you in the darkest corner of its deepest cellar

to grow moss and be forgotten about.

Never mind, eh? Vive La France. No need to get depressed.

The essence of comedy is that the basis has to be truthful.

It's got to be believable.

Once you've got a good thread running that's believable,

you can bend it and take liberties.

The family, in Derek Trotter's eyes,

is the number one thing.

If you watch the series, you may not believe that sometimes!

— Stay out of this, Albert! - Oi!

Don't talk to a war hero like that!

He's getting on me bloody nerves!

It's your own fault, Rodney.

You had a lovely wife, lovely flat, good job and you blew it!

He shouts at them and tells them off.

The way he treats Grandad and Uncle Albert.

There you are, you mucky old sod!

Have you seen the state of my Persian rug?

You run the I Edgar over it.

You should see it. Give me a Manhattan, Mike.

Small rum for him. Spit in it.

But deep down it's born out of love — family bond.

I think this is where john got it from.

(JOHN) I came from a strong family

and I wanted to put them in a strong family.

There was a big age gap between my sister and I — 1 years.

and in the street where I lived, this was quite common

because of the war.

People had children prior to the war

and couldn't afford any more.

But six years of war, then the men come home

and there's a baby boom.

So you had lots of brothers with ten years, 12 years...

difference in their age, and no one had ever used it.

I began to think back to the street.

I don't think it's just an Irish thing. I know...

The mothers who'd passed on were almost sainted,

You expected to find a shrine to them.

Men used to cry over their mothers, who'd died 20 years ago.

Our mum was a wonderful woman.

She had long golden—blonde hair...

sometimes.

She'd be sitting at the bar at the Nag's Head

in her simulated beaverskin with her rum and pep in one hand.

20 Senior Service in the other.

1 thought that was an interesting area I could use.

The mother, even though we never meet her, is so important —

so powerful in the set—up of this family.

I remember what Mum said on her deathbed.

She said to me... "Del?" she said.

"Please give little Rodney all the encouragement you can.

"Never, Del... Never hold him back."

She'd didn't "alf say a lot on her deathbed.

My grandfather, Tom, with a drink inside him,

was a bit handy with my nan.

If your mother was alive, I'd kill her!

When my dad got to a certain age, he beat his father up.

My grandfather left home and I never saw him again.

So I brought that in as well

My dad went potty.

He was shouting at Del, calling him names.

Del's ducking round the room, trying to escape.

Then it all turned violent 'cause he'd been out drinking.

He took his belt off, started whacking him, punching him.

That's what he was like.

My mum was screaming, "Don't hit him!" and I was crying.

God. Poor Rodney.

— Was he hurt? — Not too bad.

He was in hospital for a few days.

Me mum took me to visit him.

What happened to your father?

I'm talking about me father.

I thought you meant Del!

When I was in the car trade, about 16,

working for a successful car trader with a couple of sites,

some properties in London.

And he used to say these Latin phrases

and strange phrases we never understood.

There was a total lack of communication with him.

He'd ask you to do something but you never understood him.

Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!

Ah, oui. Je t'aime. Je t'adore...

Sur la pont d'Avignon.

It was all to impress, to make himself important.

I took that side of things for Del.

Apres moi, love the luge.

Oh, a la bruchette!

They're the things I brought with me into "Fools and Horses".

1 ended up with this dysfunctional family.

No mother, no father.

That's why I got the three—wheeled van —

I wanted something missing in every aspect of their life.

1 had intended later on to change it,

but everyone fell in love with this yellow van and I couldn't.

So I made them a two—car family with a horrible green Capri,

The Capris nice — it's a real piece of crap.

1 thought, "The van's going to be there forever. "

1 always try to paint a picture.

I remember the first episode of "Fools and Horses"

describing the clash of the curtains

with the wallpaper and the carpet.

1 said it should look like the start of a bad trip.

That's how I described it to the designer.

1 described what's in the boxes in the background.

Everything... With these kind of people,

you can buy almost anything off them — these traders.

If you say, "I love that table." "Yours for a fiver. Take it."

That's how it was.

If you can make some money on it, sell it.

Everything is for sale.

When we started off, we usually had a running gag

that every week this room would be full of hooky gear

that they'd knocked off that week.

It was always broken — dodgy telephones and dartboards.

We tried to change it. We used to change the table every week.

One week a bit of teak, then it'd be a garden table.

It was just a throwaway gag

to show they were wheelers and dealers.

— What's the weather like out? - It's parky, Del.

Good, good.

— Nice thick frost? — Bit slippery underfoot, yeah.

Triffic. Lots of flecks of snow in the air, is there?

- Yeah, a bit of sleet. — Oh, cushty.

Nice northerly wind howling in from the Urals, is there?

h you. ight throug me " Lovely.

Because today, owing to young Rodney's foresight and GCEs...

while the other plonkers in the market are selling woolly hats,

we're going to make a right killing. Do you know why?

We haven't got woolly underwear,

we've got suntan lotion.

The first thing is get the right script.

The second thing is get the right cast.

The first person we cast, the first lead actor,

was Rodney — the dipstick, the plonker.

Beautifully played by Nicholas Lyndhurst.

He was 19 years old at the time, but such a mature, superb actor.

You little plonker!

That was John Sullivan.

He'd seen him in "Butterflies". He looked perfect.

Next problem was, apart from finding a lead...

..was to find a Grandad.

Lennard Pearce seemed to fit the part beautifully,

so I put him on stand by.

When casting a three—hander, you cast them one at a time,

but have to see them together. So my next problem was the lead.

A schedule had been set and we were approaching filming.

A date for filming and we hadn't got a lead.

The two guys we wanted first —

one had turned down, the other one wasn't available.

I was at home on a Sunday night,

and they were doing a re-run of "Open All Hours".

And I saw David jason...

doing a virtuoso piece in the back storeroom.

Beefy chunks in gravy.

And I said, "That's Del Boy."

1 rang john and said, "/ think David will be good."

When I read "Only Fools and Horses" for the first time,

I saw this character, Derek Trotter,

that was an amazing, amazing go—getter, a winner.

Your average tourist gets fed up of the same places —

the Houses of Parliament, Buck House, the National Gallery.

Once you've seen one Rubens, you've seen them all

This is where a dynamic person like me steps in.

— Wake up. I'm being dynamic. — Sorry. Go on.

Although he was, in fact, a loser.

But a really brash, upfront character.

But the writing was so good

and the character, I thought, was so different.

1 thought, "I've got to play this."

Ethnic London.

- Ethnic London? - Yeah.

All those romantic places you've only heard about in fairy tales.

The Lee Valley Viaduct. Eh?

The glow of lower Edmonton at dusk.

The excitement of a walkabout in Croydon.

Look what I've had printed.

I don't believe this. "Trotters Ethnic Tours"?

I didn't know there was at that time...

a number of people who were against casting me

as the lead role.

And one of them was, in fact, John Sullivan himself!

Which he openly admits. Bless him!

My concern with David was I'd never seen him play a tough man.

Ray assured me — Ray knew him, knew David well —

and he said he could do that.

You couldn't bring David Jason in to audition.

You either offered him the part or not.

I came into the office the next day and told my guv'nor

that I'd like to approach David, and he didn't like the idea.

(DAVID) Some people were against casting me

because I'd never played a lead role or carried a series.

With Ray Butt's conviction

that I was an actor whose talents had not been explored,

he pushed for me and that finally swayed the vote.

When I was an electrician, I worked in the East End,

and I worked for a company called Derek Hockley,

who used to do a lot of work for breweries.

This man dressed like a lord and spoke like a fishmonger,

but he was a charming man,

and I couldn't get him out of my mind when I was reading it,

and thought this was an interesting way to go.

A la mode. A la mode.

The character of Rodney I did draw quite heavily on...

I had a friend years ago and he had a younger brother.

— Give him a bell - Who?

This young boy was always trying to be older than his years.

Trying to be cool. He never knew what to do with his hands.

He'd never stop moving, and the more he'd try to look relaxed,

the more awkward and gawky he became.

So / borrowed a bit of that.

And I'm six foot plus,

so it's quite easy to accentuate any awkward gawkiness

that you can get into a character.

1 suppose the first two or three days of filming,

1 realised that David was a very dynamic performer.

The only date you would have got with her was 10 o'clock...

He's always doing something on set.

He's always pouring a drink or something.

That's what people do.

And he often used to tease me.

He'd say, "Why don't you get off your arse and come and help me?

"That's real life."

And I'd say, "I'll just sit here because that's real life too.

"We can't both bounce off the set. The camera can't follow us,

"so I'll sit here."

1 think it's worked with my character being more lugubrious

and just sitting there reading the papers.

Del's character is the hustler, he's the get up and goer,

whereas Rodney is happy to be carried along with things.

He'll be the first to say, "I told you that would happen."

But he's quite happy to sit there.

(LOUD BANG)

(DAVID JASON) It's very Laurel and Hardy in my mind.

Laurel and Hardy is an unknowing fool and a knowing fool

I told you not to make that last payment.

I think that the qualities you have in "Fools and Horses"

can be very similar to that.

All of the characters are fools. Rodney is a fool

Del!

Derek can be a fool.

And Uncle Albert or Grandad are always fools.

Time for your wash.

Not you!

Rodney and Del's characters seem pretty well planted

with the actors who play them — David and Nicky.

Trigger was a hard character to come to

because how do you make somebody believable

who makes such ridiculous comments

and has stupid responses to things?

I had a relationship break up.

She worked at my council depot.

— A lady roadsweeper? - No. She was management.

A high—flyer. You had to go to her if you wanted a new broom.

His way of getting accepted by people

was to agree to everything or to suggest himself...

suggest something that might be wrong to keep...

He would always get it wrong, but from his point of view.

I always played him as if it was everybody else who was wrong.

He had insight into things.

Anyway, she'd heard about this hotel near Henley—on—Thames,

and she said, "How about spending a weekend there?"

- Yeah? — what?

— What happened? — Was it a nice weekend?

Yeah. I thought it was, but she didn't want to see me after it.

I don't like to pry, Trig, but...

No, no. It's a bit personal.

Hang on, Bronco. Trig, what happened?

She got jealous.

I heard later, through friends, that she wanted to go with me.

I've used aspects of myself that I can find.

I've used a sort of dumb insolence

that I used to use with my dad when I was in trouble,

and I've found it quite helpful...

over the years generally, actually!

So I pulled that out.

So I've used aspects of myself to inform Trigger of Life.

Duke!

The basis of the character of Boycie

was I knew this guy in the 70s in a pub who fascinated me.

He was an extraordinary lonely—type character —

someone who knew a little bit about practically everything.

He used to stop the conversation and stop the drinking in the pub

by pontificating about all sorts of different things.

This is a high—tech investment in my video leisure company.

This thing can pick up the whole of Scandinavia.

I can therefore record films of the more adult variety

and show them to my more discerning clients.

- You mean perverts? - If you must be medical, yes.

1 had an inkling, when I came to do "Fools and Horses",

that Boycie might have similar characteristics.

The laugh has become enormous — people keep wanting me to do it.

It's useful at charity things because people pay to hear it.

(LOUD CACKLE)

I don't know how it happened. It just sort of happened

and everybody laughed at me laughing, which is gratifying.

John Sullivan seemed to like it.

The next script I was in said, "Boycie does one of his laughs."

I couldn't remember what I'd done.

So we had to go back and replay the episode where I'd laughed.

"Oh, it's that one." So I did it.

It's actually quite difficult.

Somebody will say, "Do your laugh" and pay some money,

so I'll go...

(DIRTY LAUGH)

And that's enough. Was that enough?

As soon as you had Boycie, you'd say, "Remember Marlene?"

And all the boys remembered Marlene.

- Hello, Marlene, my love. - Hello, sweetheart.

— Wha—hey! — Ooh!

John wanted no one to see her because everybody had a picture

of the dreadful Marlene!

It was really because of the dog that I got my first episode.

She had huge fuzzy hair, far too much make-up,

very high heels, tight little dress, huge fur coat.

As 1 read it, I heard her voice.

Don't worry, he's house—trained.

Wwe live in a flat.

She just was me. She was the tart in me.

It was terribly releasing to play.

It's bliss. And you flirt with anything that moves. It's fun.

Come on. Kiss him goodbye.

Bye, Dell.

For Gawd's sake, the dog, Marlene!

As far as I knew, that was the end of my life as Marlene.

Which was sad because it had been an amazingly jolly morning.

The script was hysterical, the people welcomed me,

and I wanted to go on doing it forever, but I waved goodbye.

A fortnight later, Sullivan rang and said they'd loved the scene

and said, "I've got some ideas for some more storylines."

I'm so sorry.

It's OK. It's an easy mistake to make. This one's yours.

- How do you know it's mine? — It's got your name in it.

The Raquel—Cassandra side, bringing those girls in,

was such a potentially dangerous thing to do.

The audience might not accept their "lads" being family men.

What appealed to me about her was that she was her own woman.

Very independent, doing her own thing.

I was surprised they'd written a girlfriend for Rodney like that.

In the past, his girlfriends weren't really of that ilk.

Something smells good. I'm starving.

I did myself one of those ready-made meals.

Oh. well, I'm starving.

I didn't know I'd be marrying into the Trotter family.

I thought I was just coming in for one episode.

I didn't know it would continue. It was lovely as it evolved.

It was funny to have a name change

when you'd only had the name for about a week! One series.

Which was great. To become a Trotter — what an honour!

There's plenty in the freezer.

Good.

— What a clean oven we've got. - Sorry?

I was just remarking how clean one can keep these ovens.

Especially when one never bloody cooks in them.

— Are you going out? - Yeah.

That'll make a nice change.

What is it tonight? The bank's final exams?

The bank's annual cheese and wine orgy?

The bank's annual yoga and target practice course?

- I'm playing badminton. — Oh, I see. Where?

The bank's sports club.

By introducing both Cassandra for Rodney's character

and Raquel for Derek, I think John broadened it.

He thought, "We'll try and extend that family

"and see whether it can take that,

"and see how it will affect the two men."

Is it Derek?

— Raquel? - Yes.

- Hi. - Hello. Hello.

Oh, sorry. These are for you.

Are they? You shouldn't have gone to all this expense.

Mais oui. Mais oui.

I've booked a table at my most favourite restaurant.

— Sounds lovely. — Right.

- Your carriage awaits. - Thank you.

This is a bit like "Brief Encounter".

- Do you reckon? — That's my favourite film.

Oh, yeah, and it's mine.

— Really? - Yeah.

My favourite bit is when the big spaceship comes down

and the Martians come out.

It was interesting to play her from that early time

with her as quite a naive, vulnerable person,

to becoming more streetwise.

That was an interesting journey for her.

Eat your breakfast, Del.

You said fried stuff was bad for me veins.

Eat your breakfast, Del.

I really loved Raquel

She was trying to make a go of her career of acting,

she'd had a failed marriage, she was very vulnerable,

she'd gone to an agency because she didn't have much confidence

but she wanted a boyfriend,

and met this extraordinary man who was also scared.

He was these other things —

a confident man who had so much to offer.

I think the development of how they met

and their early days was so interesting.

Both those characters were so truthful and real,

and both so in love with the boys, despite everything,

that it's been a glorious addition to the show.

"Only Fools and Horses" started in 1981

and met with modest success.

When we started it, we...

Series One, I think, was watched by myself, David

and my Auntie Peggy in Chessington. No one else saw it.

We were getting less than half of the normal viewers

that shows were getting then.

A comedy should expect to reach 10-12 million to be a success.

1 think "Only Fools" got seven.

It was one of those many comedies that started

and had a question mark over whether it would continue.

The BBC, although they never said anything,

quite obviously didn't like it.

I remember David Jason phoning me and saying

that he had just been in to the BBC main foyer

and they had pictures of all their forthcoming comedies,

but no "Fools and Horses" — it was the only one missing.

1 arranged to meet David, and we went to see the Head of Comedy.

He said, "There is a picture. It's on the sixth floor."

He took us up to show us this picture.

1 think it was on the wall of Michael Checkland's bog.

John Howard Davis invited me to his office

to talk about the future.

He said, "You don't want to make any more of them, do you?"

I said, "Actually, I do. We all enjoyed it."

We had great faith in it.

And the BBC always give you a second go.

So we did the second one, which I thought was better.

But that had the same reaction. The figures were very bad.

Then there was a great silence.

I couldn't get a reply to my calls or anything.

And I remember we were going away on holiday, my family,

to a caravan in Hastings.

Before we left, they started repeating "Fools and Horses".

One day I bought a Daily Mirror and I sat reading it,

and they used to give you the top TV.

There's "Fools and Horses" at number five.

The repeats had taken off.

"Only Fools" gradually got bigger audiences.

It almost took off as late as '88-'89

when it went to the 50-minute format.

At its last showing in "96,

it got 27.9 million viewers.

I don't watch it because I'm too frightened to,

but you know that whilst you're doing the washing—up,

half the nation is watching you perform.

That's quite a laxative.

Everything I've written about has happened in my life.

We had the joy of birth...

— What is it, Del? - It's a little baby, Rodney!

And the grief of losing someone.

1 just write about life.

1 think all writers take from their own experience so much.

Very rarely do you use the actual incidents you witness.

You alter them into where you want them to go for your characters.

It's another way, but you know it's true.

My father was a very, very funny man — a great man —

but he was also a great socialist.

He'd been shop steward on the building sites where he worked.

And he was warning me

about double—checking everything in my life —

being sure what I put up to.

Don't just trust people.

He told me this tale about when he was an apprentice.

They'd gone to this big manor house to remove a chandelier.

They were on one chandelier and a guy's banging the other one...

He said there was no communication.

I was on the floor laughing and he was really angry with me.

"15 men got the sack for that!"

This was a time when if you got the sack you could starve,

so it was very serious to him.

I remember meeting David jason and telling him the story.

I was hysterical. I said, "John, you have to write it for us."

He said, "But it was only a story."

- I said, "But it's so funny." - He said, "We must do it."

I read it and just burst out laughing. Such a funny idea.

Then I thought, "How the hell am I going to do it?"

The first problem was finding a stately—looking home

which would allow you to drop loads of glass on their floor.

That came down with a hell of a whack.

If it had a wood floor, it could do a lot of damage,

so people didn't want to know, obviously.

In the end, we did it in a minor public school down in Dorset.

Oh, toujours la politesse, toujours.

This is beautiful. Bet you've held a few balls in here.

What?! Oh. Yes, we have.

Because we knew one was crashing down,

we got a prop firm to make one so we could break it.

So we had one chandelier that was the real one...

— That's beautiful, innit? - Yes. Good buy.

- French crystal? - Yes, actually.

It was a tricky thing to shoot because it was a one—off.

It had to happen in one take.

Ray brought in two or three cameras to cover it all

Grandad, you pop upstairs and get the floorboards up.

- You know what you're doing? - Leave it to me.

Right. He's a craftsman.

Grandad, do you want a jemmy?

No. Had one before we left, Del.

Ray, who's only a little guy, but fierce with it,

came up to me and said,

"This chandelier that we're about to drop cost £6,000.

"If you laugh when it's dropped, we've lost the end scene.

"If we've lost the end scene, we've lost the episode.

"If we've lost the episode, we've lost the series

"because the BBC will only transmit six.

"So if you laugh when that drops, I will fire you."

— Is there anything you want? - Yeah. I want to go home.

So David and I went up the ladders,

holding our sacking or tarpaulin or whatever,

and Ray is right there in my eye—line, looking daggers at me.

Grandad, we're ready!

(TONY DOW) He tried to make sure

that you were not aware of the other chandelier.

So the stuff with the chandelier they were trying to get down

was done all in foreground,

and all we had was subliminally this other chandelier.

Right. Brace yourself, Rodney. Brace yourself.

You can probably see they're desperately trying not to laugh.

(NICHOLAS LYNDHURST) Ten seconds went past

and I could see his shoulders going like this.

And they got more and more and more violent.

I'm looking at David. "You're going to get fired."

Ray is still like that.

I see him, out of the corner of my eye,

reach into his parka and pull out a handkerchief...

and just stuff the whole thing into his mouth...

and go like that.

Somebody said, "Cut! That's it!" after 30 seconds.

I came down that ladder and the air went blue.

I swore my head off at him.

We then had a load of crystal from a broken chandelier

that we strewed in and took a close-up of.

The other funny thing was that as they were ready to catch it,

you saw a shot of Grandad hitting it to make it go.

That was shot in the back bedroom

of my then girlfriend down in Southall

We took the floorboards up and shot that there.

You never see it join.

After every show went out, my dad would ring —

always first on the phone.

And I dreaded it. Thought, "What is going to happen now?"

The phone rang and he just said, "You were right. It was funny."

He'd seen it on TV and realised that it was amusing.

— Know what I did last night? - I bet it was depressing.

I read my diaries from when I was a schoolkid.

See? I was right.

Not quite. I noticed moments of hope within those pages.

There is no other writer in television

who can take you along that fine line between comedy and drama —

and occasionally comedy and tragedy —

and push you off one side or the other.

I've never felt sodding pain like that in all my Life!

— Is Cassandra hurting? — Of course she is.

How do you know? You haven't talked to her about it.

No. And you know why? It's because...

It's because it's almost as if if I don't talk about it,

it might not be true.

- well, it is. - I know, I know.

— But if I don't say it... - If you don't say what?

We lost our baby.

But you did...and you have said it.

Yeah.

John does not write comedy when the worst thing that happens

is that they run out of ice for the gin and tonic.

John does not write that kind of comedy and never has done.

There's always a depth

which distinguishes him from other writers.

One of the defining moments of "Fools and Horses" was when...

John always had the ability to make people laugh,

but he then realised he had the ability to make people cry.

I remember doing the first series of the 50-minuters.

- You off, bruv? - Yeah.

And we were doing the scene where Rodney got married.

I just wanted to... I just wanted to say, Rodney...

I'm really very proud of you.

You've got it all now — new job, new flat...

new wife. New life.

He left Del in the reception and it was a lovely moment.

A very poignant moment with a Simply Red song.

John was pacing up and down here getting very twitchy.

We were recording it in front of a live audience.

And he said, "They're not laughing."

1 said, "They're not laughing because they're crying."

(SONG: "HOLDING BACK THE YEARS" BY SIMPLY RED)

# I'll keep holding on... #

He's had serious subjects.

Cassandra and her miscarriage, death in the family.

All the things that do affect people.

But he makes you smile at them.

And he has a way with his words of saying, "It's not so bad."

Lennard Pearce wasn't well — Grandad.

He'd been in hospital and we were filming without him.

And someone came on the set and said unfortunately he'd died.

So we went back to our caravans.

David and I were pretty convinced that was it.

We certainly didn't feel funny anymore.

But the series had been commissioned

and we were halfway through it.

So we had about five days off, I think...

with frantic phone calls going on.

And within the week...

we came to a meeting

to discuss what we were going to do with the series.

And one or two of the bigwigs said that it was very sad,

but we must carry on.

Someone said maybe we could have an aunt — have a woman in it

Where's Grandad?

1 said, "I'm not playing it with a woman." He said, "Why?"

1 said, "It's not that, but how can we treat a woman

"like we treat the old man?

"Call him a daft old git and throw him in the van?

"I couldn't do that to a woman."

And we decided that we would have a funeral for Grandad,

A relation would come out of the woodwork

and it would be Uncle Albert.

And that was the most amazing thing,

that john Sullivan in a week grasped the nettle

and decided to have a funeral

of a character that was in a series on screen.

Never been done before.

(NICHOLAS LYNDHURST) It was freezing cold and snowing.

David and I just staring into this grave.

And we'd done it for real the week before.

There was that joke.

— Lovely service, vicar. - Thank you.

You suddenly realised it was the wrong hat.

Has anyone seen my hat? It was here.

There was just that moment...

and you'd seen all the characters upset and sad —

"We've got to get on with it.

"Let's go back and have a drink. Poor old Grandad." —

and then just that little smile.

It makes you smile thinking about it.

Our backgrounds, without question,

have been a major part of the construction of the series.

1 came from north London,

but from a poor working-class family.

John Sullivan came from south London — Peckham!

He based the series out of truth!

And Ray Butt came from the East End.

So in all of those elements,

we knew what we were talking about.

We knew the people john was writing about.

There is er...a very important thing

about knowing how people of London speak.

And...

it's something they could sense instantly.

If we were not able to speak London working-class well,

they would know and we wouldn't have been so successful.

Canadian Club's all round. Have one yourself, Michael.

Cheers, Del. Call it 25 quid for cash.

— OK. Put it on the slate. - No. No slate, mate.

I've had a visit from the brewery.

Oh, all right.

OK. There's a fiver and er...

Would you Adam and Eve it?

I've gone and left me wallet at home.

Damien was playing with it.

I was teaching him financial management —

how to avoid expensive pubs.

- I'lL sell them to someone. — They're second-hand!

- I'll sell them cheap. — Here's a fiver for them.

It's not my fault. It's the brewery.

They've got this new rule.

From now on, customers have to pay for their drinks.

These new—fangled ideas!

I've got a pretty good ear.

I'm interested in how people speak. I like to imitate people.

It was important to get it right and I picked it up quickly,

because Ray Butt spoke... He never lost his accent.

And if you were in trouble about how to pronounce something,

Ray was there and he talked like that.

He was just one of them. That is Ray Butt.

He never put on airs and graces even with the top brass here.

We got a lot from him.

John is a bit of a social scientist in a way.

He reflects what he sees around him.

When we used to rehearse in Chiswick, we went to a local pub,

and this pub was right opposite an undertaker's.

One day we were in there,

and there's an old pot man — old Tom who was about 78, 79 —

used to clear all the tables.

One of the hearses pulled up outside opposite

and the boys who'd just done the funeral came in.

As they came in, a wag shouted, "Tom, your minicab's arrived!"

That turned up in the script.

I don't believe you!

Hang up. Hats off.

Hello, your minicab's arrived, Albert.

Boycie!

Is that Dave?

Yeah.

You git!

You rotten git!

You never told me my new job was Chief Mourner!

Rodney! Show some respect.

(JOHN SULLIVAN) You do hear things in pubs, in restaurants,

in bus queues, anywhere.

You hear the most wonderful lines by just listening.

The best lines are out of life.

That fall through the bar I saw happen.

Trig! Trigger! Over here.

Pub called The George on top of Balham Hill a guy did it...

exactly like that, showing off to some girls with some mates.

Showing off to some girls here.

I was there with a couple of my mates.

He lent forward to get a light from his mate's lighter,

the barman come out, and he went through.

He never hit the floor. He stumbled and got up

and did one of those embarrassed giggles — "I meant to do that."

It just stuck with me.

Again, I think I was up the BBC Club

and I said to David Jason "I saw this thing, Id love to use it,

"but I don't know how or where."

We must have waited ten years before we got the opportunity.

Someone came up to me one day and said,

"I want to ask you a question, Mr Jason.

"You know that thing when you fell through the bar?"

And I said, "Yes."

And he said, "Was it an accident?"

I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "Did you mean to do it?"

The construction that went into that to make that work

was very interesting.

(TONY DOW) We didn't think then it was a classic moment.

Everybody thinks, "Oh, he fell through the bar."

But it was meticulously rehearsed.

He didn't fall through the bar every day,

but David and I had long conversations about it.

I had a tremendous grounding in the theatre,

and I did all the Brian Rix farces...

and I was on tour in plays.

The things I did were very physical

I was very fortunate in being able to enjoy

getting thrown out of doors and diving through hatches.

So it was quite natural for me.

— We just learn their language. — Why? Are they foreign?

We had Roger Lloyd Pack and David Jason

trying to chat up two birds.

The important thing was never to cut —

to hold the shot.

If you look at it, we never cut. We just held the shot.

In quite a loose shot.

Normally, with a funny moment, you cut in to make it bigger,

but if we'd done that, people would have known it was coming.

When it happened, nobody suspected it at all

I think we're on a winner here, Trig.

Play it nice and cool, son. Nice and cool.

David held that fantastic rigid position.

Then you got another laugh as Roger does a Trigger moment

where he just looks — "What happened there?"

Then David popped up with that immortal line.

Drink up, Trig. We're leaving.

What about them birds?

No, mate. You're cramping my style.

It doesn't get better than that!

Over the years, "Fools and Horses" has developed.

It's stayed in Peckham, but the actors have got older,

the characters they play have got older.

Rodney married and we brought in Cassandra.

He's got one of those silly little ponytails!

What a wally.

Looks like a Davey Crockett hat!

Then Raquel.

I'm not trying to meet sensitive people. I'm happy with you!

They married, and we ended up with Damien.

Mars and something else have come into conjunction

and decided that He will be born in Peckham.

The family cycle has moved on.

Let me introduce you to Damien.

(SPOOKY MUSIC)

I believe the public are saying, "This almost mirrors our lives

"because we've moved along with it."

(JOHN SULLIVAN) Of course they've changed,

but the focus is still the same. It's always survival

and, beyond survival, trying to become very rich.

This time next year...we'll be millionaires.

My name's Perry Aghajanoff.

I'm President of the "Only Fools and Horses" Appreciation Society.

I've grown up with Rodney. He's my age.

And I've experienced the same things.

It's grown into quite a phenomenon.

It's kind of taken the country by storm.

We have 6,000 members worldwide.

We produce our own newsletter called "Hookie Street",

Our latest venture — as Del would say, we've diversified —

is Trotters Ethnic Tours, taking the Trotters to the people

to experience the wonders of Peckham, shall we say.

Once a year, we put on conventions,

generally in the Midlands.

We get most of the actors along.

Attendances range from 1500 to 2,500.

People travel from all over Europe and get into the spirit.

People turn up in their Trotter vans.

Some people come dressed as Uncle Albert or Del Boy.

They meet the actors, get their autographs.

They can pose for photographs.

They want to grab out further and touch the show,

and through the society, they can actually do that.

We know it's not real, but it's got to almost be real

It's just touched on the British psyche. It's just out there.

(TONY DOW) You can imagine what it's like on the road.

As soon as anybody hears that "Fools and Horses" is filming,

the whole world turns up.

The other thing is that our lovely press

do their best to try and shoot some of what you're filming,

so they can say, "This happens in the Christmas special."

(GARETH GWENLAN) You'd have to ask them

why they think they're getting an exclusive to blow a story

that millions of people are going to watch on Christmas Day.

Why they feel it's their duty to spoil the story, only they know.

We're having to film in public places,

so you can't actually protect the story.

(RODNEY) You said we was only going for a few hours.

(TONY DOW) The Batman and Robin sequence...

They're going to a fancy dress party and the car breaks down,

so they have to go through town.

What was brilliant was that john then took that idea

and invented the mugging situation.

They were mugging this woman.

Out of the mist came Batman and Robin,

which made the thing doubly funny.

When we came to shoot it, it was a nightmare.

We'd heard that nearly every press man from London

had come to Bristol to try to shoot this.

We had this street and we had people parking lorries,

we had security in hanging up blankets,

trying to stop any press people coming down.

I had these guys dressed as Batman and Robin.

If they got one shot, it would be front of a tabloid paper.

So we did this whole number about trying to hide it.

We had them sitting around while we put this security in.

We got them to run down the road twice.

1 shot it on one size and shot it on another size.

So the whole sequence, apart from when he spoke to the woman,

was just two shots.

(MUSIC: "BATMAN" THEME)

The simplest thing I'd ever shot, but the most effective.

If I could have shot what I wanted,

I'd have overcomplicated it — taken shots of faces and feet.

Del!

Let's go!

Sorry. Must dash. Duty calls.

The thing about all these characters

is that they are decent people.

They are loyal to each other and have great love for each other.

You all right, Unc?

What you two doing here?

We were worried about you. Silly old git.

What's this all about, eh?

Running away from home at your age.

Lot of things been going through my mind lately.

I didn't know if I was coming or going.

I feel I let the family down.

- I let you two down. - No.

Don't be so bloody daft.

Sure, Del does some dodgy deals,

but compared with politicians, they're really pretty good eggs.

For all that john Sullivan laughs at these characters,

you know that he's really fond of them, he really likes them.

He loves writing about them.

That's why we've done so many episodes.

If he didn't enjoy it, he wouldn't do it.

It seems to be timeless.

No one gets hurt. It's not cruel.

And it's — dare I say this? — it's simple humour.

The story, the characters are not that complicated.

You know about them when you see them.

You can readily absorb them and you trust them.

That's the magic that John's managed to create.

He's a flash git, really, when you think about it.

What a git to be that clever. Hate him.

So...what was the final outcome?

It was bought by an anonymous bidder.

He's giving it to the Maritime Museum at Greenwich.

Well, that's nice, innit?

Oh, you wally!

What was the final score? What exactly did it go for?

oh.

6.2 million.

So that's...

just over three million each.

Well, we've had worse days.

Do you want to go first or shall I?

well, why don't we go together?

Yeah, all right.

One, two, three...

Yes! Whoo—ooh!

At the time I was happy to let them wander off...

but there was an awful lot of public

and press pressure on us to bring them back.

We were very uncertain whether to do it or not,

but eventually we all agreed

to bring them back for one more run.

(THEME TUNE PLAYS)

A few were critical of it and said bad things about it,

but I thought it a bit unfair as we'd lost Buster — Uncle Albert,

and shortly before filming we lost Ken, who was Mike.

So we had major problems there to overcome.

I thought they'd let us off for good behaviour, but they didn't.

1'd got to start them off in their rich world —

they're millionaires — and rich ain't funny.

So I tried to bring them back to Peckham as soon as possible.

One thing Del says as he's walking up the yellow brick road

is to invest in futures.

She said on her deathbed, "If ever you and Rodney become rich,

"you must invest in the futures market."

About four months after that, it crashed.

It was a massive market and the Trotters would have been in it.

So they would have lost their money within four months.

1, at one point, made it clear

that Del had bought the flat in Nelson Mandela House,

and that was there as a sort of safety net.

Obviously, if it was a council flat and they'd left it,

somebody else would be in it,

so I arranged for Del to buy it.

So that was a good bit of thinking on my part.

You are witnessing one of nature's great phenomenons —

one that sadly David Attenborough has ignored.

It's called the Trotter brothers trying to park.

Hard on your left!

— Right hand down. - Hard left, Dave.

Right... Will you shut up?!

Episode Two is an old-fashioned "Fools and Horses" episode,

one that could have come from anywhere.

There's no point to them once being rich or not.

It's just Del and Rodney back in Peckham.

At last!

You can't park there, Dave.

If people really love it and aren't getting tired of it,

I think we'll all be happy to do some more,

but you always have that fear... It's been going a long time.

There are great new things — "The Office", Alan Partridge,

things like that.

They may get tired of "Fools", and when they do,

that's fine, we're very happy,

we'll just all shuffle off to the nearest pub

and all the public will hear from us

is a heartfelt thank you and bonjour.

# My name is Ginger I'm getting so much stick

# 'Cause of my banger 1 need to get rid of it

# If you's a drinker, then get drunk I insist

# If you's a raver, then please bubble to this... #