Comedy, Life, Drama (Only Fools and Horses)

Member Name: james75

Product:	Only Fools and Horses
Date:	14/11/00 (14 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's a slice of genius

Disadvantages: It's not on anymore

The reason why 'Only Fools and Horses' works and can be considered one the greatest long running sitcoms ever is quite simple.

Good characters, characters that develop, sharp script, but the real reasons that lift it beyond good and make it genius are deeper and perhaps could never be explained, if they could every sitcom would be as good as 'Fools and Horses'. It's about chemistry, it's about two outstanding actors, Nicholas Lyndhurst and David Jason, the final episode 'Time on Our Hands' with the moving and stunning lift scene took your breath away becuase you suddenly became so aware of the depth of talent these two actors possessed. To think, this dealt with a misscarriage in a comedy show and dealt with it in a heart rendering and sensitive manner, not crass and fould mouthed as many sitcoms would was another example of the stunning writing talents of 'John Sullivan'.

The show started in 1981 and although it often refelcted it's time, the yuppie period when Del famously missed the wine bar counter, like that scene it often lampooned the time or at least highlighted the more amusing side to it and after a period when the characters might run the risk of looking jaded, they were expanded with Cassandra and Raquel. This allowed Rodney to grow up, you really feel for Rodney, the shy clever man, everyone remembers him as a plonker, in fact he was shy and clever, his development was key to the show and by its end he had gainned confidence, and it all semed so real, the aspects of drama make us love 'The Trotters' becuase they are real to us. Del is no angel but his heart is in the right place, and when Rodney was shy and awkward we all releated to that and when his marriage hit the rocks we related to that.

The comedy is that life is against you type, we all felt for the 'Totters', we all knew people like them, the great Uncle Albert now sadly missed the perfect replacement f
or 'Grandad', thos scenes where they were at Grnad's funeral I am sure they were real tears.

The show is a masterpiece becuase it shifted between drams and comedy with ease, often combining the two, ther ewere touching brotherly moments and the great thing was in the final episode in 'The Nags Head' they were all there, Micky Pearce, Denzil, the great Boyce, Del's relationship with Marlene often hinted at and once metioned never resolved but these little undercurrents gave the show life and reality.

We will not see its like again, perhaps becuase the calibre of all the performers in the show is uch that their like ar eone in a million, somehow David Sullivan got them all in one show. The show grew with us and we ended up loving it as our own, 'The Trotters' we TV Fantasy but deep down we know they are real, they exist in so many people.

To call it a sitcom does it an injustice, it is a slice of life.

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