Even fools and horses like only fools and horses! (Only Fools and Horses)

Member Name: Richard*

Product:	Only Fools and Horses
Date:	05/08/01 (72 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Finished on a high

Disadvantages: Grandad's death, Unlikely to be any more

Only fools and horses first appeared on TV in 1981 with the first episode titled 'Big Brother'. The first series wasn't brilliant but the basic foundations were there and the show progressed brilliantly until its final Christmas episode in 1996.

The main characters are Del (David Jason) and Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst), the famous Trotter brothers and partners in Trotter’s Independent Traders (or TIT), they go through many adventures in order to try and become millionaires. They try and become millionaires by wheeling and dealing and generally doing as little work as possible, although at times to achieve this they often have to go out of their way and do more work than they should have to.

The characters have gone through many changes through the years but always remained constantly funny and enjoyable to watch. The program suffered in 1983 when Lennard Pearce, who played Granddad, sadly passed away while filming the 4th series meaning that several episodes needed to be refilmed with Buster Merryfield, who plays the Trotter brother's Uncle, in place of Granddad. Lennard's death also needed to be written into the program to explain the loss of such a major character and an introduction of a new character in his place, John Sullivan managed this to perfection making the episode based around Granddad’s funeral funny despite the general sadness surrounding the episode and the actors also performed brilliantly as a fitting tribute to him.

Two of the most well known moments, in what is generally known as the nations favourite comedy, are when Del is trying to pull some birds and leans on the bar to find the barman has pulled it up and he falls straight through and when Rodney wins a competition for a holiday in Spain only to find he has got to spend an entire week pretending to be 14 despite being over 6ft and aged 26!

The final episode sees the Trotter brothers finally getting some good luck when they d
iscover an extremely valuable pocket watch, which is then auctioned, and they end up achieving their goal and becoming millionaires. The episode is very emotional, as Del doesn’t want to give up his past and wants to carry on wheeling and dealing like he used to and Rodney has to persuade him to just enjoy his retirement instead of aiming to become billionaires.

There has been a lot of talk about new episodes but Buster Merryfield passed away in 1999 and David Jason is tied up with other projects at the moment meaning that in my opinion it is unlikely there will be any new episodes. I also think that the last episode finished perfectly and any poor new episodes would mean people remembering the program less highly than they would if it is left as it is.

That just leaves me to say ‘Bonjour’!

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