Episodes
For more details on this topic, see List of Only Fools and Horses episodes.Sixty-three episodes of Only Fools and Horses, all written by John Sullivan, were broadcast on BBC1 between 8 September 1981 and 25 December 2003. The show was aired in seven series (1981–83, 1985–86, 1989 and 1990/91), and thereafter in sporadic Christmas special editions (1991–93, 1996, 2001–03). All of the earlier episodes had a running time of 30 minutes, but this was extended after Series Six (1989), and all subsequent episodes had a running time ranging from 50 to 95 minutes. Most episodes were shot in front of a live audience or had a laugh track recorded from a live audience viewing; the only exceptions being "To Hull and Back", "A Royal Flush", and the second part of "Miami Twice".
Five special editions were produced, some of which have only recently been rediscovered. An eight-minute episode aired in 1982 as part of a show hosted by Frank Muir, The Funny Side of Christmas, in which mini-episodes of Yes Minister, Open All Hours (in which Jason also starred), Butterflies (in which Lyndhurst also starred), The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and Last of the Summer Wine also featured. A 5 minute spoof BBC documentary was shown on Breakfast Time in 1985, with Del being investigated by consumer expert Lynn Faulds Wood.
An educational episode named "Licensed to Drill", in which Del, Rodney and Grandad discuss oil drilling, was recorded in 1984 but only shown in schools. A 15 minute 1990–91 Persian Gulf War special was shown to British troops serving in the conflict. It has never been broadcast commercially, but a copy exists at the Imperial War Museum, London. A Comic Relief special showing Del, Rodney and Albert making an appeal for donations was shown in 1997.
Only Fools and Horses had two producers: Ray Butt from 1981 to 1987, and Gareth Gwenlan thereafter. Seven directors were used: Martin Shardlow directed all episodes in series one, Bernard Thompson directed the 1981 Christmas special, Susan Belbin series four and Mandie Fletcher series five. Butt directed series two and three, as well as the 1985, 1986 and 1987 Christmas specials. Tony Dow became the established director after 1988, directing all subsequent episodes, bar the first part of Miami Twice, which was directed by Gareth Gwenlan. John Sullivan was executive producer on seven of the final eight episodes.
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Famous quotes containing the word episodes:
“Twenty or thirty years ago, in the army, we had a lot of obscure adventures, and years later we tell them at parties, and suddenly we realize that those two very difficult years of our lives have become lumped together into a few episodes that have lodged in our memory in a standardized form, and are always told in a standardized way, in the same words. But in fact that lump of memories has nothing whatsoever to do with our experience of those two years in the army and what it has made of us.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)
“What is a novel if not a conviction of our fellow-men’s existence strong enough to take upon itself a form of imagined life clearer than reality and whose accumulated verisimilitude of selected episodes puts to shame the pride of documentary history?”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)