Only Fools and Horses - History

History

In 1980, John Sullivan, a scriptwriter under contract at the BBC, was already well known as the writer of the successful sit-com Citizen Smith. It came to an end that year and Sullivan was searching for a new project. An initial idea for a comedy set in the world of football was rejected by the BBC, as was his alternative idea, a sit-com centring around a cockney market trader in working class, modern-day London. The latter idea persisted. Through Ray Butt, a BBC producer and director whom Sullivan had met and become friends with when they were working on Citizen Smith, a draft script was shown to the Corporation's Head of Comedy, John Howard Davies. Davies commissioned Sullivan to write a full series. Sullivan believed the key factor in it being accepted was the success of ITV's new drama, Minder, a series with a similar premise and also set in modern-day London.

Sullivan had initially given the show the working title Readies. For the actual title he intended to use, as a reference to the protagonist's tax and work-evading lifestyle, Only Fools and Horses. That name was based on a genuine, though very obscure saying, "why do only fools and horses work? (for a living)", which had its origins in 19th century American vaudeville. Only Fools and Horses had also been the title of an episode of Citizen Smith and Sullivan felt that a longer name would help to grab the viewers' attention. He was first overruled on the grounds that the audience would not understand the title, but he eventually got his way and, from the second series onwards, the theme music was changed to a version explaining the meaning of the saying; some first series episodes were subsequently re-edited to use the new theme.

Filming of the first series began in May 1981, and the first episode, "Big Brother", was transmitted on BBC1 at 8.30 pm on 8 September that year. It attracted a respectable, though unspectacular (by those days' standards) 9.2 million viewers and generally received a lukewarm response from critics. The viewing figures for the whole first series, which averaged at around 7 million, were considered mediocre but owing to the BBC's policy of nurturing television shows, a second series was commissioned for 1982. The second series fared little better and the show was close to being cancelled altogether. However, both the first and second series had a repeat run in June 1983 in a more low-key time slot, but attracted respectable viewing figures, which convinced Davies to commission a third series. From there, the show gradually built up a following, and began to top the television ratings. Viewing figures for the fourth series were double those of the first.

Mid-way through the filming of the fifth series, David Jason told Sullivan that he wished to leave the show in order to further his career elsewhere. Sullivan thus wrote "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", which was intended to be the final episode and would see Del accepting a friend's offer to set up business in Australia, leaving Rodney and Albert behind. Plans were made for a spin-off entitled Hot-Rod, which would have followed Rodney's attempts to survive on his own with help from Mickey Pearce, but leaving open the prospect of Del's return. Jason then changed his mind, and the ending of the episode was changed to show Del rejecting the offer.

Sullivan had a tendency to write scripts that were too long, meaning pages of material had to be cut. Shortly before filming of the sixth series began, he requested that the show's time slot be extended and it was agreed to extend its running time to 50 minutes. This coincided with the show becoming one of the BBC's most popular programmes, according to producer Gareth Gwenlan, and allowed for more pathos in the series and an expansion of the regular cast.

The seventh series, which was to be the last, was aired in early 1991. Sullivan and the major actors were all involved with other projects, and it was confirmed that there were no plans for a new series. The show continued in Christmas specials up until 1993, before the busy schedules of the main actors put it on hiatus. Sullivan nonetheless wanted a final episode to tie up the show and see the Trotters finally become millionaires. In late 1996, three more one hour episodes was filmed, to be broadcast over Christmas 1996. All three were well received, and given the happy ending they were assumed to be the last. After a five year break, however, the show made another return in Christmas 2001 with the first of three new episodes which were shot together but ultimately broadcast over three consecutive Christmases from 2001–2003. Despite rumours of further episodes, the series never returned again, though a fan fiction community continues to exist. In a 2008 interview, Sullivan was quoted as saying: "there will not be another series of Only Fools And Horses. I can say that. We had our day, it was wonderful but it is best to leave it now."