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Only Fools and Horses

"I don't know why they want these drug-addiction centres, Del Boy. I mean ain't we got enough drug-addicts without them recruiting more."“BUSH, BUSH, BUSH, BUSH, BUSH, BUSH, BUSH”. Still your best chance of getting a glimpse of a branch of Supercigs or Spud-U-Like, JOHN SULLIVAN’s uber-com – originally to be titled READIES – is alternately great and woeful. In the great bracket: “It’s Barratt’s!”, the Peckham Pouncer, “Cwying!”, ‘The Longest Night’ (best episode ever) and – yeah – we’ll say it: the Batman and Robin bit. And as for the woeful? ‘If They Could See Us Now’ (worst episode ever), Raquel, that one with the bottled water, all the Omen stuff and the clunky pop cultural references (“Have you ever spent a night with Trigger? It’s like holding a seance with Mr Bean”). But, to be fair, anything up until Cassandra arrives is top, and a different opening and closing theme is bonus points in anyone’s book – particularly when there’s the none-more-eighties line: “Ball games, gold chains, whassa-names, and at a push, some Trevor Francis tracksuits”.

21 Comments

21 Comments

  1. Lee James Turnock

    May 5, 2010 at 5:21 pm

    Sometimes feels like I’m the only person in the world who doesn’t like it. Get the violins out…

    • Joanne Gray

      February 21, 2017 at 6:54 pm

      I’m not keen either. I think the endless repeats sickened me of it.

  2. Rob Johnson

    September 9, 2010 at 6:29 pm

    Went on for too long and became overly sentimental. At its pomp though it was hilarious.

  3. Glenn A

    April 23, 2011 at 4:32 pm

    RIP John Sullivan, you created the greatest sitcom of my teenage years. The 1989 series was a masterpiece.

  4. John O'Connor

    April 25, 2011 at 8:34 pm

    OFAH contains some of the greatest lines in comedy, full stop.

    Superb.

  5. Stuey

    April 25, 2011 at 9:32 pm

    supercigs are still going aren’t they?

  6. Arthur Nibble

    April 26, 2011 at 10:57 pm

    For all its laugh-out-loud moments (the pratfall, anyone?), the script had its poignant sad moments, like Del Boy on his own at the wedding buffet, and admittedly soppy sentimental stuff, like Del Boy’s babe-in-his-arms speech to Damian which, admittedly, gets me every time.

  7. Richard16378

    April 26, 2011 at 11:51 pm

    Many episodes seemed to have a sentimental moment suddenly followed by something very funny,

    For example the vicar wondering where his hat was at Grandad’s funeral.

  8. Barbersmith

    November 26, 2015 at 11:00 am

    If this had finished after series four it would stand up there with the greatest sitcoms ever. Sadly, it didn’t. Mawkish, over-long, tired, lazy and worst of all, deeply unfunny by the time it finished.

  9. Richard Davies

    November 26, 2015 at 8:15 pm

    It drifted a little into drama with the 50 minute episodes & annual extended specials, but the quality of the series was there right to the end. The 1996 specials got better & better as they went along, I was practically cheering as the end of the 3rd one.

    It’s a shame the BBC & John Sullivan let us down with the 2001-3 Xmas specials that tried to recapture a more-or-less perfect ending & were wide of the mark, even if the last one did restore some of the balance.

    • Barbersmith

      February 11, 2017 at 6:46 pm

      It drifted into pure shite. Not ‘drama’.

  10. Glenn Aylett

    September 3, 2022 at 1:21 pm

    I think Only Fools and Horses was at its peak from 1985 to 1989, with Uncle Albert being a stronger character than Grandad and characters like Boycie and Marlene taking a bigger role. The 1990 Christmas special was a bit of a let down, though, with too much emphasis on Rodney’s relationship with Cassandra, but the last regular series in 1991 was still very good.

  11. Richardpd

    September 3, 2022 at 10:09 pm

    As much as I like the Grandad era, John Sullivan had really got to grips with writing the the series by the mid 1980s.

  12. Glenn Aylett

    September 4, 2022 at 11:44 am

    @ Richardpd, Lennard Pearce dying could have been the end of OFAH, but the BBC decided to keep the series going with Buster Merryfield and the show became enormous. Also writing Marlene into the series as a regular character was a great move, as she made a great double act with Boycie( the Great Dane episode is one of my favourites).

  13. Richardpd

    September 4, 2022 at 12:02 pm

    I agree that Lennard Pearce’s passing could have been the end of the show, but the 4th series was already commissioned & he had actually films some scenes. Finding Buster Merryfield & the character of Uncle Albert was a master-stroke considering the short time scale.

    Marline was a welcome edition to the cast, especially as Boycie in the earlier episodes was quite cut-throat at times when dealing with Del.

  14. Adrian

    September 5, 2022 at 11:07 am

    I wonder how many times the ‘Delboy falling through the bar’ clip has been shown over the years?

    • David Smith

      September 5, 2022 at 1:25 pm

      Good as that stunt is, what truly makes it is Roger Lloyd Pack’s bemused reaction to Del’s vanishing…

      • Richardpd

        September 5, 2022 at 10:22 pm

        Yes it really comes as a shock to him!

  15. Droogie

    September 6, 2022 at 11:58 am

    I watched some Citizen Smith episodes recently. Maybe it was because I hadn’t seen them in a while compared to the endless OFAH repeats, but I found Wolfie’s antics much funnier than Del Boy’s. The pace and energy was definitely better, especially compared to the OFSH specials which could really draaaagg.

    • Richardpd

      September 6, 2022 at 10:29 pm

      I only saw Citizen Smith on the early 1990s repeats, some episodes were quite good for a first series by John Sullivan, with just the odd weak episode.

      With quite a young cast there was a lot on enthusiasm on screen. In spite of Wolfie’s ideals he rarely ended an episode better than at the beginning!

  16. Glenn Aylett

    September 10, 2022 at 4:03 pm

    @ Richardpd, Citizen Smith is one of those comedies that rarely gets mentioned now, but was hilarious in places like the episode where Wolfie stole a tank and the one where the Tooting Popular Front broke into Parliament, only to find out the MPs are on summer recess. Also it never outstayed its welcome and ended after four series, with Wolfie still plotting a revolution that would never happen and the TPF numbering a handful of misfits.

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