Nine behind the scenes secrets of Only Fools and Horses Christmas specials – royal gaffe & ‘useless’ celeb star
FOR 20 years a Christmas episode of Britain’s favourite comedy Only Fools and Horses was as much a fixture on Christmas Day as The Queen’s Speech.
Here writer Steve Clark, author of Only Fools and Horses: The Official Inside Story, reveals the Christmas secrets of the legendary sitcom.
Only Fools and Horses was the show that the BBC never really wanted.
In fact, the Beeb turned it down when writer John Sullivan first offered it to them – and its disappointing ratings meant that it came very close to being axed after just two series.
But by 1985 it was firmly established as one of the BBC’s top shows – and bosses decided to splash out £850,000 – around £3million in today’s money – on its first feature length episode.
Joke's on you
Much of it was filmed aboard a 90ft boat off the Yorkshire coast – and before filming even began there were problems for director Ray Butt.
Read More Only Fools
As soon as he boarded the boat, stars Nicholas Lyndhurst and Buster Merryfield gave him bad news - David Jason was in a cabin and was feeling terrible.
He was lying in a bunk looking green and groaning every time the boat rocked.
“He looked terrible,” Butt recalled. “I said: ‘All right, mate?’ and he just groaned.
"I said: ‘Is there anything I can get you?’ and he groaned again. Then he burst out laughing – he couldn’t keep it up. It was a wind up and I’d fallen for it hook, line and sinker.
Most read in News TV
"I said: ‘Get out of that bloody bunk – or I’ll throw you over the side!’”
12 hours on a boat – for a 30 second scene
In one famous moment in the episode Del calls to a man working on a gas rig and asks for directions to Holland. The scene was only 30 seconds on screen but took nearly a day to film.
"It was a six-hour sail to the oil rig there, then we shot it quite quickly,” recalled producer Ray Butt, who flew to the rig in a helicopter. “Then they had a six-hour trip back to Hull.
“Although they had the longer journey, they had the last laugh on me because before they’d left port they’d filled the boat up with booze for a bit of a party and got plastered.”
Xmas day episode finished HOURS before
The 1986 Christmas special A Royal Flush came close to not being ready for its Christmas Day slot after David Jason lost his voice for three days and Nicholas Lyndhurst went down with flu.
Filming for the episode, in which Rodney falls in love with posh Victoria, daughter of the Duke of Maylebury, only began in November and was beset by problems including an electricians strike.
Producer Gareth Gwenlan said: “The fact that it was ever shown is a miracle.”
The delays in filming meant there was no time to show the episode in front of a studio audience in order to record a laughter track, nor was there time to add any music.
There was even a contingency plan at one stage to do the final scene at the flat live on Christmas Day.
The episode was just about completed in time with editing only finished in the early hours of Christmas Day – just a few hours before it was broadcast.
By royal appointment
As if the actors weren’t busy enough filming A Royal Flush, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst and Buster Merryfield (Uncle Albert) had agreed to appear at that years' Royal Variety Show on November 24.
The story had the trio supposedly making a delivery of dodgy booze to a pal of Del’s called Chunky Lewis, who ran a nightclub in London’s West End.
The plan for the Trotters was that they would take a wrong turn and end up walking on stage at the Palladium during the show.
David Jason was worried about a line he had to deliver to the Royal Box, which would be occupied by the Queen Mother and Fergie, the Duchess of York.
“I’d said to John Sullivan: ‘Christ, we’ll get ourselves locked up in the tower for this!’” said David.
John Sullivan recalled: “When I wrote about Chunky I didn’t know the Duchess of York was going to be there. It was before she’d joined WeightWatchers and in those days she had a few pounds on her.”
David recalled: “The royal gag was very funny. Rodney looks up to the Royal Box, while Del is looking elsewhere, and he sees the Royal Family and starts scraping and bowing and I say: ‘What’s the matter with you?’ and then Del looks up to this box and, dazzled by the lights, says: ‘Chunky, is that you?’”
“The line brought the house down – and provoked an instant reaction from the Queen Mum as David recalled: “I could actually see - and she started to do the royal wave,” he laughed.
“I couldn’t believe it. Everybody fell about. Bless her cotton socks; perhaps she was well on the gin and tonics by then, but for whatever reason she did it!”
Out with a bang
The much-loved 1989 Christmas special The Jolly Boys’ Outing saw the Nag’s Head gang head off for a day out to Margate.
One unforgettable moment in the story came when a car radio ignited the fuel tank in the coach and caused a massive explosion which blew up the vehicle.
The production team bought a coach for £2,000. The coach had to have passed its MOT and be safe for use on roads for the scenes of the group travelling to Margate.
For the explosion scene a BBC visual effects team got to work and placed tanks containing hundreds of gallons of petrol all the way along in the luggage compartments.
Firefighters from the Kent Fire Brigade also stood by ready to extinguish the flames. “We knew that we could do the explosion two or three times if the flames were put out quickly,” said producer Gareth Gwenlan.
Run-in with the ‘Mafia’
Del Boy and Rodders went to Miami in Florida in 1991 for the second half of a two-part Christmas special Miami Twice, but despite careful planning the whole £2 million episode was nearly wrecked.
In the story Del and Rodney run into trouble when Del is spotted by a Mafia gang who realise he’s a dead-ringer for the head of the family, Don Occhetti – and if his double is seen being assassinated in public the criminal could escape prison.
The dual-role meant David Jason had to film twice as many scenes as normal, but even that was easier that the real-life nightmare the cast and crew faced at the hands of Mafia-style antics from a powerful union.
Despite assurances from the Miami authorities that the powerful unions wouldn’t cause problems, within days of starting to film the Teamsters Union was threatening to shut-down production.
Producer Gareth Gwenlan was summoned, Mafia-style, to a meeting with the local union boss.
“I found this great fat, balding guy sitting at his desk. He had a real James Cagney-at-his-worst accent and he said: ‘So what are you doing in my town?’”
The producer explained that the BBC was employing a lot of local people, but that wasn’t enough for the union boss.
“I want twelve of my drivers on that set tomorrow, otherwise I shut you down.’”
The following day the union picketed the set and shut production down because none of the American crew would cross a picket line.
In the end the dispute was settled with the BBC having to hire three teamsters members as drivers, even though they had no work to do.
Eventually, one of the drivers was assigned as a chauffeur for John Sullivan, instead of him running up big taxi bills. “He was a very nice, polite man,” said John.
It was only much later that John discovered his mild-mannered driver had just come out of prison after 16 years of serving time for murder and armed robbery.
Nearly lunch for alligators
Nicholas and David filmed a scene in the Florida Everglades, sitting on a log with a six- foot alligator less than eight feet behind them.
“Some people think we shot it behind a glass screen but we didn’t, we were genuinely just a few feet away from some big old jaws,” Nicholas recalled.
“We knew it was close because we could hear it breathing but when it came to start filming it wouldn’t do anything. It just sat there and then when they needed it to react and move a bit, they got a ranger with a long stick to jab it in its private parts and of course then it snarled!
“We had a guy off to my left with a rifle pointing at the alligator’s head and then between us, just to the side of the camera, was a ranger with a .44 magnum pointing just past us, again at its head.
"I said: ‘Quite honestly I’d rather have the gator than a gun five feet away waving at my head.’”
The script also called for Del to fall into a swamp. “We were pushed for time and David ended up filming it in alligator infested water,” John Sullivan recalled.
“It was one of the bravest things I’ve ever seen because we had no idea what was underneath the surface and splashing in like he did would alert every alligator around. That took some guts.”
Virgin on the ridiculous
The final moments of the first episode of Miami Twice saw the Trotter brothers flying out of Gatwick Airport and featured a guest appearance by Virgin boss Richard Branson – but the shot had to be re-filmed many times.
Gareth Gwenlan explained: “Richard is a nice man but he can’t act to save his life.
"For the first ten minutes of filming he couldn’t keep a straight face and then he had to take it seriously because he was holding up his own plane, which was waiting to go.”
The caped crusaders
Filming the memorable Batman and Robin scene in the first of three 1996 Christmas specials Heroes and Villains required David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst to make complete fools of themselves.
“You can’t take yourself too seriously and do things like that,” grinned David. “You’ve got to be a bit daft in the head to do it."
Filming took place in the early hours of a cold November morning. David recalled: “Nick and I had to film it about six times because we couldn’t do it for laughing.
"I’d be looking at him in all his gear and he’d be trying to say serious lines and I just found it very funny. He’d say: ‘What are you laughing at?’ and I’d say: ‘Well you’ve got to see you from where I see you.’”
The production team wanted to keep the Batman and Robin scene secret until viewers saw it on Christmas Day, so the actors were kept in their caravan until the very last minute.
Read More on The Sun
Photographers trying to get snaps of filming were dazzled with extra film lights and encouraged to leave the area by a security guard with a Rottweiler.
The episode was a huge hit and was watched by 21.3 million people and the final part of the trilogy was watched by 24.3 million people – and remains the biggest ever British television audience for a comedy.