Only Fools And Horses: David Jason takes a trip down memory lane
David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst in Only Fools And Horses.
many Irish fans will be feeling lovely jubbly as a new series is set to uncover unseen footage from the iconic series.
The show’s Del Boy, actor David Jason and his fellow cast mates take a trip down memory lane in which features previously unseen material from across more than 10 classic episodes, including The Jolly Boys’ Outing, Mother Nature’s Son, and Time on Our Hands.
The scenes and footage, unseen for decades, are unveiled to fans via screenings for and conversations with cast members who brought one of TV’s most-beloved shows to our screens. The show was the creation of the late John Sullivan, a British-born writer of Irish descent.
Archive producer Richard Latto was responsible for the initial idea for this project after discovering footage that few realised existed, and many believed to be lost.
The found footage is an embarrassment of riches, he says, and he’d always hoped archival work would produce some small-screen magic, as it had on previous projects he’d worked on.
“I'd always been a bit puzzled as to why it hadn't seen the light of day before,” says Latto. “I was with the BBC for 25 years as a programme maker and a presenter. I did a lot of radio and television programs based on comedy and music, but it was often quite a tough task to find new things about areas that people had often made documentaries about before. I kind of prided myself in finding new archive that would get people excited, like ( star) Sid James's last interview, and a rare Peter Sellers programme.”
Latto also has a special interest in TV and film restoration, explaining why his working space is full of film cans, he laughs. “I know that when you do restoration, you have to go back to the most original sources that you can find, the earliest videotape before it's dropped generations and has been copied, or film. If you're lucky enough, if the film still survives, because you can't obviously record over film, it's just a question of whether they've kept it. I knew there was gold in them there hills.”
Sixty-six unseen clips were discovered, along with almost 100 other gems for fans, including rushes, photographs taken from rehearsals and on set, behind the scenes footage, outtakes and location filming. The material is a blend of entirely new and extended scenes.
Over the course of some preliminary digging, one of the first cans off the shelf, was the scene from the school reunion episode Class of ’62.
“We were amazed and privileged to be the first people to watch some unseen Only Fools and Horses that no one else had ever seen, apart from the people that obviously were in it, and potentially the people that transferred it back in 1991, and then said: ‘Ah, we haven't got time to include that. Let's put it on the shelf’, and it's been there ever since. And then the rest follows - it’s just been great fun.”
Among some of the most exciting material unearthed, says Latto, is from Christmas special Considered one of the series greatest and most iconic episodes, it sees the cast leave Peckham for an outing to Margate. It drew a huge audience of 20 millions viewers when first aired in 1989 and its appeal endures to this day.
“It's held in such high regard by both fans, Sir David Jason and other members of the team and the cast,” says Latto. “To find new material from there - I was amazed that this had not been seen before, and it was mainly material from the location sequences out and about in the Margate area. You look at things like the coach scene. Now that's hilarious, where they're making their way down, and they're all very excited, and they have this witty repartee.”
This includes some new footage of the late John Challis as Boycie. “John had apparently said to a few people at conventions over the years and in interviews that he did record a lot more, but sadly it was never in the final episode,” says Latto. “Well, God rest his soul, we've now got it, and it's really wickedly acidically funny.”
Over the course of the two-part series, viewers will get to see cast members invited back to see the newly revealed footage. Some of them were dumbfounded to see material that they didn’t even remember recording. One of the show’s most touching moments features Tessa Peake-Jones - who played Raquel - revisit a scene where she has to audition as a singer.
“She and David had a bit of a moment when they were watching,” says Latto. “They were seeing themselves as younger, vibrant, very, funny, very capable members of the cast, doing a brilliant performance.
“We found ourselves watching each of these cut scenes and thinking they must have been cut for time, because there is no other reason to cut these. They're still funny, they're still emotive, they're still beautifully written, beautifully acted.”
It was undoubtedly a moving experience for the cast, who got to revisit their work in a unique way. For viewers, it’s a chance to dive deep into the show’s enduring appeal.
ran from 1981 through to 1996, with a final trilogy of specials in the early Noughties. “I think it boils down to the interaction between the characters themselves, says Latto of the show’s ongoing popularity. “Emotions are timeless, ageless, and we can all identify with the family dynamics, in some cases the desperation to keep your head above water.”
- will be broadcast on Tuesday October 20, and Tuesday October 27 at 9pm on U&GOLD
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