Entertainment
Only Fools and Horses: Unseen archive pictures released to celebrate 40th anniversary of first ever episode
It’s been 40 years since the first ever episode of the iconic BBC show (Picture: PA/BNPS/BBC History)
A selection of unseen black and white photos from Only Fools and Horses filming have been released to celebrate the huge milestone for the much-loved BBC show.
The Peckham-based programme tells the story of Del Boy Trotter (played by David Jason) and his younger brother Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst) wheeling and dealing their way around London.
The series saw the pair attempt rich-quick schemes as they go through various highs and lows in their life.
Now, in order to commomerate the 40th anniversary fo the show, the BBC have put out hundreds of never-seen-before pictures taken during filming.
They have been released to mark the first-ever episode of the show being filmed.
The long-forgotten negatives have been dug out of BBC archives to be digitised for fans of the hit sitcom to enjoy.
The show is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary (Picture: UKTV/BBC/PA)
Many of the fabulous images were taken whilst filming out on location and show Del Boy, Rodney, Grandad (Lennerd Pearce) and Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield) enjoying themselves off camera.
Other characters to featre in the photos include Del Boy’s wife Raquel (Tessa Peake-Jones) and road sweeper Trigger (Roger Lloyd-Pack).
The set of photos includes snippets from scenes filmed at Butser Hill, near Petersfield in Hampshire, Studland Beach in Dorset and Margate in Kent.
Luke O’Shea, BBC collections manager, said: ‘When we first pulled them out and found them, they were in a real mess. They needed a lot of work.’
The long-forgotten negatives for the show have been dug out of the BBC archives to be digitised (Picture: BBC History/BNPS)
BBC archivist, Toni Thompson, said: “When I started to look through, I thought, “wow, this is on location.”
‘You rarely get pictures of them out on location because they don’t always send photographers with them – and the photos are just fabulous.’
The show ran for over 20 years on the broadcaster, ending in 2003 but it still lives on in the hearts of many fans from over the years and is still available to watch on various streaming services.
John Challis, David Jason, Kenneth MacDonald, Roger Lloyd-Pack, Nicholas Lyndhurst in series six (Picture: BBC History/BNPS)
A spin-off, titled The Green Green Grass, ran between 2005 and 2009 featuring Boycie (John Challis) and his wife Marlene (Sue Holderness).
Earlier this week, Challis announced his upcoming tour had been scrapped due to ill health.
More: BBC
In a statement, A Way With Media, said the tour had been cancelled ‘with immediate effect.’
He was planning on embarking on a string of dates throughout the autumn, which he was ‘intending to continue’ but has apparently been advised to pull out in recent days.
Only Fools and Horses can be streamed in full on BBC iPlayer, Netflix and BritBox.
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