The show that gave us plonker, lovely jubbly and the misadventures of two London boys on the make has just turned thirty. To mark this only formidablah event on the sitcom calendar here are our top thirty all time Only Fools and Horses moments. Cushty.
63 episodes and countless laughs later John O’Sullivan’s peerless sitcom about two working class Londoner and their dodgy deals, business whizzes and motley mates remains one of the most-loved shows on TV.
Only Fools and Horses wasn’t just great fun but it also captured the pain, the joy and the dodgy merchandise of family life like few other sitcoms. It’s still Peckham’in (you’re fired – Ed) on our screens with regular and welcome repeats (every day on TV Gold) we’d like to relive some of our favourite moments from the show with the big heart and a belly full of laughs. Cushty!
The Lift
The Episode: Time On Our Hands (1996). Del and Rodney are trapped in a lift and end up having a heart-to-heart about Rodney’s reaction to Cassandra’s miscarriage.
The Moment: It turns out that Del has deliberately scuppered the lift in order to have an intimate chat with his brother.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkMawnmlHkI&feature=related
The Luminous Paint
The Episode: Yellow Peril (1982). The Trotters agree to paint the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant but end up using stolen, unlabelled paint that turns out to be luminous.
The Moment: Mr Chin and his employees standing in their brightly-lit kitchen, all wearing sunglasses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqA8NWnnJcc
The Blow-Up Dolls
The Episode: Danger UXD (1989). The boys are expecting a consignment of dolls but they turn out to be of the adult entertainment variety.
The Moment: The gradual appearance from behind the sofa of a slowly inflating ‘’woman’’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmFsmxWX9y0
The Art Prize
The Episode: The Unlucky Winner Is . . . (1989). Del wins a holiday in a Corn Flakes art competition secretly using one of Rodney’s landscape paintings.
The Moment: When Rodney realises that the competition he won was actually in the Under 15s category and thus must spend the entire holiday with his fellow winners. (You could equally choose the moment when Rodney walks into the hotel room wearing all his skateboard gear.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3bXbaUM5qc&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLAB619B6C16319A78
Rodney/Dave
The Episode: Homesick (1983). Rodney finally confronts Trigger about his annoying habit of calling him Dave.
The Moment: Rodney: "Trig, why do you call me Dave? My name's Rodney." Trigger: “Are you sure?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhmCyBo7d7s&feature=related
Who Shall Pin a Butterfly
The Episode: As One Door Closes (1985). Del and Rodney are broke and desperate again after a deal falls through with painter and decorator Brendan O'Shaughnessy. They take refuge at their mother’s grave where Rodney notices a rare butterfly that's worth about £3,000 to collectors.
The Moment: After chasing the butterfly around the churchyard, the park and the boating lake, they finally capture it, only for Denzil to wander past and give Del a high five and squash it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epBu-WmIq9Q
To the Manor Born
The Episode: A Royal Flush (1986). Rodney hits it off with a posh bird he meets down Peckham market only to have Del Boy ruin his chances of happiness yet again.
The Moment: The tragicomic scene when Del turns up at Vicky’s country pile in the clapped out Robin Regal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUKIX6OR6ZU
Bar fall
The Episode: Yuppy Love (1989). After watching Wall Street, Del focuses on the upwardly-mobile lifestyle - camel coat, mobile phone like a brick, filofax, briefcase and green mackintosh.
The Moment: Del and Trig swap The Nags Head for a snazzy wine bar, where Del accidentally, and unforgettably, falls through the bar hatch while trying to look nonchalant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S9MQymXQF0
Chandelier Cleaning
The Episode: A Touch of Glass (1982). The Trotters cross paths with Lady Ridgemere of Ridgemere Hall Estate and pose as chandelier cleaners.
The Moment: With Rodney and Del up ladders, and only an old sheet between the precious cut-glass and the hard floor, Grandad detaches the wrong chandelier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mf58Yndjsw
The Illegal Immigrant
The Episode: Strangers on The Shore (2002). The boys go to France and discover how much of a ladies’ man Albert was when they notice a lot of Albert lookalikes. On their return to Blighty they find an illegal immigrant in the back of Denzil’s lorry. See dialogue below.
The Moment: Denzil: “For all we know he could be part of Al-Qaeda.”
Rodney: “Don’t be stupid.”
Del Boy: “Yeah, I mean does he look like he works in a furniture store?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOFu5qp91nE&feature=related
Albert’s Undies
The Episode: Fatal Extraction (1993). Del and Raquel break up (temporarily) and that very afternoon Del arranges a date with the secretary at his dentists. He cancels the arrangement and subsequently notices that the lady is following him around.
The Moment: Del finds a pot boiling over in his kitchen and in Fatal Attraction style lifts the lid to discover it’s only Albert’s underpants.
Batman and Robin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q37l7eqxgo4&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL03A906EDD51B6497
Batman and Robin
The Episode: Heroes and Villains (1996). The Christmas special where the lads are en route to a fancy dress party and end up saving a local councillor from being mugged.
The Moment: When Del and Rodney, dressed as Batman and Robin, walk into the party to discover that it’s actually a wake for the host who died the day before.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-CbZNb4AIM
