‘Only Fools And Horses’ stars Sir David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst were reunited yesterday - off screen at least - as they joined to accept lifetime achievement gongs at the National Film Awards.
And they were also united in confirming they will NEVER reunite for another caper by Del Boy and Rodney, despite untiring rumours of another TV outing by the Peckham duo.
Sir David, who has recently reprised his role of Granville in the rebooted ‘Open All Hours’ explained that it would be impossible for any writer to match the skills of the late John Sullivan, who penned the original series.
He told the Sun: He was such an original talent. It’s very, very difficult for anybody to fill his shoes and that is no reflection on his sons at all.”
Although that would seem to prevent any further episodes being written, there is still hope for the die-hard fans of the hit show, which ran from 1981 to 1991 in series form, with festive specials running to 2003, and drew huge audiences, including a record viewing for a sitcom of 24.3million for the 1996 Christmas edition.
John Chalis, who played the aspirational Boyce in the show, revealed last month that John Sullivan had penned a secret last episode before he died. That would surely tempt even the reluctant Sir David and Nicholas to get back behind the wheel of the Robin Reliant one more time.
The lineup for any new show would never be quite complete, sadly. Roger Lloyd Pack, who as Trigger singularly failed to get Rodney’s name right throughout the series, died in 2014.