John Sullivan was a wizard with a typewriter. He wrote every single episode, by hand, on a yellow legal pad. He’d then type it up, throw away half the pages, and start again. The man wrote 64 episodes and never used a single joke that didn’t come from real life.
One of the most famous gags—the “chandelier fall” where Del Boy crashes through the bar—was totally accidental. David Jason tripped over a loose rug, smashed into the set, and the cast’s laughter in the scene is 100% genuine. They kept it in because it was too good to cut. That’s how legends are made.
The Cars: A Star in Its Own Right
The yellow Reliant Regal, “Del’s van,” was a beige three-wheeler that became an icon. Did you know it wasn’t even the main character’s car at first? In the early episodes, they used a proper car, but it kept breaking down. So they borrowed the Reliant from a local stunt driver.
The Regal was so dangerous that David Jason refused to drive it at more than 20 mph because it felt like falling down a hill in a biscuit tin. The producers had to use a stunt driver for any scene where the van actually moved. The only thing it was good at was tipping over.
Prime Video: Only Fools And Horses, Season 6
