{"id":323760,"date":"2026-03-01T17:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T17:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/323760\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T17:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T17:33:09","slug":"tessa-peake-jones-says-only-fools-and-horses-is-best-left-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/323760\/","title":{"rendered":"Tessa Peake-Jones says Only Fools and Horses is \u2018best left alone\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tessa Peake-Jones has said beloved sitcom Only Fools And Horses is \u201cbest left alone\u201d as she addressed the possibility of a reboot ahead of the sitcom\u2019s 45th anniversary.<\/p>\n

The comedy, a ratings powerhouse for the BBC since it first aired in 1981, follows the Trotter family led by smooth-talking market trader Derek \u201cDel Boy\u201d Trotter (David Jason), and his naive younger brother, Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst).<\/p>\n

Peake-Jones, now 68, rose to fame when she joined the show in 1988 as Del Boy\u2019s love interest and eventual wife, Raquel Turner.<\/p>\n

\"SirDavid Jason starred as Del Boy Trotter (Yui Mok\/PA)<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Express, the actress described the comedy as a \u201cjewel\u201d, adding: \u201cYou don\u2019t want to fiddle about with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking about the possibility of a revival or a reboot, she said: \u201cIt\u2019s best left alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peake-Jones hailed writer John Sullivan, who died in 2011 at the age of 64, as \u201cthe genius behind the show\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think you could ever repeat that, and I hope they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome reboots, or when they\u2019ve brought everyone back for a prequel, just haven\u2019t worked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get letters from youngsters all the time saying, \u2018Oh, my granddad watched this show\u2019, or \u2018My parents watched this, and they loved it\u2019, so it passes down the generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think leave it like that because it\u2019s a bit like a jewel \u2013 you don\u2019t want to fiddle about with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a bit like torture to be forced to sit on the sofa and watch this stuff back from 30 years ago.<\/p>\n

Tessa Peake-Jones<\/p>\n

Peake-Jones is among the cast members who will reunite for a documentary series to air on U&Gold later this year to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the first broadcast.<\/p>\n

Only Fools And Horses: The Lost Archive will air behind-the-scenes footage as well as new material and previously unseen clips from the series.<\/p>\n

Peake-Jones told the newspaper it was \u201cquite depressing\u201d to watch the footage back, adding: \u201cYou\u2019re looking back at something 30 years ago, and we\u2019re all a lot older now, so you just look so different.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cYou think, \u2018Oh, we were in our prime\u2019, which is quite a weird thing to be witnessing decades later. It\u2019s a very odd experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bit like torture to be forced to sit on the sofa and watch this stuff back from 30 years ago, it really was, but it\u2019s part of the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nicholas Lyndhurst also starred in the sitcom (Ian West\/PA)<\/p>\n

The actress said she spent a day with Jason during the documentary filming, adding: \u201cIt was harder for David because some of that stuff for him is looking back 40 years, which I know he finds quite odd.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018Isn\u2019t it odd to see yourself looking so much younger?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Only Fools And Horses ran for 22 years and became known for its popular phrases such as \u201cThis time next year, we\u2019ll be millionaires\u201d, \u201cLovely jubbly\u201d and \u201cCushty\u201d.<\/p>\n

Set in Peckham, it followed the colourful escapades of market trader Del Boy and his less streetwise younger brother as they tried to become rich.<\/p>\n

The final episode was broadcast in 2003 and O\u2019Sullivan went on to write two related shows for the BBC: The Green Green Grass, which followed characters Boycie and Marlene moving to Shropshire and aired from 2005-2009, and a prequel miniseries called Rock & Chips and set in the 1960s that was shown in 2010.<\/p>\n

A musical adaptation co-written by and starring Paul Whitehouse opened at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2019and toured across the UK and Ireland in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tessa Peake-Jones has said beloved sitcom Only Fools And Horses is \u201cbest left alone\u201d as she addressed the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-323760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}