{"id":656437,"date":"2026-10-16T10:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T10:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/656437\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T10:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T10:16:09","slug":"only-fools-and-horses-david-jason-takes-a-trip-down-memory-lane-on-new-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/656437\/","title":{"rendered":"Only Fools And Horses: David Jason takes a trip down memory lane on new show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Only Fools and Horses\u2019 many Irish fans will be feeling lovely jubbly as a new series is set to uncover unseen footage from the iconic series.<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s Del Boy, actor David Jason and his fellow cast mates take a trip down memory lane in Only Fools and Horses: The Lost Archive which features previously unseen material from across more than 10 classic episodes, including The Jolly Boys\u2019 Outing, Mother Nature\u2019s Son,\u00a0 and Time on Our Hands.<\/p>\n

The scenes and footage, unseen for decades, are unveiled to fans via screenings for and conversations with cast members who brought one of TV\u2019s most-beloved shows to our screens. The show was the creation of the late John Sullivan, a British-born writer of Irish descent.<\/p>\n

Archive producer Richard Latto was responsible for the initial idea for this project after discovering footage that few realised existed, and many believed to be lost.<\/p>\n

The found footage is an embarrassment of riches, he says, and he\u2019d always hoped archival work would produce some small-screen magic, as it had on previous projects he\u2019d worked on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’d always been a bit puzzled as to why it hadn’t seen the light of day before,\u201d says Latto. \u201cI was with the BBC for 25 years as a programme maker and a presenter. I did a lot of radio and television programs based on comedy and music, but it was often quite a tough task to find new things about areas that people had often made documentaries about before. I kind of prided myself in finding new archive that would get people excited, like ( Carry On star) Sid James’s last interview, and a rare Peter Sellers programme.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latto also has a special interest in TV and film restoration, explaining why his working space is full of film cans, he laughs. \u201cI know that when you do restoration, you have to go back to the most original sources that you can find, the earliest videotape before it’s dropped generations and has been copied, or film. If you’re lucky enough, if the film still survives, because you can’t obviously record over film, it’s just a question of whether they’ve kept it. I knew there was gold in them there hills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sixty-six unseen clips were discovered, along with almost 100 other gems for Only Fools and Horses fans, including rushes, photographs taken from rehearsals and on set, behind the scenes footage, outtakes and location filming. The material is a blend of entirely new and extended scenes.<\/p>\n

\"OnlyOnly Fools and Horses: Buster Merryfield (Uncle Albert), David Jason (Del Boy) and Nicholas Lyndhurst (Rodney) in 1989.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over the course of some preliminary digging, one of the first cans off the shelf, was the scene from the school reunion episode Class of \u201962.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were amazed and privileged to be the first people to watch some unseen Only Fools and Horses that no one else had ever seen, apart from the people that obviously were in it, and potentially the people that transferred it back in 1991, and then said: \u2018Ah, we haven’t got time to include that. Let’s put it on the shelf\u2019, and it’s been there ever since. And then the rest follows – it\u2019s just been great fun.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among some of the most exciting material unearthed, says Latto, is from Christmas special The Jolly Boys Outing. Considered one of the series greatest and most iconic episodes, it sees the cast leave Peckham for an outing to Margate. It drew a huge audience of 20 millions viewers when first aired in 1989 and its appeal endures to this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s held in such high regard by both fans, Sir David Jason and other members of the team and the cast,\u201d says Latto. \u201cTo find new material from there – I was amazed that this had not been seen before, and it was mainly material from the location sequences out and about in the Margate area. You look at things like the coach scene. Now that’s hilarious, where they’re making their way down, and they’re all very excited, and they have this witty repartee.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This includes some new footage of the late John Challis as Boycie. \u201cJohn had apparently said to a few people at conventions over the years and in interviews that he did record a lot more, but sadly it was never in the final episode,\u201d says Latto. \u201cWell, God rest his soul, we’ve now got it, and it’s really wickedly acidically funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the course of the two-part series, viewers will get to see cast members invited back to see the newly revealed footage. Some of them were dumbfounded to see material that they didn\u2019t even remember recording. One of the show\u2019s most touching moments features Tessa Peake-Jones – who played Raquel – revisit a scene where she has to audition as a singer.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe and David had a bit of a moment when they were watching,\u201d says Latto. \u201cThey were seeing themselves as younger, vibrant, very, funny, very capable members of the cast, doing a brilliant performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found ourselves watching each of these cut scenes and thinking they must have been cut for time, because there is no other reason to cut these. They’re still funny, they’re still emotive, they’re still beautifully written, beautifully acted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Jolly Boys\u2019 Outing episode.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was undoubtedly a moving experience for the cast, who got to revisit their work in a unique way. For viewers, it\u2019s a chance to dive deep into the show\u2019s enduring appeal.<\/p>\n

\n Only Fools and Horses ran from 1981 through to 1996, with a final trilogy of specials in the early Noughties. \u201cI think it boils down to the interaction between the characters themselves, says Latto of the show\u2019s ongoing popularity. \u201cEmotions are timeless, ageless, and we can all identify with the family dynamics, in some cases the desperation to keep your head above water.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Only Fools and Horses: The Lost Archive will be broadcast on Tuesday October 20, and Tuesday October 27 at 9pm on U&GOLD<\/p>\n

\u00a0Five films to watch out for\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Whalefall, in cinemas from October 16:\u00a0 Austin Abrams, John Brolin and Elizabeth Shue star in a survival thriller centred around one young man and a whale.<\/p>\n

\"JoshJosh Brolin as Mitt and Austin Abrams in Whalefall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n The Influencer Project, in cinemas from October 16: Real life influencer Chiara King stars in this gritty horror about a social media star who becomes the target of a stalker.<\/p>\n

\n Chasing Millions, now in cinemas: Christopher Eccleston and Madeleine Madden head the cast of this movie inspired by the Northern Bank Robbery.<\/p>\n

\n Practical Magic 2, new to video on demand and digital: Starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, Practical Magic 2 returns to a world steeped in moonlit mischief on demand following its cinema run.<\/p>\n

\n Super Nature, Triskel, Cork, October 18-21: This charming documentary, filmed by storytellers around the world using Super 8 cameras, is a love letter to nature and the natural world. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Only Fools and Horses\u2019 many Irish fans will be feeling lovely jubbly as a new series is set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[79765,93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-656437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-screen-scene","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656437","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=656437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}