{"id":801197,"date":"2026-10-13T11:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T11:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/801197\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T11:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T11:48:12","slug":"only-fools-and-horses-star-received-moving-letters-from-fans-after-hard-hitting-storyline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/801197\/","title":{"rendered":"Only Fools and Horses star received \u2018moving\u2019 letters from fans after hard-hitting storyline"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Independent<\/p>\n

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Only Fools And Horses<\/a> star Gwyneth Strong revealed she received “so many letters” from women after the broadcast of the sitcom\u2019s emotional miscarriage storyline.<\/p>\n

First broadcast in 1981, the show proved to be a ratings success for the BBC<\/a>, establishing career-defining roles for Sir David Jason<\/a> as Del Boy and Nicholas Lyndhurst<\/a> as his hapless half-brother Rodney.<\/p>\n

The series detailed the exploits of the brothers as a succession of failed schemes disrupted their hopes of “making a million”.<\/a><\/p>\n

Strong played Cassandra Trotter, whose miscarriage in a 1996 episode left both her character and Rodney heartbroken.<\/p>\n

The actress praised writer and creator John Sullivan<\/a> for introducing such a hard-hitting story into a traditionally light-hearted sitcom.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"GwynethGwyneth Strong played Cassandra Trotter in the series, where her character suffered a miscarriage in a 1996 episode that left her and Rodney heartbroken (PA)<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI got so many letters, it was really moving. That made me think that women weren\u2019t seeing that kind of thing on television.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was amazing feedback, and it was very sad because people could relate to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Sullivan was a very sensitive writer and very brave to put that into what is essentially a sitcom. I think that helped other sitcoms move along after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the cast reunited for Only Fools And Horses: The Lost Archive \u2013 which features never-before-seen footage from the show to mark its 45th anniversary.<\/p>\n

The unearthed material is a mixture of extended and entirely new scenes, gleaned from 10 episodes, that were never used in the original transmission due to timing or structural constraints.<\/p>\n

Among the previously unseen material is new footage from the 1989 Christmas special, \u201cThe Jolly Boys\u2019 Outing\u201d, a new scene from the 1991 episode \u201cThe Class Of \u201962\u201d and another of Uncle Albert\u2019s \u201cduring the war\u201d stories from the 1986 episode \u201cA Royal Flush\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n

Summing up the experience of watching the archive footage, actress Tessa Peake-Jones, who played Raquel Turner, said: \u201cThe public are going to be fascinated by this new material.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo still feel part of a programme that provides that sort of pleasure is the greatest honour and privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe actress praised the show\u2019s writer and creator John Sullivan for including the hard-hitting storyline in a light-hearted sitcom (PA)<\/p>\n

Looking back on the show, Peake-Jones was asked if she would have liked to have seen Del Boy and Raquel tie the knot.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI think Raquel would\u2019ve liked that to happen. I don\u2019t know if it was a conscious choice from John that Del didn\u2019t finally seal the deal, but I\u2019m not sure it was ever discussed.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps John felt he\u2019d done the big family wedding with Rodney and Cassandra.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore John passed away I believe he was thinking of doing another Only Fools And Horses special, so who knows, perhaps that would\u2019ve been Del and Raquel\u2019s wedding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe audience has to make up their own minds about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked why the show has continued to be so popular years after it ended, Strong said: \u201cJohn was a genius writer who wrote a genius set of characters and wove them all together.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, the longevity is that it isn\u2019t offensive, the whole family can watch it and all get something out of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt captures people\u2019s imagination and humour across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only Fools And Horses: The Lost Archive airs on 20 October at 9pm on U&GOLD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-801197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}