'Lost' episode of Only Fools and Horses is discovered
A lost episode of 'Only Fools and Horses' has been found.
The 27-minute special, entitled 'Licensed to Drill', was written by the show's late creator John Sullivan and played in a few school science lessons from 1984 to educate pupils about the oil industry and encourage them to follow a career in the field, but it was never broadcast on TV.
The one-off episode - financed by the Maureen Oilfield Consortium - stars David Jason as ambitious market trader Del Boy and Nicholas Lyndhurst as his hapless younger brother Rodney Trotter, and it features Lennard Pearce's final appearance in the role of Granddad before the actor passed away.
During the special, Del attempts to conquer the oil industry after meeting a man in the local café who has just finished working on a North Sea oil rig, and the plucky wheeler and dealer ends up buying a rig for £400.
Rodney, bemused by Del's latest business venture, says: "Del, oil rigs cost millions and millions of pounds!"
But Del replies: "It's a hooky oil rig. Off the back of a tug. It's in a lock-up garage in Catford."
The episode concludes with a special one-off theme tune written and sung by John, but a laughter track was not included on the episode as it was on the regular seven series of the popular British sitcom, which aired between 1981 and 1991.
'Only Fools' came to an end in 2003 with a Christmas special, and Jason recently confirmed there were plans to do another special about Del's 65th birthday, however John's death in 2011 has put paid to any hopes of the show ever returning.
He said: "The ironic story is that John and I had a meeting about three months before he died about a special 'Fools And Horses'.
“It was going to be Del’s 65th birthday. We talked about it.
"But John’s the magic man. He made the ammunition and we fired the bullets.
“It won’t come back.
“There’s no writer who is capable of taking the challenge.”
