Rock & Chips - Only Fools and Horses the early years.

BaZmO*

Saw an ad for this last night. On BBC this coming Sunday.

It's a 90 minute special written by Only Fools And Horses creator John Sullivan. Not sure if they plan to get a series out of it or if it's a one off special, strange that they didn't show it over the Christmas though.

Hopefully it works better than the other Only Fools And Horses spin off, The Green Green Grass.

More details here

lord lucan

I'm both excited and apprehensive about this. Prequels and sequels usually don't work but as a massive OFAH fan i'll tune in.

Basq

James Buckley playing a young Del Boy?!



That won't work.. I'll keep hearing Del Boy shouting "BUS WAN*ERS!"

Dymo

I think he could be good at it, he looks the part

lord lucan

If lyndhurst wasn't on board i'd probably have given this a wide berth but it's a smart move by Sullivan to get him in. The photo of the jolly boys outing with freddy the frog from the original show had lyndhurst photoshopped into it as freddy so in that respect it works. Jason and Lyndhurst have kept away from the show since it finished,unlike sue holderness and john challis who've milked the franchise for all it's worth.

Shane10

whats with the title ? hate it

a mate of mine made a good point last night that comedies arent as good as they were in the 1970's to mid 90s and not because of poor imagination but more so that writers are constrained by political correctness. John Sullivan wrote both citizen smith and OFAH and both were excellent. even the later episodes, post 1996 of OFAH weren't as good.

Mr E

Bump... starts in half an hour.

Going in with low expectations, hope to be pleasantly surprised.

Dman001

I didn't realize that a yound Boycie, Trigger, Denzil and Roy Slater were in it too. Ill give it ago but wont expect much. Didnt Sullivan write/direct The Green Green Grass?

greendom

Dman001 wrote: »

I didn't realize that a yound Boycie, Trigger, Denzil and Roy Slater were in it too. Ill give it ago but wont expect much. Didnt Sullivan write/direct The Green Green Grass?

I'm not going to bother - the last 5 years or so of Fools was ****e and they've called it a Comedy drama. This means it was originally meant as a comedy until they realised it didn't have enough laughs.

Basq

Am Sky+'ing since Being Human is on BBC3.

Mr E

Bored.

Elmo

lord lucan wrote: »

If lyndhurst wasn't on board i'd probably have given this a wide berth but it's a smart move by Sullivan to get him in. The photo of the jolly boys outing with freddy the frog from the original show had lyndhurst photoshopped into it as freddy so in that respect it works. Jason and Lyndhurst have kept away from the show since it finished,unlike sue holderness and john challis who've milked the franchise for all it's worth.

Would have got David Jason to play his old man. He might be too old.

Thargor

That was painfully sh1t.

Basq

I'm about 10 minutes from the end... and I wish I hadn't bothered!

It's woeful.. is it supposed to a comedy or a drama? Cos it pretty more fails in both departments!

John Sullivan.. let this be the end of it!

Riddle101

Well I liked it. It made me nostalgic for Only Fools and Horses, and I loved seeing all the orginal characters as young guys. Although I didn't regonise the big ginger kid who was friends with Del Boy.

One thing I don't understand is Del's relationship with his father. He seems to dislike his father yet he drinks with him and tends to be around him sometimes. I know if my dad was like that I would hate to be around him for more the 5 minutes.

basquille

basquille wrote: »

I'm about 10 minutes from the end... and I wish I hadn't bothered!

It's woeful.. is it supposed to a comedy or a drama? Cos it pretty more fails in both departments!

John Sullivan.. let this be the end of it!

i dint think it was too bad but its a bit of a pointless show to be honest. we know the story previous so whats the point in it all.
Freddy the frog was probably best character in it.

have to say loved the props and settings especially the way they really made borough tube station and the trains look very sixties.

tony1kenobi

Riddle101 wrote: »

Well I liked it. It made me nostalgic for Only Fools and Horses, and I loved seeing all the orginal characters as young guys. Although I didn't regonise the big ginger kid who was friends with Del Boy.

One thing I don't understand is Del's relationship with his father. He seems to dislike his father yet he drinks with him and tends to be around him sometimes. I know if my dad was like that I would hate to be around him for more the 5 minutes.

He didn't mix with him at all apart from when he wanted to knock him out.Are ya mixing up Delboy and Reg with Reg and Grandad?

Anyway it was a pile of sh*te but for Delboys mum....who I'd stick to the wall....mucky little tart.

lord lucan

I wasn't mad about it tbh. The only really interesting characters were Freddy and Joan,mainly because they were characters we didn't know much about. Watching the kid playing Trigger trying to mimick the Trigger we all know was cringeworthy. Some characters seemed to be introduced just to reference the original show,like Albie Littlewood and Roy Slater.

O'Sullivan should have left well alone,i really hope that that's an end to the milking of the show.

lord lucan

Riddle101 wrote: »

Well I liked it. It made me nostalgic for Only Fools and Horses, and I loved seeing all the orginal characters as young guys. Although I didn't regonise the big ginger kid who was friends with Del Boy.

I think the ginger kid was Jumbo. He appeared in the original show,apparently he'd gone to Australia and was making his fortune importing British cars into Oz. He wanted Del to go to Oz with him,and all was set except Rodney couldn't a visa so they stayed in Peckham. I think Jumbo and Del were supposed to have had a stall selling jellied eels when they were younger.

Morgans

Thought it was awful. Not meant for our generation I suppose. Simply an excuse for the BBC to waste money decorating an old east end estate 1950s style and play the old timer music for an audience that is now well into its 60s. Weren't we happy back then. Poor but happy. Zero story, just an explanation why Rodney looks so different from Del and still be brothers, and maybe Rodney's sporadic leanings towards art. Sullivan has well and truly milked this cash cow dry. He ruined the perfect ending to the sitcom, yet the barrell loads of cash means he just cant leave it be.

keefg

Morgans wrote: »

He ruined the perfect ending to the sitcom, yet the barrell loads of cash means he just cant leave it be.

And he's not done yet, I heard John Sullivan doing a radio interview last week while promoting Rock & Chips and he working on........wait for it......


Only Fools & Horses......The Musical.

Basq

keefg wrote: »

Only Fools & Horses......The Musical.

Stupidest idea for a musical since... well, this!

lord lucan

keefg wrote: »

And he's not done yet, I heard John Sullivan doing a radio interview last week while promoting Rock & Chips and he working on........wait for it......


Only Fools & Horses......The Musical.

Oh dear Lord NO!!!!!:eek::eek::eek::eek:

That_Guy

I've just finished watching this. Woeful woeful stuff.

Dancor

Im not going to bother with this. OFAH should have stopped long ago. Its breaking my heart to hear of this crap. The charecters I loved and grew up with reduced to this ****e. Should have left it when they got the fortune for the watch and walked into the sunset, not milk it with crap christmas specials and even crappier spin-offs.

That_Guy

Dancor wrote: »

Im not going to bother with this. OFAH should have stopped long ago. Its breaking my heart to hear of this crap. The charecters I loved and grew up with reduced to this ****e. Should have left it when they got the fortune for the watch and walked into the sunset, not milk it with crap christmas specials and even crappier spin-offs.

Aye, the spin-offs are rubbish. Having said that I prefer Rock and Chips over that sh*t Green Green Grass bollix or whatever it's called.

John Sullivan is almost as bad as George Lucas for milking things.

deadhead13

Was it supposed to be a comedy? If it was, it failed.

lord lucan

deadhead13 wrote: »

Was it supposed to be a comedy? If it was, it failed.

It was labelled as a comedy/drama. It failed on the comedy front,wasn't a whole lot better on the drama front tbh.

iMax

Just watched it. totally enjoyed it. Wouldn't mind seeing more of them.

BaZmO*

I quite enjoyed it too, it was very twee but I was kinda expected that tbh.

To be honest i thought it was watchable myself. I didn't really see the point of the series as we knew the story previous but the criticism its getting is unjust. All i can say is that it is a victim of only fools and horses own success. If it was the first of the only fools and horses franchise then people wouldn't have judged it as harshly.

vincenzolorenzo

Dymo wrote: »

I think he could be good at it, he looks the part

jesus, David jason's got old!

Riddle101

lord lucan wrote: »

It was labelled as a comedy/drama. It failed on the comedy front,wasn't a whole lot better on the drama front tbh.

Ah it had a few running gags in it though. Such as Del Boy throwing the fish out the bus window, and in another scene his dad walks into the bar complaining that someone threw a fish at him from a bus. Kind've remind you of the gag in A jolly Boy's Outing, where Del throws water or something from the apartment window and in another scene Boycie is complainig of having water landing on him. I think that was the gag although I may be a bit wrong.

lord lucan

Riddle101 wrote: »

Ah it had a few running gags in it though. Such as Del Boy throwing the fish out the bus window, and in another scene his dad walks into the bar complaining that someone threw a fish at him from a bus. Kind've remind you of the gag in A jolly Boy's Outing, where Del throws water or something from the apartment window and in another scene Boycie is complainig of having water landing on him. I think that was the gag although I may be a bit wrong.

Ah yeah,that was the fabulous Raymondo's suitcase that Del flung out the window,clocked Boycie as him and Mike walked by. The stone Del threw through the B&B window also clocked Uncle Albert!:D

robinph

Only just caught up with watching it there myself. It wasn't a patch on the originals, but was still a good enough bit of entertainment to watch.

iMax

I think most people were looking for the same as OFAH (rose tinted glasses). I put it in the same category as "Showbands" a drama with a smattering of light humour thrown in.

It was set in my parents era (in fact they lived in an almost identical street here in Dublin), & they loved it, I found it interesting as a genesis type of story. It wasn't about "Del" or his buddies, they were all secondary characters.

As I said earlier, I'd like to see more of them, maybe a series or maybe a series of one offs set five years apart to bring you up to date with the characters - introduce some others like Uncle Albert (who I thought would have at least got a passing mention) or Marleene. Would have loved to see David Jason in a small cameo (maybe as the council guy), he's (was) quite a versatile actor & had a double header with Ronnie Barker in "Porridge" where he played an old lag in the hospital & was almost unrecognizable in the role

gerajella

keefg wrote: »

And he's not done yet, I heard John Sullivan doing a radio interview last week while promoting Rock & Chips and he working on........wait for it......


Only Fools & Horses......The Musical.

Perhaps, keefg, he was on a wind up with that idea. Mind you he did bring this sixties set film out which i didn't think he would attempt especially after the hostile reception given to the 2001 revival epide and the two that followed. But why stop there, when they could have a sci fi version bringing back Granddad as a ghost dressed like marty hopkirk in all white.

Sidney77

ok so it wasnt a laugh a minute like the original show but it was worth a watch, I like references to the events we know like playin pirates with slater, dels reference to bein a millionaire in the future,

one thing i was kind of expecting was for trigger to refer to baby rodney as 'little dave'

Sidney77

I thought i'd get this thread going again.

Again not that funny but still worth a watch. They are up to 1962 now so we may get to find out what Joan really did say on her deathbed.

One thing I would say is that they should let us see more of the characters we know like boycie trigger denzil etc and less of the love story between Joan and Freddie.

Maybe a mention from Grandad of the brother he never sees or speaks to, or how boycie met Marlene

Basq

Is there many more episodes left now after John Sullivan's ultimately death?

iMax

Is there a new episode ? I've seen three, how many are there ?

lord lucan

I'd be surprised if Sullivan hadn't written at least one more episode. Haven't heard any more about another episode though.

hiscan

When is this on,I've looked through the listings for the week and can't find it?

phasers

Sidney77 wrote: »

I thought i'd get this thread going again.

Again not that funny but still worth a watch. They are up to 1962 now so we may get to find out what Joan really did say on her deathbed.

One thing I would say is that they should let us see more of the characters we know like boycie trigger denzil etc and less of the love story between Joan and Freddie.

Maybe a mention from Grandad of the brother he never sees or speaks to, or how boycie met Marlene

John Sullivan died, don't expect any more.

Somebody over on Digitalspy mentioned that he wrote one more, not sure how true that is though.

vincenzolorenzo

How many is there in total??? I saw one about a year ago and then a second one maybe 6 weeks ago where the Trotters were all over at Del's gf's house and her mother was a bit of a loony. Is there many more??

careca11

i think the plan was for 6 in total , we've had 2 shown on screen already , but with the untimely death of the legend John Sullivan , I'm not sure whats going to happen to the remaining 4 that where planned

phasers

They've shown 3 episodes I think

madraj55

Sidney77 wrote: »

I thought i'd get this thread going again.

Again not that funny but still worth a watch. They are up to 1962 now so we may get to find out what Joan really did say on her deathbed.

One thing I would say is that they should let us see more of the characters we know like boycie trigger denzil etc and less of the love story between Joan and Freddie.

Maybe a mention from Grandad of the brother he never sees or speaks to, or how boycie met Marlene

Hi Sydney. I re-registered on here as the name you see[madraj55], after the hacking episode. I watched the three Rock and Chips episodes and found as you did, it concentrated too much on the Joan and Freddie story with the regulars from OFAH seemingly padding it out with a lot of idle banter, rather than being the main players. I can't see that actor as Del at all, but the others are more fitting in their roles.