For the second time this week, British television has lost one of its greats. John Sullivan has passed away at the age of 64 after a short illness. He wrote Citizen Smith, Just Good Friends and, of course, Only Fools and Horses.
While working in several low-paid jobs, Sullivan sent various scripts to the BBC without success, before getting a job as a scenery hand in the props department. Having got his foot in the door, he gave a script to a comedy producer which became Citizen Smith, which eventually ran for four successful series. The BBC asked him to come up with a new idea, so he presented them with an idea for a sitcom set in the world of football. This was rejected, so instead he drew on his experiences around the market stalls of South London and came up with an idea with the working title “Readies”, which eventually became a genuine national treasure.
Only Fools… was something very special – a hugely popular, mainstream sitcom which was clever, true to life, pathos and, mostly importantly of all, very funny. 1996’s Time On Our Hands, where Del Boy and Rodney finally become millionaires, was the most-watched sitcom in British television history, with 24.35 million viewers. 2000’s If They Could See Us Now had more viewers than any other British programme of the last decade. It dared to be sentimental when it might have gone against the cynical sensibilities of comedy viewers, but because the Trotters had become part of the family it felt entirely right to share the bad times with them as well as the good.
Del Boy falling through the bar, the Reliant Robin bouncing up and down outside the auction house, the wrong chandelier falling down, all moments that have been repeated so often that they have perhaps been so indelibly marked in the national consciousness that they have slightly lost their impact. But every episode is sprinkled with comedy gold. Personally, my favourite episodes were from the first few series, with Lennard Pearce as Granddad regularly getting the most laughs, but Trigger calling Rodney “Dave” never stopped being funny and probably never will. Trigger and the other supporting characters John Sullivan created are all unforgettable, with Boycie and Marlene getting their own spin-off and Mickey Pearce being perhaps my personal favourite, especially due to the incongruity of his appearance as a spiv in a two-tone outfit as late as 2003.
And then there’s the theme tunes. The first series had an uncharacteristically ill-fitting piece of musak composed by the great Ronnie Hazelhurst which has been airbrushed from history on repeats and DVD releases. For the second series, the BBC let Sullivan use the opening and closing themes he had written. He wanted the legendary Chas & Dave to record them but they were unavailable, so Sullivan himself (and not Nicholas Lyndhurst as some mistakenly believe) sang the two songs that became as much a part of the soundtrack to my life as any album I’ve bought.
So, once again (but certainly not for the last time), god bless Hookey Street…
John Sullivan’s final piece of screenwriting, the last episode of Only Fools prequel Rock and Chips, is due to be shown this Thursday night at 9pm on BBC One.
Transmission 