Only Fools and Horses

Only Fools and Horses is a national institution. But without some twists and turns worthy of Del Boy himself it could have disappeared without trace, or worse still never happened at all.

John Sullivan might never even have written Only Fools and Horses if the BBC had commissioned Over The Moon, the comedy Sullivan wrote after his first sitcom, Citizen Smith, came to an end. Extracts from the pilot of Over The Moon are screened for the first time ever. When the BBC turned it down, Sullivan needed a new idea fast - and the idea he came up with was Only Fools and Horses.

Famously, the first series failed to pull in the punters and the BBC wanted to abandon the show. Now, the man who gave Only Fools and Horses a second chance finally admits that he wasn't making a brave decision; he just didn't have another idea in his head.