John Sullivan (I)

It's the Trotters' Phantom Menace

In resurrecting classic and beloved characters with a poorly conceived prequel, is John Sullivan aping George Lucas?

How do we feel about this? Personally, the idea behind it doesn't sound too bad, but I have little faith in John Sullivan these days. Only Fools & Horses was a classic that was unwisely brought back for specials after the perfect ending of the 1996 special (where the Trotters finally became millionaires), but a lot of its early success was down to David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst and the rest of the cast.

I'm not sure how a prequel could ever duplicate the original cast's chemistry. Really, it feels like Sullivan is all out of ideas. He's already spent the past few years writing Only Fools spin-off The Green Green Grass (focusing on supporting character Boycie moving his family to a rural mansion), and that's arguably one of the worst sitcoms around today. The fact it enjoys fairly healthy ratings just beggars belief, but I guess there aren't many sitcoms catering for the over-50s today.

Oh well. I'm at least interested, because the idea doesn't sound too terrible on paper. If John Sullivan can somehow find his spark and they cast great actors in these roles, it stands a chance. In particular, they need to find someone who can do a passable Del Boy impression as the teenage Trotter, and it would be nice to imagine Jason himself agreeing to play his own screen father Reg. Or is he clever enough to keep his distance?

Del Boy and Rodney to turn Grass

Del Boy, Rodney and Trigger could make a comeback in BBC1's Only Fools and Horses spin-off The Green Green Grass.

From Peckham to paradise

Will an Only Fools and Horses spin-off tickle our funny bones? The Independent talks to its creator, John Sullivan, and the cast.

I would like to thank Only Fools and Horses (BBC1, Christmas Day) warmly for all they have done, and urge them to stop doing it now. Rodney's hair is getting paler and Del's is getting blacker. You do feel that smuggling illegal immigrants, however inadvertently, is a younger man's game. In this Christmas special the Trotters are poor again because, as John Sullivan, the writer, said: "Rich isn't funny." Even so, there seemed to be a lot of level ground between the laughs.

OK, so we're nit-picking here, but it's hard to help yourself when you're watching such a limp version of a previously excellent series. Where Only Fools and Horses used to be fast, funny and confident, it's now a kind of embarrassing footnote that serves only to deflate the latter half of Christmas Day.

Of course, there are some Christmas specials that don't call themselves Christmas specials - the Only Fools and Horses Christmas special (BBC One, 9.40pm, Christmas Day) is called merely Only Fools and Horses, possibly in acknowledgement that, if it's as bad as last year's, it won't be special at all.

Off The Telly Review

It's been almost two decades since its debut, and there's the legacy of one too many re-runs on UK Gold, but still that very particular, potent appeal of Just Good Friends hasn't weathered or grown stale. Even Paul Nicholas' salty rendering of John Sullivan's self-penned title theme, garnished with textbook Ronnie Hazelhurst noodling, remains at the end of the day essentially harmless and even, well, likable. Watching the series again, and especially this famous final episode, is a thoroughly agreeable experience.

ITV pulls plug on Micawber

At ITV David Jason's name is as good as gold. He guarantees ratings, brings in the gongs and crucially coins in the advertising revenue. But today ITV bosses have been forced to admit he has temporarily lost his sheen as they axe Micawber, the drama series based on the character from Dickens' classic, David Copperfield.

This series is a four-part prequel to David Copperfield. The first told how Micawber's misfortunes were engineered by a malevolent father-in-law though, frankly, Dickens's Micawber was more than capable of contriving his own misfortunes. Sullivan and Jason seem to be concentrating on the poignancy of poverty. And that's a different story.