From 1988, the show featured regular characters in Del Boy's and Rodney's love interests: Raquel (Tessa Peake-Jones) and Cassandra (Gwyneth Strong), respectively.
[5] Initially, Del Boy, Rodney and Grandad were the only regulars, along with the occasional appearances of road sweeper Trigger (Roger Lloyd-Pack) and pretentious used car salesman Boycie (John Challis).
These included pub landlord Mike Fisher (Kenneth MacDonald), lorry driver Denzil (Paul Barber), youthful spiv Mickey Pearce (Patrick Murray) and Boycie's flirtatious wife Marlene (Sue Holderness).
[5] After Grandad died following the death of actor Lennard Pearce, his younger brother Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield) was introduced and moved in with Del and Rodney, becoming a main character.
[6] The most frequent roles for guest actors in Only Fools and Horses were as Del or Rodney's one-time girlfriends, barmaids at the Nag's Head, or individuals the Trotters were doing business with.
[44] Other members of the Trotter family were rarely sighted, the exceptions being cousins Stan (Mike Kemp) and Jean (Maureen Sweeney), who attended Grandad's funeral.
[51] Del and Rodney spent the whole of "Tea for Three" battling each other for the affections of Trigger's niece Lisa (Gerry Cowper), who briefly reappeared in "The Frog's Legacy".
[52] Abdul (Tony Anholt) in "To Hull and Back" and Arnie (Philip McGough) in "Chain Gang" were responsible for setting up dubious enterprises involving the Trotters in their respective episodes.
[53] Tony Angelino (Philip Pope), the "singing dustman" with a speech impediment, was the key to the humour and the storyline of "Stage Fright" and EastEnders actor Derek Martin guest starred in "Fatal Extraction".
[54] Del's nemesis from his school days, corrupt policeman Roy Slater (played by Jim Broadbent), made three appearances, in "May The Force Be With You", "To Hull and Back" and "Class of '62".
[58] Rodney and Mickey's friends, the smooth-talking Jevon (Steven Woodcock) and then, briefly, Chris (Tony Marshall), a ladies' hairdresser, featured sporadically during the sixth and seventh series and the intervening Christmas specials.
Sullivan believed the key factor in its being accepted was the success of ITV's new drama, Minder, a series with a similar premise and also set in modern-day London.
[4] According to an interview with John Challis in 2015, the viewing figure "today would be very good but in those days wasn't considered great at all, so it was sort of put on the back burner for a bit—no particular plans for a second series".
Rodney's combat jacket came from the BBC's Costume Department, and De Gaye added a Yasser Arafat scarf purchased from Shepherd's Bush Market.
Plans were made for a spin-off entitled Hot-Rod, which would have followed Rodney's attempts to survive on his own with help from Mickey Pearce but leaving open the prospect of Del's return.
Alf Bigden, Paul Westwood, Don Hunt, John Dean, Judd Proctor, Eddie Mordue and Rex Morris were hired to play the music.
Sullivan had intended Chas & Dave to sing it because they had enjoyed success with the "Rockney" style, a mixture of rock n' roll and traditional Cockney music.
[99] An eight-minute episode aired on 27 December 1982 as part of a show hosted by Frank Muir, The Funny Side of Christmas, and attracted 7.2 million viewers.
[100] A five-minute 1990–91 Persian Gulf War special (dated 1 December 1990) has Del, Rodney and Albert convey a message to British troops serving in the conflict.
[113] On 27 December 2020, a special called "We Love Only Fools and Horses" was broadcast on Channel 5 in which various fans, actors and crew recalled the story of the series and why the show is still popular.
[117] Sullivan had considered writing a sitcom around the popular characters of Boycie and Marlene (John Challis and Sue Holderness) since the mid-1980s, but it was not until Only Fools And Horses ended that the idea came to fruition.
[130] On the set, the episode "A Royal Flush" is featured both in its original and "writer's cut" versions; "The Jolly Boys' Outing" is fully uncut; and various photo galleries, a booklet and artcards are also included.
The track, titled Viva England!, sampled both the opening theme from Only Fools and Horses and Hookie Street—used with John Sullivan's blessing—and reached number 49 in the charts.
The Only Fools and Horses Appreciation Society, established in 1993, has a membership of around 7,000,[239] published 45 issues of a quarterly newsletter, Hookie Street, and organises annual conventions of fans, often attended by cast members.
The Society has also organised an Only Fools and Horses museum, containing props from the series, including Del's camel coat and the Trotters' Ford Capri.
[244][245][246] The one used by the Trotters has attained cult status and is currently on display at the Cars of the Stars exhibition at the National Motor Museum, alongside many other vehicles from British and American television and movies, such as the Batmobile and the DeLorean from Back to the Future.
[251] In the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, the Trotters' yellow Reliant van appeared on stage, along with Del Boy and Rodney body doubles dressed as Batman and Robin, a reference to the Only Fools and Horses episode "Heroes and Villains".
It centred on the Fintas family, who live in Sapadores, a neighbourhood in Lisbon, and starred Miguel Guilherme as Quim (Del), Canto e Castro as Grandad, and Ivo Canelas as Joca (Rodney).
[260] In January 2012 US network ABC commissioned a pilot of an Only Fools and Horses remake titled "King of Van Nuys", written by Scrubs writers Steven Cragg and Brian Bradley.
[263] A parody of American adaptations of British shows called Only Jerks and Horses was written by David Walliams and Matt Lucas and directed by Edgar Wright in 1997.