Only Fools and Horses Only Fools and Horses Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom from 1981 to 1991, with sixteen sporadic Christmas specials aired until the end of the show in 2003. Episodes are regularly repeated on UKTV comedy channel Gold and occasionally repeated on Yesterday and BBC One. Set in Peckham in south-east London, it stars David Jason as ambitious market trader Derek "Del Boy" Trotter, Nicholas Lyndhurst as his younger brother Rodney Trotter, and Lennard Pearce as their elderly Grandad. After Pearce's
Only Fools and Horses genuine, though very obscure, saying, "only fools and horses work for a living", which had its origins in 19th-century American vaudeville. "Only Fools and Horses" had also been the title of an episode of "Citizen Smith", and Sullivan liked the expression and thought it was suited to the new sitcom. He also thought longer titles would attract attention. He was first overruled on the grounds that the audience would not understand the title, but he eventually got his way. Filming of the first series began in May 1981, and the first episode, "Big Brother", was transmitted on BBC One at