The world of Only Fools has gone, but its comedy genius is timeless: CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Only Fools And Horses: The Lost Archive

Only Fools And Horses: The Lost Archive (U & Gold) 

Rating: Four out of five stars  

That David Jason knows how to charm the girls. 

Sitting on the sofa with erstwhile co-star Tessa Peake-Jones, watching archive footage, he teased her, 'You looked like Rachel Reeves. And she's beautiful.'

Tessa, who played wife Raquel to his Del Boy in Only Fools And Horses, pretended to be aggrieved but she clearly loved the old rascal's flirting.

She ought to be used to it. One ribald outtake, rediscovered on Only Fools And Horses: The Lost Archive, showed the duo in bed together – him in lime-green satin jim-jams, her in a pink nylon nightie. 

Sir David's left arm was hidden under the covers... as Tessa yelped, blushed and burst into giggles.

That bed, incidentally, was everything you'd expect for the boudoir of Derek Trotter Esq: black silk sheets and pillowcases, a brass bedstead with pink velour headboard, and a fake tigerskin throw for added glamour.

Only Fools is a comedy miracle, a show that has lost none of its power to make us belly-laugh, though the world it depicts has vanished more completely than anyone could have believed possible.

It seems strange that many of the cast, including Sue Holderness (who played the vacuous Marlene) and Gwyneth Strong (posh Cassandra, wife of the eternal dipstick Rodney), are still instantly recognisable, when the south London streets, pubs and markets of the 1980s have changed beyond imagination.

The genius of the show, and its global appeal, lies not just in the performances but in the writing of John Sullivan, who penned every one of the scripts for the 64 episodes. 

Sullivan's superhuman creativity and his endless capacity for character gags gave the directors a problem, because he invariably overwrote.

That meant shooting more footage than could be squeezed into half an hour. And when the BBC stretched the show's slot to 50 minutes, Sullivan responded by writing even more.

You have to wonder why the Beeb's schedulers, given the exceptional popularity of the series, didn't simply say, 'Over-run all you want. Take all the time you need. If the Christmas special has to be a couple of hours, fine — you'll hear no complaints from us.'

That's the attitude of today's online streamers such as Netflix, and it works for them.

Instead, each show was ruthlessly edited and pruned. 

Archivist Richard Latto has reclaimed everything he can find, including a delightful scene of Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield) spinning one of his tall war tales, about how he survived shipwreck, torpedoes and shark attack.

The outtakes were spread a little thinly over this hour, perhaps because U&Gold is keen to squeeze all the juice it can from the material. 

Another serving airs next week, and two more are in the works.

In a perfect world, we'd see the original episodes with edits reinstated, a sort of 'director's cut'. That's something for the future, perhaps.