“One day Rodney we’ll be musical theatre stars!”
Yes, Del Boy and Rodney are the unlikeliest musical sensations and they are heading to Manchester next week.
Only Fool and Horses The Musical has proved a major West End hit, and has spent four years in London.
It features songs co-written with Chas Hodges - of Chas and Dave fame and takes those unforgettable television adventures of Del and Rodney and blends them into one perfect night out.
Here Jim and Paul discuss bringing the iconic characters to the stage.
Rumours of a musical based on Only Fools were circulating for years before it opened in the West End. Did you start from scratch when you started your collaboration or is any of the musical based upon earlier developments?
Jim: My dad had been toying with the possibility of bringing the it to the stage but sadly never got to fully commit to it. When we began developing the idea back in 2015, the first thing I did was to search my dad’s notes.
I discovered snippets of thoughts and ideas he’d scribbled down, and I knew from talking with him that he wanted to focus on the Dates episode (his personal favourite), where Del and Raquel first met. I also found a two-page opening scene, which our opening scene is based on. About six months later I was helping my mum clear out the garage when I came across an old audio cassette tape with the words “This Time Next Year” written on it. We played the tape and there was Chas and Dave (as Del and Rodney) singing “We’re gonna be alright, the good times are on their way!”
Paul, when you were approached to work on the musical was it always important that you wrote as well as performed in it?
Paul: That was all I was approached to do initially, I was asked to write and adapt it, I wasn’t asked to be in it. I had worked with CJ (Caroline Jay Ranger, director) and the production team on the Legends tour with Harry Enfield, and she had enjoyed working with me, and thought I had the wherewithal to do it – I didn’t as I had never written a musical before, so it was a gradual process.
I met Jim and I was very conscious of how precious the legacy was to him and his family, and for me too as someone who loved the series. But the fact that Chas Hodges and John Sullivan had already written a song together for it struck me as a positive element. It was amazing to see the musical so well received during its four years in the West End. I can’t wait to get back into Grandad’s hat and slippers
Only Fools and Horses is such a cherished series, was it a little daunting to take characters and events that generations of viewers knew so well? Did you feel that there were some things you could have artistic license with but others not?
Jim: In this case it was an especially tricky challenge. When my Dad wrote the first series back in 1981 he wasn’t sure it would get a second series. When he wrote the second series it looked as though there wouldn’t be a third. When he wrote the final episode in 2003 there were, all told, 64 episodes (approximately 44 hours of viewing material). The story of the Trotters of Peckham spanned over two decades and included births, deaths and marriages. Our job was to boil that down into a single two hour story... with songs!
Ultimately, we are not trying to reinvent the series but rather to pay homage to it. What we’ve ended up with is (hopefully) something that captures and celebrates the heart and spirit of what the series was all about.
The television series of course features a very rich array of secondary characters, how much of a challenge was it to find enough stage time to do them all justice in the musical?
Jim: That was another big challenge. Again, we couldn’t include everyone, but we have tried to give all the main characters a fair shout.
Was it tricky to weave the songs into the traditional Only Fools scripted sequences?
Jim: To begin with, yes. But it has all been very organic. We focused on the beats of the story first and the songs came out of that.
What was the process like of writing songs for the musical with the late Chas Hodges?
Paul: I’d never met Chas before, but weirdly I got on really well with him. Because of his work he was one of those blokes you felt you’d known for ages. I knew he was a fan of my stuff and we both had fishing in common, and, along with Dave Peacock, we were both from the same area, so we had a strong connection.
Only Fools and Horses The Musical is at Manchester Opera House from Monday, November 11 to Saturday, November 23. Details from www.atgtickets.com
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here