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An episode of Only Fools And Horses was dubbed so ‘dark and cruel’ that the show’s creator banned it from being aired again.
The BBC sitcom is known for being feel-good TV but one episode entitled A Royal Flush veered away from comedy and became ‘hard to watch’.
A Royal Flush, the 1986 Christmas special, sees Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst) become friends with the daughter of a Duke, and Del Boy (David Jason) wants to help him make the right impression.
Yet as the group sit down for dinner, Del ends up drinking too much and cruelly mocks Rodney by implying he’s set to marry the Duke’s daughter and bringing up his conviction for possession of cannabis.
While Del was known for his cheeky putdowns to Rodney in this episode it was agreed the scene crossed the line and Del resembled an ‘out of control bully’.
A Royal Flush, the 1986 Christmas special, sees Rodney become friends with the daughter of a Duke, and Del Boy wants to help him make the right impression
The BBC sitcom is known for being feel-good TV but one episode entitled A Royal Flush veered away from comedy and became ‘hard to watch’ (L-R Lennard Pearce as Granddad, David Jason as Del Boy and Nicholas Lyndhurst as Rodney)
The show’s creator John Sullivan then decided to scrap scenes from the final edit because it was ‘not a good episode.’
Speaking in Channel 5 documentary, Secrets and Scandals of Only Fools and Horses, editor Chris Wadsworth shared: ‘It’s quite a cruel dark episode.
‘Some 20 years later [John] said, “can we do anything to take out Del being nasty?”
‘The episode was shown to an audience to get a laughter track but I don’t think we succeeded completely.’
TV producer Richard Latto added: ‘The original where Del Boy is being quite cruel to Rodney… it is a hard watch.’
A Royal Flush was later released on DVD in 2005, but only after ‘an edit on Sullivan’s orders’, which resulted in about 18 minutes of footage being cut.
Del star Sir David recently revealed his ‘real regret’ over his Only Fools and Horses character and admitted he feels haunted by the role.
The actor, 84, revealed his true feelings in a candid interview on BBC Breakfast with Jon Kay this month.
An episode of Only Fools And Horses, entitled A Royal Flush, was dubbed so ‘dark and cruel’ that the show’s creator banned it from being aired again
Sir David, 84, recently revealed his ‘real regret’ over Only Fools and Horses character and admitted he feels haunted as he sat down for a BBC Breakfast interview this month
David told the show that he feels the ‘ghost’ of Derek Trotter is following him and explained that he feels the character hangs over him
The Touch of Frost star explained that the character has overshadowed his other work.
David told the show that he feels the ‘ghost’ of Derek Trotter is following him and explained that he feels the character hangs over him.
He said: ‘That Derek Trotter thing, he’s a bit of a ghost that comes along behind me like A Christmas Carol.’
The star expressed frustration that despite a decades-long career in film and television he is most know for playing Del Boy.
He said the character ‘only hangs me back, only upsets me slightly is because that seems to be the only thing that people remember me for.’
‘I’m delighted in one way that it’s reached so many people and they’ve enjoyed what I’ve done with the character, but I’ve done so many other things that everybody seems to have forgotten about. It’s like I’ve only ever played Derek Trotter.’
David revealed that while he isn’t disappointed with his career, there are still so many goals he hasn’t achieved and put that down to being followed by the ghost of his most iconic character.
The star explained: ‘My real disappointment or regret, if you like, is I always wanted to be a National Theatre player.
‘I always wanted to be on the stage of the National Theatre. It was just that romantic image of playing those big productions with all those big, wonderful actors. That never happened.’
When host Jon suggested he still had time to realise his dream of taking to the stage, Jason replied that his time may have run out, explaining that his memory is not what it was.
He said: ‘Well you wonder whether the old memory would be quite good enough. I could do it with the autocue things.’.
But seeming to shake off his melancholy mood, he then playfully turned to the camera and said: ‘Hey! Yes, National Theatre, I’m available!’.
David revealed that while he isn’t disappointed with his career, there are still so many goals he hasn’t achieved and put that down to being followed by the ghost of his most iconic character
His admission comes after the star revealed he would take up his famous role again.
At the start of the year David said he would be happy to take on the role of Del Boy again but added that a reboot would be unlikely after the main writer of the hit TV series, John Sullivan, tragically passed away in 2011.
He told The Sun of a potential reboot: ‘Well, to be honest with you, we would like that to happen very much because not only did we enjoy it so much, but so did most of the British public. Because of that, we would love to do it.’
But he added: ‘I don’t think we could do another episode of Only Fools And Horses because the brains behind it, Mr John Sullivan, is unfortunately no longer with us.’