Sir David Jason's sad reason Del Boy won’t be returning as Only Fools and Horses is over for good

Only Fools and Horses is one of the UK’s most iconic sitcoms and its characters are as much loved today as they were when they first arrived on our screens more than 40 years ago. Despite it coming to an end more than 20 years ago, fans have never completely given up hope of a new episode being released.

However, lead actor Sir David Jason has now revealed the sad reason Del Boy et al will not be returning to screens with any new material.

The comedy set in the south London district of Peckham - although the show was not always filmed in the area - was created by television scriptwriter John Sullivan who was also responsible for a number of other British sitcoms, including Citizen Smith and Just Good Friends.

Only Fools and Horses, known for the famed catch phrase ‘this time next year we’ll be millionaires, first aired in 1981 and featured, alongside Sir David as Del Boy, his brother Rodney Trotter played by Nicholas Lyndhurst. Centering on the pair of hapless market traders trying to get rich, other much-loved characters included Grandad, Uncle Albert, Boycie, Trigger and Denzil.

They did eventually make their fortune in the episode "Time on Our Hands" which aired on December 29, 1996 when a rare antique watch he owned sold for £6.2 million at Sotheby's. The final episode of the hit show, "Sleepless in Peckham...!", aired on 25 December 2003.

Only Fools and Horses then spawned a couple of spin offs, the first being The Green Green Grass, following Boycie, his wife Marlene, and their teenage son Tyler. It ran for four series and three Christmas specials between 2005 and 2009, with the first episode, seeing the trio forced to flee from Peckham to escape the wrath of the Driscoll brothers and setting up home on a Shropshire farm.

Only Fools and Horses prequel, Rock & Chips, aired in 2010 starring Nicholas Lyndhurst as his character’s own father and Inbetweeners star James Buckley as a young Del Boy. The three episodes set in 1960s Peckham, focused on the lives of Del Trotter, Freddie Robdal and Joan and Reg Trotter.

Despite the public’s appetite for more, writer Sullivan died in 2011 from viral pneumonia at the age of 64. Due to his sad passing, both Sir David and Lyndhurst admitted it was unlikely a new episode would ever happen. Sir David told The Sun: “I don’t think so. Basically, the only person I would trust with the script would have been John and because he’s no longer with us, I don’t think anyone comes up to his standard.

“When I was first asked to read the script, I said to my agent at the time that this was going to be something special. It was not a situation comedy. It was like a situation drama. I honestly felt that it was so rich in its ability in storytelling and entertainment and it was different from anything I had seen before.”

However, you can relive all the old episodes of Only Fools and Horses from its 20-year run via the ITVX premium service or on Britbox - the on demand streaming service founded by BBC Studios and ITV, available in Australia, Europe, North America, and South Africa.