User Reviews

The excitement and anticipation felt by everyone in the house on Christmas Day 1996 knowing that Only Fools And Horses was returning for one last special trilogy was something I have never felt again since. No show has ever come close for me to be so excited on Christmas Day. OFAH was always a family favourite in our house and to this day I will never forget belly laughing at the sight of Del Boy and Rodney as Batman and Robin running through the Peckham mist. Even now I will laugh like I had never seen it before. I always remember part of the anticipation for this trilogy was induced by rumours in the papers that the trotters were to finally become millionaires. The national lottery was a relatively new thing so surely they were going to win it. But John Sullivan was a lot smarter than that. A receipt for an old watch (or a Victorian egg-timer as the receipt suggests) was all that was needed to prove that it was their property, bought fair and square. This tied in so perfectly with the first episode 16 years earlier where Del Boy berates Rodney for keeping the receipts hanging around. Lucky for Del Boy, Rodney kept safe this crucial slip of paper and their life was transformed. I can't praise OFAH enough, save for the 'other' trilogy when the show returned a few years later when the Trotters lost it all. There were a couple of funny moments in those but for me, they didn't come close to the perfection of the rest of the series and felt very forced and awkward. The 1996 trilogy for me was the true ending of Only Fools And Horses and the memories it brings when I watch it will never fade. Thank you John Sullivan.

This is a VERY god series!!!! i love David Jason(Del-Boy) he is a great actor and i don't think anyone could have done a better job! The best episode is when Del and Rodney dress up as Batman and Robbin and are forced to run down the street due to the van braking down. I love it when the 'villan' thinks they have come to get him and protect the lady he is robbing!

Only Fools and Horses is very well put together and David Jason plays a great role as Derick Trotter. It is a pity they are not making anymore episodes. I love the way the Director and scene management has put together the flat to make it look old and tacky, i think that many people can relate to Del and Rodney's life because they are just normal people.

When people talk about Christmas TV events, the 1996 Only Fools and Horses Christmas trilogy is the one I really remember. I was 14 at the time and a big fan of the show, so the whole family sat down and watched the three episodes as they went out, starting on Christmas Day and then at two day intervals. Intended to finally end the series, the secret that the Trotters would become millionaires in the final episode was unfortunately thoroughly blown by the press, although some of them erroneously reported that they would do so by winning the lottery. Fortunately, John Sullivan presented the nation with an intricately written trilogy which played to all the strengths of the show, incorporating broad laughs and clever character comedy, the highs and lows of family drama, appearances by all the classic characters you'd expect to see, and an ending that perfectly mixed the ultimate high with the melancholia Sullivan was so adept at finding in his now firmly established world.

What I noticed most this time round about Heroes and Villains, part one of the trilogy, is how much broader it is than many of the other episodes. Although it has become an iconic image associated with Only Fools and Horses, Del and Rodney dressed as Batman and Robin is a goofier concept than Sullivan usually explored in this particular series and there's also a slapstick chase sequence, a joke about Uncle Albert accidentally drinking a urine sample and a fantasy dream sequence. The latter opens the episode, with Rodney imagining a dystopian future in which Damien has become a dictator-like figure. Parts of it parody Dennis Potter's Cold Lazarus, a big Channel 4 production from the same year which has now been largely forgotten, but the sequence works well enough without knowing the reference points. I was expecting this opening to be sillier than it actually is but this time round I noticed that Sullivan is already setting up his ending here, with Rodney's plea of "I want to go back to how it used to be" foreshadowing the Trotters' difficult transition into the high life, something that only becomes apparent when you've seen the whole trilogy.

Though the broader approach does come as a surprise after a handful of much bleaker Christmas specials, it is ultimately a very welcome change of pace and captured with skill by Tony Dow's direction. The urine drinking scene, for instance, turns an old and tired concept into genuine hilarity through the performances of all three leads. And the Batman and Robin sequence became iconic for a reason, refusing to rely simply on the cheap laugh of some funny costumes (although there's nothing wrong with a good cheap laugh, and this one works well) and instead running with the concept in some truly outlandish plotting that ultimately knits the episode together very neatly come the final credits. After several years of spending Christmas watching the Trotter family struggle against the threat of broken homes, the happy ending of Heroes and Villains is much appreciated and made it the perfect choice for Christmas Day viewing. It still works in that way, even when you know the grim avenues that some of these storylines will eventually explore across the whole trilogy.

There's a lot packed into Heroes and Villains' sprightly hour-long runtime. This is also the episode with the legendary Trigger's broom routine, with Sullivan continuing to write cracking material for Roger Lloyd Pack to deadpan his way through. Though the plot here goes to some far-fetched places, the writing also feels a good deal less forced than it did at times in the previous special Fatal Extraction, making Heroes and Villains one of the most purely enjoyable of the Only Fools and Horses Christmas specials. When the Trotters clink their Champagne glasses together in celebration at the end of the episode, it feels like a celebration of the return of a phenomenon that proved to be worth the three year wait. The Only Fools and Horses Christmas special was back!

Del Boy has applied for a council grant but has unfortunately been turned down and on top of that to Rodney's minor consternation, his brother has given him a bracelet inscribed with 'Rooney', for his birthday. The Trotter boys decide to attend a fancy dress party as Batman and Robin, and while driving to the party their Robin Reliant breaks down in the middle of town, and that proves to be just the beginning of their problems. But in spite of all that, every cloud has a silver lining, and their apparent misfortune turns out to be a blessing in disguise.

The first of a trilogy of three Christmas specials that were to edge at the end of the classic sitcom, Heroes and Villains highlighted the show at its absolute best. Comedy doesn't come any more hilarious or memorable than this with both Del and Rodney dealing with their own personal problems and issues. Rodney and Cassandra are struggling to conceive their first child, while Del Boy's application for a council grant has been rejected. There is some good news on the horizon though with Racquel, being put back in touch with her estranged parents, and all this is just part and parcel of what makes Heroes and Villians, one of the definitive benchmarks of what Only Fools and Horses was all about.

Opening with a superb parody of bleak science-fiction movies like Blade Runner and Escape from New York, with Rodney having a nightmare where he finds himself in a future England where his nephew Damien, now rules over the country as an archetypal dictator and Anti-Christ, it acts as an inspired hook and opening which represents Rodney's fears and anxieties of the impending change's that are to come in his relationship with Cassandra, and with his relationship with Del, whose priorities have changed now, that he is is a husband and father.

Underlying the absurdist nature of all this and what is to come, there's the poignancy, of Del Boy over hearing Racquel's phone conversation with her parents, who had previously disproved of her career choice of wanting to become an actress want to reconcile with their daughter, misinterpreting the one-sided nature of it as her having found another man, which makes for a genuinely heartfelt and sympathetic moment, as we see Del Boy at one of the most vulnerable moments in the series history. It's what makes Del, such a well-rounded and loveable character, that beyond his cheeky, larger-than-life personae is a soft center that when penetrated, reveals his soft underbelly, and besides the comic nature of it, your heart can't help but go out to him.

All this leads to a masterful, and unforgettable comedic set-piece with the brothers driving in their Robin Reliant to a fancy dress party dressed as Batman & Robin, only in typical unfortuitous fashion for the boys to break down in the middle of London, which arguably leads to one of the most deftly handled and sublime comical moments in the show's history.

Heroes & Villians represents perfectly how brilliant Only Fools...was at its pinnacle, and with the ever-reliable and consistent brilliance of the series regular, and recurring cast and characters, you couldn't ask for anything more unforgettable, heart-warming and bitter-sweet. It's an inspired combination and one worthy of repeat viewings.