I booked tickets for Only Fools and Horses, the Musical about 18 months ago, because they'd newly been released for Bristol, so they weren't too expensive. I used to love the TV show and I thought it would be an interesting day out in a miserable grey January. To be honest, at first I thought I was booking for 2024, but then realised, as I, as it was currently then 2023, that no, I was booking for 2025! So it's been this thing on the horizon for a year and a half, and finally it came round yesterday.
I wasn't super excited to be honest, because I wondered if it was a mistake to have booked the tickets; how could a musical of Only Fools and Horses work? I had no idea what to expect as to the concept behind it, the story behind it, how it would be put together. Overall though, it was really, really good. We were really impressed with so many aspects of it. I always love musicals, but we went to see Grease a few weeks ago and we actually didn't enjoy it. I did absolutely love Hamilton though and Wicked last year, so I was concerned that TV and film adaptations just don’t work as well as shows made for the stage, so I was very pleasantly surprised by this one. My husband is harder to please with theater, he doesn't actually really like live performances, but he did enjoy yesterday's show. He said it was very entertaining, the people were good and for him the highlight was the legend Paul Whitehouse. He was telling my mum later that Paul Whitehouse can do anything on stage and just be entertaining. (Whitehouse isn't appearing in the whole of the UK tour - read on for details.)
In this blog post, I'm going to tell you how it's put together, what the story is, and some of the things that were nice little Easter eggs for fans. So I think you would still enjoy the show if you read all of this, including spoilers, but I'll highlight the bits that I think are particularly bits to avoid if you want surprises!
The format: Only Fools and Horses the Musical
The first thing to know is that if you are a fan of Only Fools and Horses, you will probably know all of the script word for word. It's not one single episode. It is lots of the best gags from all of the episodes woven into one story for 2.5 hours minus a 20 minute interval.
The songs do at times feel a little sledgehammered in. I think it's good that there is music in it and the singing was amazing - I’m always impressed by live singing in musicals, that’s my favorite bit. And I really, really liked the harmonies that they repeatedly came back to in the the main theme tune of Hooky Street. But when the first song came on that wasn't the theme tune, with Rodney and Del Boy and Granddad singing how they were getting on each other's nerves - I started to worry about how many songs like that there might have been if they were going to be a bit “cringy” (as my 10 year old would say). But it wasn't like a musical where everything is sung, there was a lot more dialogue and just a few songs sprinkled through that made it a very entertaining show. Whilst there are songs that are written for the show, there are also a couple of famous songs performed as part of the story. When Raquel comes on (Georgina Hagen), she sings a song that was actually really lovely, and my husband and I both commented in the interval that that had been our favorite song so far. Hagen sings it beautifully and the lyrics are very good. Also, I think it's before the interval, Del Boy goes to a dating agency, and him and the dating agency guy sing a very entertaining song. The dating agency guy - Richard J Hunt - as well, I assume, is the waiter in the Italian restaurant, Sid from the cafe and another character as well - he was very, very good.
So overall the way it's put together is lots of famous scenes and jokes from all the TV episodes of Only Fools and Horses put into one story, so it's not bitty sketches that jump around, it is one continuous story. On the whole, I can't remember completely how accurate it therefore is to the real story: were Del and Raquel meeting at the same time as Rodney was marrying Cassandra? Did Del get beaten up by the Driscoll brothers at the same time? I really can't remember if it's chronologically correct in that sense, but everything is put together very well into one very smooth story.
The show initially starts out in the market, with Del Boy and Rodney selling their wares. The main other sets are the Nags Head, their flat in Nelson Mandela House, and briefly they go to the cafe. They also have other little scenes with minimal dressing for, a restaurant when Del and Raquel are on a date, Waterloo Station where they meet, and a table for the dating agency along with a bed for the hospital. The sets are quite elaborate in today's standards - it's not full, full staging, but it's well set up with small walls and curtains and Del’s bar in the corner of his flat, and the bar in the Nag's Head. They rotate the walls round so that one side is the nag's head, one side is the flat, and whilst your attention is averted to a character singing a song to the side of the stage, in the darkness, someone will rotate the walls, so it keeps changing between the settings.
There is a slightly odd bit in the second half where Trigger has a crystal ball and they talk about the future, but the future being now, 2025. And that goes a little bit odd. And there is an unusual section of a video display of sperm fireworks, but it did also make me laugh! You have to watch it to see what I'm talking about!
The cast of Only Fools and Horses the Musical
The cast were brilliant, they were really, really good. I hadn't really thought before I went about the characters - I hadn't reminisced about Boisey and Trigger and Denzel. But as soon as they all started to walk on stage, the nostalgia just hit me and was amazing. You’re suddenly reminded that they are such iconic characters. And as soon as Rodney started to speak, it was like “wow” - it’s Tom Major’s first professional role and he’s nailed it.
All the characters are slightly caricatured, but then at the same time, these characters are quite caricatured in the TV show and everything is always a bit stronger on stage to carry the voices across. So Rodney was brilliant, and Del Boy - played by Sam Lupton - was brilliant. I'm being super picky if I say that at times Del Boy's voice sounded more different to David Jason's than some of the others, but that didn't take away from the fact that he was really great and he did have more dialogue than anyone else.
Marlene (Nicola Munns) really stood out to me and in the interval I was raving about how exceptional Marlene was. It was only afterwards when we came home and I was talking about how it was odd Cassandra wasn't on stage very much that we realised that Marlene and Cassandra are both played by Munns! And if you know Only Fools and Horses, they are two very different characters. So she was incredible to sing a song in Marlene's voice and then also sing a song in Cassandra's voice. Cassandra's voice wasn't as much of an impersonation, I wouldn't say, and she didn't have much stage time. But she still made a good Cassandra. I'd say Raquel and Cassandra weren't as true to the TV show characters in as much as they just didn't seem like such an impersonation, but that didn't matter and really those characters aren't over-the-top strong characters in the TV show anyway. I suppose Cassandra has her slight snootiness, and Raquel has a brashness to her, so they’re characters with quirks and depth, but they don’t have stand out accents or ways of talking like the others.
The star of the show for my husband was definitely Paul Whitehouse, who played Granddad. He wasn't a huge Fast Show fan back in the… 90s, I guess it was, but he still thought he was a famous classic, so it would be good to see him. And he was very, very good. We did feel there were a few little Fast Show Easter eggs in there, so fans of Paul Whitehouse will really love the show. He also had a pretty good singing voice! There are times when he's being a crackly old guy doing bad singing intentionally, but he could certainly hold a tune. He was also one of the creators of this show.
One thing that really, really showed through, we commented between ourselves later, was that they always just seemed to be having such a good time - everyone was full of life and energy and enjoying it. There was even a time when Whitehouse started to giggle for a fraction of a second. The show has been running for years in London and now they've gone on tour (I’m not 100% sure if it’s been the same cast throughout, but I think it largely has with Paul Whitehouse coming and going from time to time) but they just seem to be really having a great time and that really comes across.
I've heard people ask if Vinnie Jones is still in Only Fools and Horses the Musical but no - he joined the cast for 3 weeks over Christmas (2024) in Hammersmith Eventim Apollo, to play Daddy Driscoll, but he's not in the touring version that we saw.
If anyone wants a few spoilers about the individual jokes, this is where I'm gonna talk about those now. So scroll down to the next big heading if you want to save everything for a surprise…
Only Fools and Horses Spoilers
These are a few spoilers in as much as they talk about really specific gags that you want to watch out for because they're so good you don't want to blink and miss them. But at the same time, if you just don't want to know what's coming, then don't read this bit!
You can also see the trailer here:
Near the beginning of the show during a scene in the Nag’s Head, Del keeps moving away from the bar, followed by Muke lifting the hatch and walking out from behind the bar. Then Mike walks back, flicks the hatch down as Del Boy immediately leaps back towards the bar and puts his elbow out quite dramatically, to end up leaning on the bar. It's very much a trust exercise because the timing is so tight that the actors are relying on Mike putting the hatch down just as Del Boy leans to put his elbow on it, the gag being that if the timing wasn't right, Del Boy would fall through the hatch in the bar, as in the famous scene. But twice in close succession they do it perfectly. Mike puts the hatch down and Delboy lands on it, and everyone laughs in relief because he hasn't fallen through the bar.
Then though, right near the end, Trigger says something along the lines of “do you think we'll be millionaires this time next year, Del?” To which Del replies “yeah, Trigg, I think we could be if we play it nice and smooth, nice and smooth Trig…” And as he said “nice and smooth”, everyone started laughing because they knew what was coming. And with that, he leans onto the bar and he falls straight through it. He obviously got a great round of applause and he did an amazing fall and recovery. So the gag was used in a different context than trying to impress women in a pub, but it worked really well, with the same familiar dialogue.
Another classic joke (that we use a lot in work because we talk about it as an analogy for websites when people change bits of it and not all of it) is, of course, the Trigger's broom gag. This one is done slightly differently, and if you don't know the program, you won't fully get how it goes together. But there's a scene in the cafe where Trigger is talking to Sid, and he says something like “it's had 17 new heads and 14 new handles”, and Sid says “well, how is it the same broom then?!” And you think, oh right, ha ha ha, that's the Trigger’s broom joke, that's cool. But in the next scene they're back in the Nag's Head and Trigger is telling them about how he got an award from the council, and here's a photo of him and Councillor Murray, and she's Councillor Murray and this is him, and that the award was for saving the council money. But they never get onto what the award is actually for - so obviously fans know he saved the money by having the same broom for 17 years or however long it was, but the joke is split into two parts with the punchline in the previous scene. So it's very good and it's very satisfying for fans of it, but the joke could get lost on people who don't know it, so it felt like a sneaky little hidden special bit for people who really know the jokes.
A great twist then comes at the end - and this is probably the biggest spoiler… Paul Whitehouse was playing Granddad, and that was obviously good, but I was never a super fan of Granddad. I don't know why. I think it was because the first episodes I watched were all about Uncle Albert. And then for me, Granddad was a character I didn't know so well. Whitehouse’s Grandad was a very likeable guy, but I was a bit sad that Uncle Albert wasn't going to be on stage because I thought he could be a brilliant character. However, right near the end, Rodney gets a phone call whilst he's on honeymoon, and it's from Uncle Albert, and then lo and behold, Paul Whitehouse is on stage playing Uncle Albert instead of Granddad. He then does a great impression of Uncle Albert telling war stories, and this is where he started to giggle to himself. And It was just a brilliant little extra homage to another character.
Is Only Fools and Horses the Musical suitable for kids?
When we went on a Wednesday afternoon, the Bristol Hippodrome was absolutely packed! It's the only show I can remember going to see where I felt like I was missing some of the opening number because people were still pouring into seats and filling up every odd gap. Most of the audience was older - retired and older. But there were some younger people there including some kids in their early teens.
ATG, where you buy tickets, says it's age guidance for the show is 6+, but it's written in red and I'm not completely sure if children younger than that won't be admitted. I'd say that was probably more for the sake of the rest of the audience - who will be primarily over 18 - so that they're not distracted by bored young children. There's not really much in the way of bad language and sexual content - this was the BBC in the 70's and 80's - but it's just quite fast with grown up jokes that younger audience members won't catch, and so they could get bored. Fast is good for keeping kids entertained - but I think they won't understand much of what's going on. Oh! And there is a stripper scene, which of course doesn't include any nudity, but they might ask what's going on. I noticed one review on a theatre website suggest it's for age 14+ but I think I could take my 10 year old and he'd have enjoyed it - although I think I'd have introduced him to the characters and general set up by watching some of the episodes on TV first.
Only Fools and Horses the musical on tour in 2025
We watched it this week in Bristol, where it's playing until the 8th February - but it looks largely sold out. It's then touring until July, visiting Newcastle, Leeds, Southampton, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Canterbury, Nottingham, Blackpool, Truro, Cardiff, Plymouth, Sheffield, Northampton, Liverpool, Belfast and Dublin. You can see the full list on the official website - but TAKE NOTICE of the asterixed dates, as they're the ones where Paul Whitehouse is appearing as Grandad.
Overall, I really didn't know what to expect from this musical. But it is a very entertaining show. It's not a musical in the sense of other musicals where everything is sung, which I think is a good thing in this case, it's more that there's music to add a bit of variety to a very entertaining comedy show for fans of Only Fools and Horses. If you’re not a fan, then I guess you’ll still find the jokes funny because they were certainly very funny the first time I heard them on TV!
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