Rock & Chips

If there's one thing which guaranteed that TV miniseries Rock & Chips could do no wrong, it was its pedigree.

Author John Sullivan had created and written the entire Only Fools And Horses universe from the ground up, so when it came to constructing a prequel, he had every authority.

Sure there's now swearing, no laugh-track, and a huge cast of characters to keep track of, but if you believed that the Trotter boys were real, then fitting a new series of events into their already finely-woven history was always going to be both a challenge, and a pleasure.

The locations are familiar. The cast all bring both something old and something new to their parts. And Nicholas Lyndhurst as Freddy doesn't even remotely remind me of Rodney.

This probably doesn't stand up well if you haven't seen the earlier series that it prequels, but watched in retrospect it's simply special. All the more so that there are only three episodes of it, and that the author clearly had further places for it to go before his sad death robbed him of sharing them with us.

Thanks so much John Sullivan. For the laughter, the friends you gave us, and for being so true to your word.