Only Fools and Horses creator John Sullivan had planned to make a fourth episode of its prequel Rock & Chips.
The BBC sitcom debuted in 1981 and chronicled the colourful exploits of market trader Del Boy (Sir David Jason) and his less streetwise younger brother Rodney Trotter (Nicholas Lyndhurst) as they attempted to become wealthy.
The beloved series ended in 2003, but it served as the foundation for the four-year-long spin-off The Green Green Grass and Rock & Chips.
While Rock & Chips was planned after Only Fools and Horses ended, it did not premiere until 2010, focusing on the classic characters’ adolescent foibles, with Inbetweeners star James Buckley playing a young Del Boy.
The sequel, which also starred Phil Daniels and Kelley Bright, broadcast three episodes before its writer, Sullivan, died in April 2011 from viral pneumonia.
James, 35, reflected on the series and disclosed that Sullivan had planned to write another episode before his death.
The 35-year-old told The Sun: ‘John was really keen to write one more to tie everything together between the prequel and Only Fools.
‘Sadly, John died just before the third episode of Rock & Chips came out.’
There was also talk about exposing one of the series’ primary plot lines in the proposed episode: what Del Boy’s mother said on her deathbed.
Both David, 82, and Nicholas have already ruled out future Only Fools and Horses episodes, with the latter claiming it ‘finished on a high.’
A Touch of Frost actor David recently acknowledged that he doesn’t see another episode being filmed because Sullivan is the “only person” he would “trust” with the script, although he remembers the pair once turning down the opportunity to do a “Only Fools and Horses” film.
He told The Sun: ‘I think the company that wanted us to make that film was the same that made the Carry On films. They were very popular and I suppose quite successful. But John and I were not that impressed because they were made quite cheaply.
‘Although they were successful and funny, they didn’t look like they were made in Hollywood, did they?
‘So we turned it down. And that was the only time we ever considered doing that. It wasn’t given the ideology that it would have some class about it, let me put it that way.’
