STAR SECRETS: Would you Adam & Eve it?

More than 24 million people tuned in to see the Trotters become millionaires in Time On Our Hands in 1996, making it Britain's most popular TV programme ever.

Jim Broadbent and Billy Murray were considered for Del Boy before David Jason was offered the role.

Creator John Sullivan dreamt up Only Fools And Horses when the Beeb cancelled Over The Moon, a footballing sitcom he was working on, starring Brian Wilde (aka Foggy in Last Of The Summer Wine) as Ron Wilson, manager of a luckless football team. The show was scrapped, despite Sullivan having written half the scripts for the first series. His inspiration for Del Boy was a tough working-class Londoner he knew called Chicky Stocker.

Initially, John Howard Davies - then BBC's Head of Comedy - didn't think David Jason was a good idea for Del Boy because the two main roles of the brothers would be played by actors (Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst) who didn't look alike.

David Jason, an electrician before turning to acting, based Del Boy's style and attitudes on a guy called Derek Hockley who ran a building firm. A friend's brother, who always wanted to be one of the lads, was a key influence behind Lyndhurst's Rodney.

Before Uncle Albert (left) was introduced after the death of Lennard Pearce (Grandad, far left), someone suggested bringing in an aunt. David Jason was against the idea because he didn't think it would work with Del Boy telling a little old lady, 'Shut up, you stupid old cow', and pushing her into the back of the Reliant van.

The chandelier smashing scene in A Touch Of Glass was based on a real event. Sullivan's father, then an apprentice plumber, was helping install central heating in a manor house when the wrong chandelier was unscrewed from the ceiling, crashing to the floor. Everyone was sacked, including Sullivan Senior.

John Challis (Boycie) had appeared in an episode of Sullivan's earlier sitcom, Citizen Smith. Sullivan liked the character he played so much he told Challis he'd put him in a series one day - and so Boycie was born.

John Sullivan picked Peckham as the Trotters' home because when he was a teenager it was the toughest area he knew. He says, 'It was a place you avoided, if you could.'

For the episode Danger UXD

a bunch of sex dolls were required. The visual effects designer got some designed specially, including an ethnic selection to alleviate any political correctness concerns. Del's partner, Raquel, played by Tessa Peake-Jones, was only scheduled to appear in Dates, but the character made such an impact Sullivan decided to put her permanently on the team. Actress Pippa Guard, who later played Reen in Roger, Roger, was also considered for the role.

Sullivan normally wrote a script for one episode in two weeks, although The Long Legs Of The Law, influenced by the writer's niece becoming a policewoman, took just six days.

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