An unaired scene from the Only Fools and Horses Christmas special The Jolly Boys' Outing, featuring EastEnders actor Jake Wood, will be shown for the first time in a new show celebrating the sitcom's 45th anniversary.
The Lost Archive, airing on U&GOLD, will showcase 66 unseen clips and nearly 100 other items from the BBC comedy, including rehearsal photographs, on-set pictures, behind-the-scenes footage and outtakes.
Cut scene with Jake Wood as Elvis
The material includes extended and entirely new scenes from 10 iconic episodes that were never used in the original transmission due to timing or structural constraints. One such scene from The Jolly Boys' Outing features Jake Wood, who currently plays Max Branning in EastEnders.
In the original episode, Wood appears as a spiky-haired teenager called Elvis, who works as Rodney Trotter's (Nicholas Lyndhurst) trainee at a printing firm. During the scene, Rodney wiped all the data from his computer onto his assistants' computers.
"Of course it is, they do not know they are born, do they?", Rodney said in horror as he passed the blame to save face in front of his boss, Alan Parry (Denis Lil).
In an unaired extended scene at Rodney's workplace, it explains in greater depth how he struggled to master the office computer system, featuring Jake as Elvis. The clip never made the final edit of the famous Christmas special, which was seen by 20 million during its original broadcast.
The Jolly Boys' Outing episode
Only Fools and Horses aired between 1981 and 2003, with The Jolly Boys' Outing airing on Christmas Day in 1989. The episode follows Derek Trotter (David Jason), his younger brother Rodney, their Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield), and all their South London mates on a disastrous coach trip to the Great British seaside.
Del Boy's annual 'beano' was a chance for the gang to leave Peckham for the Bank Holiday and enjoy the fresh air, alcohol, and funfair rides; but of course, it doesn't go to plan. The gang gets stranded and are forced to try and find a place to bed down for the night. Although thankfully, this is where wheeler-dealer Del rekindles his romance with Raquel Turner (Tessa Peake-Jones).
More unseen clips to air
Only Fools and Horses: The Lost Archive will also air more unseen clips from the episode, including an entirely improvised game of football between the lads that ends in trouble for Rodney.
Del Boy and Marlene Boyce (Sue Holderness) will also be seen chatting in the market about an unseen character who later plays an integral part in the story, and Boycie (John Challis) teases Rodney about his love life in front of the lads on the coach.
Only Fools viewers will also see, for the first time, Del Boy explaining to Raquel why he stood her up in the 1988 festive special Dates, which involved wriggling his way out of an embarrassing situation with a female police officer.
Sir David Jason reflects: "The great talent of John Sullivan, he knew he must explain certain things, but what was lost was the truth of the scene. But when you're pushed against time, something has to give."
Only Fools and Horses: The Lost Archive airs on Tuesday, October 20 with a second episode on Tuesday, October 27 on U&GOLD.
