The 1996 Christmas special of Only Fools and Horses, titled Heroes and Villains, opened with a dream sequence set in the far-off future of November 2, 2026 — a date that has now arrived, prompting fans to note how accurate some of the show's predictions turned out to be.
In the episode, an elderly Rodney, resembling how actor Nicholas Lyndhurst appears today, wanders through a nightmarish, Blade Runner-style vision of Peckham. He tosses loose coins to homeless people, walks past advertising hoardings for Trotter Air, Trotter's Meat Fingers ("guaranteed to contain no natural ingredients"), and Trotterex Family Planning, and approaches a tower block labelled Trotter Towers guarded by two sinister sentries. Outside the building sits what looks remarkably like a Tesla Cybertruck, while a drone hovers above.
A Vision of the Future
Inside the building, Rodney meets his brother, who resembles Sir David Jason as he appears today, complete with cigar and smoking jacket, alongside his wife Raquel. The trio enters a boardroom where a grown-up Damien, Del Boy's son, is on the phone to 'President Reeves' — implied to be actor Keanu Reeves. Damien mangles French, calls his counterpart a "tart", and insists he declare war on China, saying "war is good" and accusing the president of "playing at leadership".
The dream also shows Rodney's wife Cassandra working as a maid after Damien bought and closed her bank, while a decrepit Uncle Albert, connected to electrical cables, mutters "during the war". Rodney protests that he wants to go back to how it used to be, before waking up.
Fans React to the Predictions
TikTok user Skippy, who uses his platform to highlight Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), drew attention to the scene. "It's amazing what they actually did predict," he said, noting that the episode predicted riots, a potential war with China, and drones for 2026.
While Peckham today is not as nightmarish as depicted, the segment did forecast several developments. The idea of a single worldwide corporation dominating every industry is not far from current reality, though the Trotters are absent from that picture.
Keanu Reeves is not president — as a Canadian he would be ineligible — though the notion of Donald Trump in the White House might have seemed equally absurd in 1996. The idea of a power-crazed tyrant insisting on conflict because "war is good" also bears similarities to today's international climate. Perhaps most striking is the vehicle outside Trotter Towers, closely resembling a Tesla Cybertruck, along with a drone.
Del Boy's famous forecast that "this time next year we'll be millionaires" proved accurate, but fortunately not everything foreseen by Peckham's finest has come to pass.
