Only Fools and Horses has once again left its long-time fans in disbelief, 22 years after airing its final episode. A clip from the beloved BBC sitcom has resurfaced, featuring a prediction of what the world would look like in November 2026.
The episode in question is the highly anticipated 1996 Christmas Special titled Heroes and Villains, in which Derek "Del Boy" Trotter (played by David Jason) and his brother Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst) dress up as Batman and Robin. Among the many iconic moments, the episode sees them accidentally yet successfully stop a group of muggers attempting to rob a local councillor.
A Dystopian Dream of Peckham
Dedicated viewers have been shocked to discover that the legendary episode opens with a dream set in the distant future of November 2, 2026. The dream sees an older-looking Rodney walking through a hellish version of Peckham, where he throws a handful of change to some homeless people who scramble to pick it up.
He then passes billboards advertising Trotter Air, Trotter's Meat Fingers, and Trotterex Family Planning, before approaching a skyscraper marked Trotter Towers, guarded by two ominous figures. In a bizarre prediction, one vehicle that looks identical to Elon Musk's Cybertruck is parked outside, with what appears to be a drone flying overhead.
Inside Trotter Towers
Inside, Rodney meets his brother, Del Boy, who ironically shares an uncanny resemblance to the actor today, with his trademark cigar, and his wife, Raquel (Tessa Peake-Jones). Together, they head into an empty boardroom, where an adult version of Del Boy and Raquel's son, Damien, is on the phone to "President Reeves," who is implied to be Hollywood star Keanu Reeves, in a bold prediction of American politics.
Damien misuses French and calls his counterpart a "tart" before demanding he declare war on China. Saying "war is good", he adds: "You just sit there in the White House all day twiddling your thumbs. You're just playing at leadership."
Reality vs. Fiction
Today, Peckham is a far cry from the high-crime, working-class industrial hub it was in 1996; now the borough has transformed into one of London's trendiest and most creative hotspots.
While Keanu Reeves isn't the US president, he wouldn't be eligible to run as a Canadian; Donald Trump currently runs the White House and the country. In 1996, Bill Clinton was serving his fourth and final term in office, and perhaps the idea of a billionaire businessman succeeding him 21 years later could have seemed out of reach at the time; the sitcom wasn't too far off with an actor running the country. Trump has famously made cameos in the likes of Home Alone 2, The Little Rascals, Zoolander, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
The idea of a power-mad dictator demanding to declare war on a foreign country because "war is good" also has a few parallels to the modern global situation. Perhaps most striking for fans are the vehicle parked outside Trotter Towers, which, despite being banned in the UK, looks just like a Tesla Cybertruck, as well as the apparent appearance of a drone.
