Only Fools & Horses

Milton Keynes Theatre

18th March 2025

British sitcoms and musical theatre don’t seem the most natural of bedfellows, but that didn’t stop ‘Only Fools & Horses – The Musical’ from becoming a hit on the West End, running for 1000 performances and surviving Covid to run for nearly 4 years. Arguably Britain’s best-loved sitcom, the series was originally brought to our screens back in 1981 by Jim Sullivan, and it’s his son Jim who’s created the stage adaptation, along with comedy legend Paul Whitehouse (who also appears as Grandad at selected venues). Following its London success, a touring production is now halfway through its substantial run, kicking off in September 2024 and running through to July 2025, with the yellow three-wheeled van parking up this week at Milton Keynes Theatre.

Taking us back to Peckham in the 1980s, we see brothers Del Boy (understudied on Press Night by Andrew Bryant) and Rodney Trotter (Tom Major) up to their usual tricks peddling stock on the local market, always dreaming that next year, they’ll be millionaires. Rodney is caught up with making wedding plans with Cassandra (Nicola Munns), while Del decides to try his luck with a dating agency, who pair him with struggling actress (and secret stripper) Raquel (Georgina Hagen). When funds are tight, Del borrows money to help Rodney and Cassandra with their wedding, upsetting the local heavies. In the meantime, Boycie (Craig Berry) and Marlene (Munns again in a dual role) are trying to conceive without much luck, while Rodney tries to explain to Trigger (Lee VG) that his name really isn’t Dave.

Adapting such a beloved title was never going to be easy. The original television actors are synonymous with these roles and engrained in popular culture, that any attempts to replicate those classic performances seem doomed to fail from the start. To give ‘Only Fools & Horses – The Musical’ its due, it does actually achieve the characterisation brilliant and delivers recognisable interpretations of the characters we love, familiar enough to be an affectionate homage but distinct enough to not feel like parody. The writing too feels in keeping with the property, with Sullivan and Whitehouse successfully making the characters act and sound in the way we’d expect. It does however fall into the “amusing rather than hilarious” category, and never quite takes off. Del may do his butchered French shtick, and Uncle Albert might talk about the war, but it feels like a gentle tribute to greatness rather than a sparkling comedy on its own merit. Fans will note the many in-jokes and references to the series’ most famous plots (the chandeliers, Batman & Robin), but it’s far too light on plot, and it raises smiles rather than the belly laughs that it brought to the nation during its time on BBC1.

Its transition to a musical is also an uneasy fit, and doesn’t completely deliver. Although it gets significant mileage from the series’ theme tune, there’s little else in Sullivan & Whitehouse’s score that makes much of an impression, a mix of comedy patter numbers and some more surreal sections clearly inspired by ‘A Chorus Line’, along with the strange inclusion of covers of Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day” and Simply Red’s “Holding Back The Years” (performed beautifully by Gloria Acquaah-Harrison). The songs may reveal a little more of what the characters are feeling, but they’re largely unmemorable, although the women are served slightly better. The musical sections rarely get out of second gear and it begins to beg the question if the production would have been better served as a straight play rather than a musical.

Trying to impersonate David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst and the rest of the series’ cast would have been a mistake, and everyone here gives well-judged performances that elevate the material and are a joy to watch. Andrew Bryant sells the “wheeler-dealer” charm of Del Boy, Tom Major nails Rodney’s goofy charm and Philip Childs is hugely endearing as Grandad (and later, Uncle Albert). Georgina Hagen brings some fantastic vocals to Racquel, as does Nicola Munns to her dual roles of Cassandra and Marlene, and pairing brilliantly with Craig Berry’s Boycie.

There’ll never be another sitcom like ‘Only Fools & Horses’, and that’s reason enough to see this adaptation live on stage, particularly on the strength of its cast. It may be mediocre as musical, but it’s still a fun stroll down Memory Lane, revisiting characters we love and getting by on rose-tinted nostalgia.

‘Only Fools & Horses’ runs at Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday 29th March 2025, before continuing on its UK tour.

Performance runtime 2 hours 25 minutes including interval.