Footage made for oil industry finally gets a TV airing

Viewers are to get a glimpse of a 'lost' episode of Only Fools and Horses for the very first time.

The never-before-seen episode, filmed in 1984 and titled Licensed To Drill, is said to have been lying on a dusty shelf for years.

It is especially significant as it was Lennard Pearce's final appearance as Grandad before his death.

In the episode, Del Boy, played by David Jason, reveals his new get-rich-quick scheme, buying an oil rig for the 'bargain' price of £400.

He plans to extract some black gold of his own, saying: 'We just lay low in our boat for a while and we wait for one of the big oil companies to move off the oil field and then we whip in a bit lively and use their hole.'

But the Trotters soon realise there's not much in the way of oil in Peckham and Del Boy realises he's been conned.

The episode was produced by the Maureen Oilfield Consortium and was exclusively made for British schools to teach them about crude oil and the things that can be produced from it.

The episode will be aired as part of UKTV Gold's The Story Of Only Fools And Horses, which also includes outtakes from the classic sitcom.

In one of the bloopers David Jason forgets his lines and exclaims: 'We might as well start again because I've gone now.'

And in another, Rodney actor Nicholas Lyndhurst mispronounces his onscreen wife's name as 'Ker-sai' rather than Cassie.

The behind-the-scenes material came thanks to the family of Only Fools writer John Sullivan, who died in 2011.

The Story of Only Fools and Horses, airs on Gold on Tuesdays at 8pm until October 3, which is when scenes from Licensed to Drill will be shown for the first time.

But the full 19-minute film has previously been available online:

Published: 11 Sep 2017