Only Fools and Horses: The huge amount of cash Sir David Jason was paid for final 3 Christmas specials
What a nice little earner as Del Boy would say!
Del Boy Trotter (David Jason) living a high life in Monte Carlo after becoming overnight millionaires (Image: BBC)
Only Fools and Horses made an epic return to television screens in 2001 with three Christmas specials: If They Could See Us Now, Strangers on the Shore, and Sleepless in Peckham. With the last installment airing 20 years ago!
The BBC announced the re-boot after a five-year hiatus and continued the story of what happened after the Trotters became rich in Time on Our Hands in 1996. Sir David Jason revived his role as Del Boy Trotter, as Nicholas Lyndhurst returned as his younger brother Rodney, and the actors raked in a lot of cash for the trio of episodes.
It was revealed that the BBC was paying £1 million per Only Fools episode, with the last season consisting of three episodes. These debuted on Christmas Day in 2001, 2002, and 2003, each feeling more like TV movies rather than a traditional season.
David Jason as Del and Nicholas Lyndhurst as Rodney during the 2002 Only Fools Christmas special (Image: BBC)
At the time, £1 million was an unusually high amount to spend on an episode, but the BBC was confident it would be a success. Adjusted by the Bank of England’s inflation calculator, in today’s money each episode would cost an equivalent of around £1.8 million, a staggering amount for a sitcom even now.
As for Del Boy himself, David Jason was paid £100,000 per episode, or £179,000 in today’s money, so in total, David would have picked up a paycheck totaling £300, 000 for the final three Only Fools episode, or £537,000 had the three episodes been filmed in 2023.
Nicholas Lyndhurst, who played brother Rodney, was believed to have earned a similar amount per episode as his star power had increased significantly since its debut in 1981.
For comparison, at the time the average sitcom would cost around £500,000 to make, meaning the BBC paid double the average rates. It seems Only Fools and Horses really is the ‘Creme de la Menthe’ of TV shows!
