Sitcom Connections

Obviously this is Only Fools and Horses week, so today I'll point out this:

Seeing as it's now held in such high esteem, it often feels like a show as iconic as Only Fools and Horses was always expected to be a hit. But in the early days a few key strokes of luck had to happen before the show was even suggested. At the time, legendary writer John Sullivan was actually pursuing an idea for a football sitcom he had.

In fact this football sitcom, named 'Over the Moon', had got itself a cast, filmed a pilot episode, and had its first series commissioned for the BBC by 1980.

The show was about a football manager, Ron Wilson, played by Brian Wilde, best known as 'Foggy' in the Last of the Summer Wine.

Wilde's character Ron was a down on his luck manager running a shabby club but with lofty aspirations for glory he was never likely to achieve.

But just as it seemed Sullivan's schedule would be full for the next few years with his football show, preventing Only Fools from ever existing, disaster (or a lucky break depending on how you look at it) struck.

As luck would have it, this monumental disaster for Sullivan that left him overdrawn and with "no work in the pipeline" was the turn of events that sparked the birth of Only Fools and Horses, his crowning achievement.

Coulda been the original Ted Lasso, people!