17 February 2021
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Royal Mail celebrates the fortieth anniversary of the much-loved British sitcom Only Fools and Horses with a set of eight stamps featuring some of its most iconic scenes.
Created and written by John Sullivan and first broadcast in 1981, Only Fools and Horses follows the exploits of wheeler-dealer Del Trotter, his younger brother Rodney, their Grandad and later their Uncle Albert.
The show enjoyed a magical combination of skilled writing and excellent performances, sprinkled with the warmth and idiosyncrasies of the characters, memorable catchphrases, family feuds and emotion, an ensemble cast of supporting actors, and the kind of ‘did you see?’ moments that still live in the memory of many of us.
It is these scenes that are captured on the eight new stamps, using a style similar to the show’s opening sequence, almost like a comic book collage of laugh-out-loud moments.
Miniature sheet
As is often the case with Royal Mail’s sets of recent years, a set of stamps is not enough and a miniature sheet of four stamps is also available. The four stamps each feature a member of the Trotter family with a memorable catchphrase alongside, and the sheet’s design feels more in keeping with the programme’s style, the eight stamps suffering a little from the multiple images each value shows.