John Sullivan R.I.P.

Very sad to hear the news over the weekend of the death of a comedy legend. He is the man who gave us one of the greatest comedy characters Del Boy Trotter. A character up there with Homer Simpson as far as I'm concerned and nearly as influential especially on a wee big toothed, side parting, nobbly knee'd, short pants wearing wee man like myself. Every Friday or Saturday I loved to sit and watch Only Fools and Horses, and catch the "Rodney, you plonker!", "Mange tout" "ruby murray" "Dave" and any number of legendary catchphrases that Sullivan engraved in comedy lore in between trying to hear the jokes because my Mum and Dad would be wailing in laughter. There was a cracking piece in the Mail about the genuine pleasure of Sullivan's comedy...it took the piss but was never snide.

He also gave birth to a very special little three wheeler...one day Rodders, we'll be millionaires!

One of my favourite scenes was the chandelier. As many of his stories came from his Dad, a plumber in London, this is supposed to have happened. All of the best comedy comes from truth and one of the reasons why OFAH was s o successful is because of the believable characters.



And this wasn't far behind...