Only Fools and Horses on blu-ray format!
So when will we get only fools and horses on blu ray? It must be in the pipeline as we are talking about the most successful sitcom of all time in the UK.
Today, we particularly want to know what would you expect on the blu ray version of only fools
Here is my wish list, but i’m sure you will want to add your thoughts in the comment box below…
The original episodes
When i say originals for anyone who has purchased the DVD boxset that is sold as the complete Only Fools and Horses set, its far from complete! – Take a look at a great article called Only Fools and Horses Cuts – its in 11 parts – thats how many cuts there were! – https://www.ofah.net/blog/only-fools-and-horses-cuts-part-1/
One fan comments”Countless episodes are edited to such an extent that dialogue has been cut, scenes have been deleted and musical scores altered. So much so that avid fools fans will watch with annoyance. The fact the BBC couldn’t pay for the rights to play the original background music within scenes is criminal, they must have made millions from the Only Fools franchise.”
So this is a chance for the BBC to make amends.
Additional blu-ray Footage
Having been to some of the BBC sitcoms filming, i’m well aware that there is miles of footage that never made it to the final aired version. A lot went onto the cutting room floor. For example…
Friday 14th had a complete scene cut out with some villagers at a pub discussing the weather.
If they could see us now had a brilliant scene with Del in an office pressing the wrong buttons on a printer.
Hole in One was a complete episode that had to be refilmed when Albert replaced Grandad, its beleived this has been lost forever.
Several stars iv’e spoken to have confirmed the meomries of footage that never made it to the final cut.
John Sullivans Voice over
This must be already in the only fools and horses blu-ray pipeline. I’ve heard rumors that John has already provided a commentry for many of the episodes, filling in little mishaps, reasons for certain direction, where the casting came from, and why, locations, just everything that a fools fan would dream of from the main man.
Along with John, some additional comments from David Jason and Nick Lyndhurst would always go down well.
Only Fools and Retakes
I have to admit that when you have amongst the best actors in the UK, there arent that many retakes, ive seen a few over the years, but its very rare to see any even when your the live audience. There was one i saw several years back from the infamous A Touch of Glass episode. When grandad went upstairs to hammer the bolt of the chandelier through with a hammer, he had to take a few retakes as he manged to miss the bolt with his hammer.
If anyone know of where this reclip can be found then please let us know, or any other for that matter.
So there is our list of what we would like from a blu-ray version of any only fools and horses set. We know the BBC and John Sullivan frequent the site, and as your the fans then let us know (inderectly letting them know) what would you want on the blu-ray version?
I don’t see why releasing the whole collection onto Blu-ray would be much of an advantage. It would simply be 576i material upscaled to 1080. Also, any episodes originally shot on film would probably not be rescanned to HD either, more likely, again, just upscaled from 576i VT. Modern Blu ray players do this on-the-fly with DVDs anyway. Like the recent release of Fawlty Towers onto Blu-ray …it’s a con as far as I’m concerned. They should re-release the whole lot uncut, though. That’s for sure. But onto DVD would suffice.
I think it needs to be brought out on Blu-ray because just like the old videos the DVD’s are dying out.
it’s just keeping up with technology till the next one comes along and then you get it on that.
But i do see where you are coming from with your expernation.
When will only fools and horses blu ray be out with love this
Would love it if they released these on blu ray these would fly of the shelves as many people have said so BBC dont be plonkers all your life and get these released…luvly jubbly.
Please please BBC you owe it to the British nation to remaster the whole of ofah. It’s an investment that will surely pay off as it will fly of the shelves no matter what price it is.
would this be possible the only reason they can make movies into HD was because they were filmed on a 35mm film reel and the resolution when scanned can be more than 4k (2160p) but only fools and horses was filmed with 18mm film so the only possibility would be for it to be scanned into 720p HD if thats even possible with the resolution of 18mm
No mate, you can scan 16mm at 4k too. The results are incredible. Check out You Tube.
Yeah check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30xP68Uls9M
If they put the money into doing this, I’m sure they’d reap the rewards on Netlfix, Amazon Video + Blu-ray sales…
95% of Only Fools was shot on video tape, To Hull and Back, the second episode of Miami Twice, and a couple of the shorts were shot on film, but the rest of the episodes, can’t be made into HD.
They could release To Hull and Back and Miami Twice, if the original film still exists.
“Fawlty Towers” has been released on Blu-Ray and that is older than “Only Fools”
The cut scene that frustrates me the most is the nightclub scene in ‘jolly boys outing’ where the female singer is singing: ‘just the way you are’.
there’s no foul language in this scene, no racial comments, it’s a crime that scene got cut, all because a singer is on stage due to music rights.
and I thought in this day and age – music rights were no longer a problem? (well not as much as they used to be anyway)
Can I just say, for anyone thinking of buying ‘the complete only fools and horses DVD boxset’ made by 2entertain – dont bother.
if your thinking of buying this – in hopes, that previous missing scenes will be restored THEIR NOT!
I bought this in ASDA a few days ago, and it’s NO DIFFERENT to previous only fools DVD releases.
I think another good thing would be all the shorter special episodes from Royal variety and comic relief as well as Christmas trees.
I really cant understand why the BBC wont release these episodes fully uncut – if the reason they wont do it is because of money )it would cost too much) – then that is stupid because only fools fans would be more than happy to pay for an expensive release, they wouldn’t care how much it cost.
and another thing – fair enough there are a few racial comments in only fools that might possibly offend, which aren’t politically correct these days, so why not release 2 versions of the same episode on 1 disc? a cut, and uncut version of every episode.
I mean when you buy a horror movie, you get the choice of the sick uncut version, or the watered down cut one…… dont you?
I have found another small cut from cut from Miami Twice Part one. The clip is a BBC1 promo of the original showing in 1991..Iām pretty sure all TV repeats do not have these lines and they are definitely cut from all DVD releases. See link below:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1wmsyh_1991-only-fools-and-horses-miami-twice-promo_shortfilms
Del ā āI crashed the old money down on the counter and I said, I said Alex I said, you give me your special for Rodney, your special Miami Twice!ā
Never noticed this before.
Wow, never seen this before either. Great find!
That is a very nice find mate, thanks for that.
I wonder why that scene of Del acting funny was cut?
This is on the Netflix version of Miami Twice which is a 2 parter like original, give it a check if you’ve got Netflix, all the specials are on there and mostly uncut, even Jolly Boys outing is uncut.
Is this available to buy ?? Would be better if they just put in all the old cut scenes.
Is there any further news on this?
I’d love to see it happen!
Apart from definition another benefit of blu ray is the storage space so even if there is ONLY standard definition itd mean less discs.
I would be more than happy to have them as they were originally.Also would like the quality to be better some of the episodes i had on VHS were better than on the dvd.
We would want full Hd or at least dvd9 quality .
I would also like them on as few disks as possible put the extras on different disks.
We should be able to get every episode in full Hd on 10 bluray disks . No need for 26 disks again, the whole point of bluray is Hd and the fact you can fit loads of data on a single disc.
I for one hope the BBC do release this i dont care what it costs id buy it
All Episodes including the few “shorts” in high def (at least digital remastered) extended versions without as many cuts (Or any cuts) with commentary from the late John Sullivan. And maybe commentary and interviews from the cast. Basically enough extras to persuade people to buy the entire collection again.
I cannot see the BBC authorising the full versions nowadays (DVD or blu-ray) due to the “politically incorrect” comments mainly by Del Boy.
One i can think of straight away that is missing is from Happy Returns.
Although the section missing from Jolly Boys Outing at the club has no need to be removed and is dissapointing that it is…
I’d rather the BBC spent money on restoring fully uncut episodes on DVD first !!!!
One thing definately worth bringing up; with the VHS and DVDs, it was an absolute con releasing each of the 20 odd Christmas specials individually. Put several on the one disc/collection instead.
And as said, use the original versions: for example, Miami Twice does not work with a studio audience.
Most of OFAH was shot on standard definition video. You could put this on to a high definition Blu-ray but what’s the point? You can’t extract detail that just isn’t there.
Episodes shot entirely on film are a different matter. 16mm film generally exceeds the definition of the Blu-ray standard (see Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels which was shot on Super 16) but it all depends on how well looked after the original negatives were.
I would bet money that the original negatives were destroyed. My guess is they transferred the film to a video master and junked the negatives. The BBC just didn’t care in those days. There were huge problems in the 60s when they simply wiped all the tapes of so many classic TV shows. Luckily they found the majority in Bob Monkhouses archive (he was one of the few who had a video recorder back in the day), so only thanks to him they can finally release them.
Also, I found it interesting to learn that the ‘Twilight Zone’ episodes from 1985-1988 were also shot on film and transferred to video masters, while the negatives were tossed in the bin. CBS ‘remastered’ them for DVD release -and the quality is pitiful!
I think (but really want to be wrong) that this Only Fools Blu ray set will be a money making excercise with quality no better than the original VHS or DVD releases, because they will be using the same masters! I will be waiting to see a review before I buy..
We would only see Chritmas Tree’s, Licensed to Drill, To Hull and Back and Miami Twice on Blu-ray as these episodes were shot on film. The film for miami twice is still about as the eprisode was re-edited for the dvd, even though all the original editing was done in the US. The original film for the other episodes may be in storage.
Bring OFAH on Blu Ray please don’t care how much it will cost when it comes out i will buy it hurry up im dying to see em on BD
I agree with dan, never mind blu-ray, It would cost a fortune to buy anyway but I would welcome a release of commentary, deleted scenes, and FULL episodes. The BBC should sit up and take note. Give us only fools fans something special to remember the series by.
I heard the other day that we are no where near the ability to fully get the most out of blu-ray
Though i just read on a forum…
“What I can recall from watching the series, the exteriors were shot on 16mm while the studio shots were using PAL cameras. So while the exteriors would kinda benefit from the resolution, you can’t do anything about the PAL video. The final cuts were edited on PAL too.
If it ever was released on BD, then all you can hope for is 480p/576p.”
so who knows what else could be explored with Only Fools footage
If they have the first generation tapes that were made before editing, that would be an improvement. When you watch it at the moment you’re watching second generation tapes as it was edited from tape to tape. Nowadays there would be no quality loss at all if they managed to use the first generation tapes.
@ Ronnie Though its features rather than quality as you say it will never be better than the original filming – the later years you can see a vast improvement on the quality – its the same with US sitcom Friends
True there is No rock and chips blueray yet.
@Dan yes thats true we are only asking for DVD features in effect
Blue-ray would cost more money to produce as they would have to format all the episodes, a dvd is more likely. No rock and chips blueray yet.
pukka
i would be very happy if all the things that you mentioned, such as a john Sullivan commentary, deleted scenes and fully intact episodes appeared on dvd, never mind blu ray.
I agree with day I would love a dvd with all of the cuts and efits and bloopers for my collection. How sad that some of this stuff will never be see.