Rodney’s Roman Gladiator Outfit

Rodney’s Roman Gladiator Outfit was recently aquired by the Only Fools & Horses Appreciation Society

Fans may remember we ran an article in issue 40 of Hookie Street regarding the sale of the supposed Gladiator costume as worn by Rodney in the 2001 Christmas special. The sale was held by Bonhams in 2008. Due to Bonhams reluctance to speak with the Society over the obvious changes/discrepancies that were evident, we came to the conclusion that the costume was either all or in part different to the one worn in the show.

The original buyer of the costume recently offered it up for sale on a popular on-line auction site, and after close inspection it was clear to us here are the Society that it was in fact in the main the original costume – the changes on the breastplate were carried out by the original costume hire company and, most importantly, you can still see marks of the original design as worn by Rodney on the costume now. In light of all this the costume has now been acquired for the Only Fools & Horses Society.

Here are a few more details on Rodney’s Roman Gladiator Outfit and the episode it was worn in.

The episode entitled ‘If They Could See Us Now’ was a Christmas Special and holds the record as the biggest Only Fools and Horses episode ever made, with over 21 million viewers. This costume is of interest because it’s from the funniest scene of this classic episode, when Rodney and Cassandra dress up in costumes to try and spice up their love life! This is Rodney’s outfit from the scene, which also features Del Boy (David Jason) who inspects the outfit and makes jokes about Rodney’s claim that he looks like Russell Crowe!

You can read about this episode – and the outfit – in the Daily Mail, here:( Daily Mail article about the famous episode )

The outfit is actually of a very high quality; lined with what appears to be quality red leather and bespoke made for Nicholas Lyndhurst by the largest and most expensive film and TV costumers, Angels (who make the costumes for everything from Titanic to Downton Abbey.) We also think it’s been hired to another production, as it has a couple of modifications to make it a Roman Emperor’s outfit (see below). But we are not sure which film/TV production.

The outfit consists of the following items from Only Fools and Horses;

• Front chest piece with integral skirt spokes
• Rear chest piece
• 2 x Wrist Armour Pieces
• 2 x Ankle Armour Pieces

Angels sometimes rehires costumes to multiple TV and film productions, which can result in slight changes. In this case, it’s believed the outfit was re-used as a Roman Emperor outfit, although we’ve never known which film/TV production. The slight modification carried out was the addition of laurels and a lion’s head on the chest-plate decorations, the removal of the soldier’s shoulder pieces and [silly] hat, and the addition of a gold laurel instead, which is more Roman Emperor. In terms of condition, it’s extremely good; it’s supposed to be aged, of course.

Of course if you want to see Rodney’s outfit at the 2012 Only Fools and Horses Convention then make sure you let Perry know!