Lovely jubbly! New Only Fools and Horses Musical set to hit London West End

Forget millionaires — this time next year they’ll be West End stars. These are the first pictures of the cast of Only Fools And Horses The Musical, coming to the London stage next year.

Paul Whitehouse, of The Fast Show, and Jim Sullivan, son of the BBC sitcom’s creator John Sullivan, are behind the show.

Comedian Whitehouse, who plays Grandad, also enlisted Chas Hodges, one half of Chas & Dave, to write some of more than 20 new songs that will feature. The musician passed away last month, aged 74.

Whitehouse, 60, said of adapting the show for the stage: “When I told a mate of mine he said, ‘Oh, no pressure’. It’s got such a legacy and it’s so well-loved and obviously for Jim it’s the legacy of his dad’s work.

“But as it’s John’s creation — it is what he was working on when he died in 2011 — I think it’s a fitting thing to be doing rather than one to be afraid of.” John Sullivan had already penned some songs with Hodges.

Whitehouse said: “I went to Chas and we did a couple of arrangements. We had a love of Spurs and grew up in the same area, and used to go fishing in the same places. When we met it was like we were almost old friends. It’s a homage to Chas too.”

The show, which opens at the Theatre Royal Haymarket on February 9, stars PhoneShop comedian Tom Bennett as Del Boy and up-and-coming actor Ryan Hutton as Rodney. Whitehouse said the musical, set in 1989, won’t be “an episode in nostalgia”. “Grandad wonders ‘Where have all the Cockneys gone?’” he said. “Trigger looks through his grandmother Alice’s crystal ball and sees an image of London today.

“They say ‘Next year we’ll be millionaires’. If you lived in a house in Peckham in 1990 you wouldn’t think it could be worth £1 million today, but it possibly would.”

Visit onlyfoolsmusical.com for information and tickets.