Only Fools and Horses’ Cassandra star on why she never starred alongside Raquel

The hit BBC sitcom may have ended in 1996, but fans still love watching Only Fools and Horses and the Christmas specials that followed. Following the hilarious antics of wheeler-dealer Derek “Del Boy” Trotter (played by David Jason) and his brother Rodney Trotter (Nicholas Lyndhurst), many famous faces are still associated with the comedy. The brothers’ respective partners, Raquel (Tessa Peake-Jones) and Cassandra (Gwyneth Strong), become important characters on the show later in the series. The two never shared a scene together though, and speaking on Loose Women, the actresses revealed why.

“You never actually were in a scene together, this is remarkable,” Loose Women host Kéllé Bryan stated to the two women.

Gwyneth replied: “No, I didn’t realise that, but Tessa pointed it out and I was like, ‘Really?’

“So, we spent our lives talking to each other because we made a friendship very, very quickly.

“And so it feels as if we worked together but only in group things.”

Loose Women: The Only Fools stars talked about their characters (Image: BBC/ITV)

Loose Women: Gwyneth explained why the two didn’t have scenes together (Image: ITV)

She added: “We were never really alone together,” before explaining why that might have been.

“Because that wasn’t the push of the storyline really, it was about being their partners,” Gwyneth reflected.

“And there was a friendship there, I think we spoke on the phone in some episode.”

“I don’t even remember that,” Tessa replied as Gwyneth laughed.

Only Fools and Horses: Cassandra star Gwyneth talked about her time on the show (Image: Getty)

Loose Women: Tessa and Gwyneth played Raquel and Cassandra (Image: ITV)

“She doesn’t remember that, what can I say?” she joked.

Panelist Carol McGiffin pointed out: “I didn’t realise it was actually only about seven series or something like that, wasn’t it?”

“Well I only ever did one series,” Tessa explained. “What did you do, two?”

“I don’t know, I can’t remember,” her former co-star admitted.

Tessa continued: “And then we did Christmas specials. All those original series were half-hour ones and they went for about 10 years before you and I joined.”

“And there were gaps between them because they weren’t constant,” Gwyneth observed.

The much-loved comedy, which ran from 1981 to 1996, with Christmas specials airing from 2001 to 2003, has remained a popular staple of British comedy.

Many continue to watch re-runs shown and others have called for a reboot to be made.

However, Patrick Murray, who portrayed Mickey Pearce in the show, said recently he’d love to film a revival but feared it would be “constrained” by “woke” culture.

The 65-year-old actor stated: “Rodney was a plonker, but nowadays people would find calling each other ‘plonkers’ offensive.”

Speaking to The Sun, he continued: “The woke thing has got a bit ridiculous. People with nothing better to do will write in saying they’ve been insulted.”