Del Boy meets Monte

Amid chilly Christmas evenings, it's bound to be a much-needed burst of sunshine.

After a five-year break, the cast of Only Fools And Horses are making three one-hour specials.

And the first - set in the millionaires' playground of Monte Carlo - will be screened during the festive period.

Del Boy, Rodney and Co are currently filming in Monaco and writer John Sullivan said last night: 'It's like a family reunion rather than a TV show. I never thought it would be back and it's wonderful that everyone's changed their minds.'

A BBC insider added: 'For years viewers have seen Del repeatedly telling Rodney, "This time next year we'll be millionaires".

'But this time fans of the show will finally be able to see what happens when they actually achieve that dream and set out to Monte Carlo.'

Each episode is costing the BBC around £1million and stars David Jason, 61, and Nicholas Lyndhurst, 39, are understood to be receiving £100,000 each per episode. Behind the scenes, however, a row between the BBC and ITV has forced a rewrite of the Christmas storyline.

Viewers last saw the Trotters striking it rich after finding a valuable watch. For the new episodes, BBC bosses had wanted either Del or Rodney to win another jackpot on ITV's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

But they have been unable to reach an agreement with ITV executives over terms allowing Chris Tarrant and the show's format to be used.

A BBC insider said: 'ITV are running scared and they clearly didn't want to let Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? have this cameo appearance, which would only have been about five minutes in an hour-long show.

'The irony is that Chris Tarrant was really up for it but at the moment, when their ratings are so bad, they clearly weren't ready to get involved in any sort of Christmas spirit.

'They eventually came back to us and said we could use it, but only if they had first rights to repeats of Only Fools And Horses which the BBC would also have to pay for.

'It would have cost the BBC about half a million pounds and ITV knew that would not be acceptable. It's all really rather sad.'

ITV bosses, however, last night claimed the BBC had dismissed a perfectly workable deal.

A spokesman said: 'We're surprised that the BBC has rejected the idea we have put to them, but our door is still open for discussion.

'ITV is keen to help bring John's idea to life, but the BBC wants to use one of our most valuable programmes and it seems perfectly reasonable that we would be able to repeat the episode later on.

'They were happy to grant Channel 4 a repeat of Celebrity Big Brother. We're surprised that they won't consider doing the same on this occasion.

'This storyline would be hugely popular with viewers, which is why we are happy to try and help.'

It's Christmas with This is London!