The National Trust introduces the ‘charge’ for visitors using two common phrases

The National Trust has introduced a charge for visitors using a common expression. After Del Boy and Rodney’s iconic scene in Only Fools and Horses, which sees them tasked with replacing a chandelier, the National Trust has stepped in as “a bit of fun”.

The conservators who clean the chandeliers at Bath’s assembly halls have heard Del Boy and Rodney’s jokes so often that they have imposed a “tax” on any visitor who reminds them of the moment. Visitors repeating Grandpa’s line “One more turn Del!” or Del Boy’s “Brace yourself Rodney, brace yourself” will pay for a donation to preserve the chandeliers.

“We hear that all the time, so we’ve created a touchpoint to donate where they can make a payment for our work,” said Alana Wright, visitor and experience manager. “I suggested that if they were even thinking about the comedy stage, they should donate something to help look after the chandeliers.”

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The National Trust spends £4,000 a year looking after the assembly hall chandeliers and they will soon undergo an expensive full conservation, including rewiring. There are over 600 chandeliers in the trust, the National Trust explained.

The visitor ‘fee’ is to be extended to those country houses when the clean-up takes place. The Only Fools episode “Touch Of Glass” was broadcast on the BBC in December 1982 and attracted 10 million viewers. Del and Rodney watched with open mouths as Grandpa hit the screw holding the wrong chandelier and sent it crashing to the floor in the background.

While the episode produced some huge laughs for viewers, making it was a little more stressful for those involved, actor Rodney Nicholas Lyndhurst once revealed in an interview with Michael Parkinson that the chandelier, which cost thousands of pounds, he could only get away with it once and it almost cost him his job.