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In 1981, the first family of Peckham drove into our lives in a yellow three-wheeler van, with a dream that "this time next year we'll be millionaires". Only Fools and Horses, the BBC sitcom that became a national institution, is still entertaining generations more than 45 years after Derek "Del Boy" Trotter (Sir David Jason), younger brother Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst) and Grandad (Lennard Pearce), welcomed us to Nelson Mandela House.

But speaking today, Tessa Peake-Jones, who played Del Boy's partner Raquel Turner, reveals that the reality for the cast and crew preparing for live audience studio scenes was no laughing matter. "It's really frightening because you have got several hundred people watching you," admits Tessa, 68, who has just filmed Only Fools and Horses: The Lost Archive for comedy channel U&GOLD to mark the show's milestone 45th anniversary.

"It's a very peculiar thing that I never quite got used to. If people had seen us backstage before the show, they'd have seen people pacing up and down the corridors with nerves, including David [Jason] and Nick [Lyndhurst]. We cared so much, and we wanted to get it right, but one slip-up of a word could ruin that laugh."

Before the Bafta-winning cast stepped into the studio, they spent countless hours in rehearsals, often leaving them struggling to see the funny side of things. "If you're doing comedy, you find you don't want to laugh because then you break the reality of it," remembers the actress. "Usually, we've seen it all in rehearsals so many times, it's not that funny anymore anyway."

The two-part special, out later this year, will feature interviews with cast and crew, and includes archive material from more than 10 classic episodes, including Christmas specials The Jolly Boys' Outing, from 1989 and 1992's Mother Nature's Son. Although the reunion is sure to be a hit with viewers, filming was quite uncomfortable for returning cast members Sir David, now 86; Tessa; Gwyneth Strong (Cassandra), 66; and Sue Holderness (Marlene), 76.

"You're looking back at something 30 years ago, and we're all a lot older now, so you just look so different," reflects Tessa. "It was harder for David because some of that stuff for him is looking back 40 years, which I know he finds quite odd. It was nice spending the day with him because we don't get to meet up that often, but he said, 'Isn't it odd to see yourself looking so much younger?'"

She says the experience was even "quite depressing" and that she would not wish to repeat it. "You think, 'Oh, we were in our prime!' which is quite a weird thing to be witnessing decades later. It's a very odd experience. It was a bit like torture to be forced to sit on the sofa and watch this stuff back from 30 years ago, it really was, but it's part of the job."

Away from Only Fools and Horses, Tessa is busy preparing to tread the boards for the new stage comedy-drama Invisible Me at London's Southwark Playhouse, written by Bren Gosling. She plays Lynn, a hotel cleaner and domestic abuse survivor who is about to embrace romance in later life.

The subject of finding love in your 60s resonated with Tessa. "When you get to a certain age in your 50s and 60s, people stop noticing you," she says. "And that's for men and women - you're just not noticed as much. "So to look at that age group and say, 'How about we try and get them back dating' is fascinating. How do you do that at 60 when you're not very good on the internet, and you're not great online? What do people do? All of that is really fun."

Tessa split from her ex-partner, actor Douglas Hodge, in 2013. The couple, who share two children, had been together for 3 decades. Has her new role inspired her to date again?

"It hasn't, but never say never," she smiles. "Ben's written it all really well. Each of us has got a slightly different way of getting our confidence back sexually. He does it quite slowly because they've been on their own for a while, and when you're on your own for a while, you forget how to flirt or how to chat someone up.

"It's probably easier for younger generations who've learned about emails and all that stuff from very early on. I can't use
anything but my forefinger to type anything on my phone, and it takes forever. So, it's a training that we never had, so when you add that extra layer of how to meet someone, it makes things even harder."

Speaking of hard things, this year Tessa bids goodbye to another huge television success: ITV period drama Grantchester. She's played devout housekeeper Mrs Maguire for the last decade. "We finished filming in November," she smiles. "We had no idea it would go on for 11 years, so we've been incredibly lucky."

Her character has grown with the show, supporting each new arriving vicar from James Norton's Rev Sidney Chambers to Tom Brittney's Rev Will Davenport and, most recently, Rishi Nair as Rev Alphy Kotteram.

Did she keep anything from Mrs Maguire's wardrobe as a memento? "My girdles," she chuckles. "They were especially made for me, and they used to keep me in because I thought she would be very upright and quite held in as a person, and this girdle did just that. I'd wear them under my clothes, and they kept me quite straight-backed. I thought if I ever go to anything posh in the future, they might come in useful!"

Yet no mementoes were to be had from the set of Only Fools and Horses, as no one truly believed that it would ever end.

"Every time you finished, dear old John Sullivan would say, 'Well, that's it now'," explains Tessa. "Then three years later, he'd contact us again and say, 'I've written another script'. When we finally did the last one, we all thought we might come back next year. I kept some of my scripts because they're quite nostalgic. It'll be something I'll always be able to look back on and read and remind myself about."

She will always have fond memories of her time on the show. "Everyone was so lovely and welcoming when I joined," she says. "We used to meet up at Christmas time for the TV special. It was like a family meeting up and catching up about what we've done during the year. I don't think any of us really thought it was going to end."

A staggering 24.5 million viewers tuned in to the final Christmas special, Sleepless in Peckham, in 2003. Comedian Paul Whitehouse and Jim Sullivan, son of Only Fools and Horses' legendary creator John Sullivan, created a West End musical in 2019 to fill the gap for bereft fans. A smash hit with audiences, it toured the UK in 2024-25.

Tessa hasn't watched the stage show version but is full of praise for the adaptation. Despite that, she hopes there won't be a
similar reboot on television.

"It's best left alone," she says. "John Sullivan was the genius behind the show. I don't think you could ever repeat that and I hope they don't. Some reboots, or when they've brought everyone back for a prequel, just haven't worked."

She says the show is still reaching new audiences thanks to its repeats on multiple television networks. "We get letters from youngsters all the time saying, 'Oh, my granddad watched this show', or 'My parents watched this, and they loved it', so it passes down the generations," she says. "So I think leave it like that because it's a bit like a jewel - you don't want to fiddle about with it."

Only fools would disagree.

• Tessa Peake-Jones, James Holmes and Kevin N Golding star in the new comedy drama, Invisible Me, at Southwark Playhouse from April 8 - May 2. Tickets are on sale now via their website.