Boycie in Belgrade (2020) Movie Script
Well, I had heard how
popular.
Only Fools and Horses was
in Serbia,
so I decided to go out
and try and find out why this was.
Belgrade,
a Balkan nation,
a part of the world that I
didn't know an awful lot about.
I mean, the odd thing, but
it was all very scatter gun.
So,
I was fascinated
not only to find out about the history
of this Balkan nation,
but also meet the people
and find out why
they were so in love with
Only Fools and Horses.
And I had a lot of adventures,
and I met an awful lot of people,
and there are some very,
very surprising results,
but it was fascinating
for me on so many levels.
I mean, this history,
I've always been fascinated by history,
to find out the history of a place,
whether that had anything
to do with the fact
that there was this connection
with humor between us.
If humor can unite people.
Maybe there's the answer.
As an actor,
I found myself
being sort of known for comedy shows
that I've done,
which was always a big
surprise to my mother,
who obviously didn't
think I was very funny.
She always said,
"I always thought you'd
make your name in drama,
not in comedy."
Okay, mum, sorry.
Anyway, I started thinking about this,
about comedy, why,
and it's always-looking back
it's always been part of my life.
You know, ever since I was a child,
I was always trying to make people laugh.
A sort of defensive mechanism
you could say, I suppose,
but I always found comedy amusing,
you know? And I'd watch
the Marx Brothers,
I'd watch a French comedian
called Jacques Tati, you know,
and I was riveted by all those things,
The Goon Show. Spike
Milligan and his Merry Men
and.
I just found that was
the way I tended to go,
even though I was
playing a dramatic part,
like Jack the Ripper or
Dracula, or something like that,
I'd invest it with a
bit of humor, I think.
And then I play a lot
of pantomime villains,
these days,
I have done for the last twenty years.
But they're always villains
with a sense of humor,
you know,
because I think it's such a
great way to reach people,
as is, borne out by the fact
that I can go to Belgrade,
I can talk to people there and
connect with them.
Just through that show,
through that humor.
Well, while I was in
Belgrade, the Ambassador,
the British Ambassador
called me and said,
"would you like to come to
this reception?", she'd
set up a reception
especially for me and my
visit, and she'd invited
a lot of British expats
and people doing business out there.
And I had never been invited
to an Embassy before.
I don't know why,
probably not considered
quite the right quality.
But on this occasion,
there I was in Belgrade
at the British Embassy.
After you.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
This is really-
Good heavens!
Ah, it's a great honor
-for us to have you here.
-Well, I mean,
I'm immensely flattered,
I don't know what to say.
So, what do I do, just sign it?
Just sign it.
Sign it.
My famous signature,
getting worse and worse
and more and more.
There, how does that look?
Fantastic, that's excellent.
All right.
All our guests sign the guest list-
Well, today is a historic day
for the British Embassy in
Belgrade. It's always great
to have VIP visitors
and it's very special
to have VIP visitors
that are as much fun as this one.
Hey, nice to meet
you too. How are you?
Likewise.
How are you, who are you?
Huge fans.
Of yours.
Huge fans?
Oh, I'm so sorry.
Cheerio.
You're receiving treatment, I hope.
Yeah, a little.
A little bit,
but not to worry.
They're from the local sitcom,
which, if you'd agree
was also influenced by Fools and Horses.
Great agree or whatever you say.
Oh right, so you're-
We are screen writers and comedians.
We like to say.
Your comedians.
Yeah. So, we'll have
a nice time tonight.
Well, thank you for watching the show.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
The most extraordinary
thing about it really was,
that it was a terribly British occasion.
There in the middle of the Balkans.
There we were having tea and cakes,
just like in England,
but I suppose that's what you
do at the British Embassy.
But if I ever get invited
to a British Embassy again,
I shall-that'll be my template.
And I shall expect it to
match up to those standards.
Thank you.
There's the milk.
Can I help you?
Yeah.
So, how long have you been here for?
I've been here four months.
Four months of being
a British Ambassador.
I've been here four months, and yes-
There's a lot to do.
Come and meet our Boycie
and some guy had shuffled up,
like this-
And he was about 5'4,
but he had a mustache,
so therefore he was Boycie.
Oh, he's so-
It was really nice
to actually just give those
people a little sort of insight,
hopefully,
into my life and how
the series have gone.
The reach of Only Fools and Horses,
so it has gone international,
particularly to this part of the world.
And
as Del Boy would say,
we're big in the Balkans.
Take out of that what you will.
No, I made that up. He
didn't say that at all.
I'll just say,
well, it seemed to get
through to people, including
our Ambassador, who put on
the theme tune from Only Fools
and Horses and did a
little sofa dance for me.
You want to dance.
Sofa dancing-
sofa dancing, yeah.
But thank you really.
I hope you enjoy the
rest of your time here in Belgrade.
Well thank you very much
for asking us here.
We're really very honored ourselves,
so we're all honored.
Thank you very much.
And thanks all of you for
coming and being our guests.
Thank you.
Fantastic.
You'll see my wife is
wearing a Marlene skirt.
Yeah.
Whooh!
I have a feeling that everybody,
at least in Serbia, I don't
know about Great Britain,
but they know a Boycie in their life.
Boycie's coming here,
it's one of my childhood
dreams coming true.
Right, come on Marlene, get
your coat, we're leaving.
And I wish you a very, very
-warm welcome to our academy.
-Very nice to meet you.
While I was there,
I was asked to go to
a Belgrade university
and talk to a lot of English students.
And we were expecting, I don't know,
I think about fifty people odd like that.
And
over 200 turned up,
which was extraordinary.
Completely unexpected,
but there I am, an Englishman talking
to English students about English.
What shall we learn from your lecture?
What from my lecture?
What shall we learn from your lecture?
Practically nothing.
So I continued the character-
thank you very much, thank you.
Can you hear me at the back?
Can you hear me?
I don't need this-
Just for camera.
Oh, it's for you.
Is about people's lives, as you say.
It's about
difficult subjects.
I mean, John Sullivan, the writer, writes
about difficult things that happen
in everybody's life, really
and he approaches them,
but he just makes you smile
at the end of it
and makes you think, "oh,
maybe it's not too bad".
I suddenly thought to myself,
perhaps it'd be fun
to teach them a bit
of English that not a lot
of English understand,
not a lot of English people understand.
And this is the Cockney rhyming slang.
If you think you know English,
if you think you know English properly,
just think about this.
If somebody came up to you
and said.
I was sitting with the trouble, right?
I was sitting with the trouble
and we were watching the strawberry.
All right.
I'd be, so that's boring,
so we'll get in the jam jar
and we'll go off for a Ruby.
So we're at the Ruby and it
wasn't up to much, you know?
So I offered him a godiva
and the man holding the restaurant,
running the restaurant and he said
you're having a bubble bath.
I was gonna charge you a pony.
You wouldn't understand a
word I was saying, would you
even though you knew English.
So the age range was very
impressive, I thought,
they were from about
16 years old up and to
slightly older, possibly
as old as me, who knows.
Yes, yes.
What's your name.
Vesna.
V E S N A.
B?
V V
V
V
V
E S
Hello. Who is this
for may I ask?
Hello.
For my father.
He will die from happiness.
I don't want your father to die.
He will be okay.
What's his name.
A
A
C
Thank you very so much.
Pleasure.
So nice that.
Boycie came and that he was
so willing to be part of
people that came to see him,
to be so close, friendly
and approachable.
He's a tremendous similarity
in the subject that he depicts,
the way of life, it's all so close
and yet it's presented in
a novel way through fun.
Through mishap and how to,
in the end, turned right.
It
Fits with Serbian spirit.
We fight, we work hard,
but we also have great
fun and enjoy life.
Well, I'm a great football fan
here in England. For my sins
I suffer supporting the Arsenal.
I have done ever since
I was five years old.
No idea why. I've never lived
in North London in my life.
Anyway, the Arsenal are my team
and the equivalent in Serbia
of course are Red Star who
play in the same colors.
Maybe there's a connection there.
So,
I was delighted to be invited to,
to go to Red Star.
It's one of those names
that always had a little
frisson for me.
You know, obviously
used to European football
and all our teams playing
in Europe as well,
but Red Star Belgrade just
had a ring to, you know.
It's somewhere I had always wanted to go.
Yugoslavian Championship.
The current Serbian Championship.
Oh it's is the-
that's the trophy, yeah?
Yes it's old, 73 years old.
I was gonna say
that's not the new one, is it?
That's wonderful.
Yeah.
They played some team before.
Some team before, yeah.
That's fantastic.
Yeah, Maradona played.
Did he play here?
Maradona, yeah?
Pele, Garrincha, Beckenbauer,
Bertie Fox, Bobby Charlton.
Bobby Charlton yes.
That Maradona.
Douglas, Keegan.
Maradona, whose name
is not good in England.
I know.
The hand of-
Yes, I know.
Shame cause he's a wonderful player,
but he's just so-
It's unsport move.
Yes. That's not good.
It's not popular.
No, no, no, it's not.
Remember the great games,
in the Europe friendly-
Ah yes.
Mostly for the Europe like this.
I skipped this one because
you dislike Manchester.
No, I mean, no, I'd
say it's a big rivalry.
There's always a big, more of a rivalry.
Than there is with Tottenham,
Tottenham, our neighbors.
But I always liked Tottenham.
I just,
I've always liked the way they played,
but Manchester United, I just-
There's a phrase in England:
anybody but Manchester United.
Who is this? Is this
a Serbian Boycie?
It's look like, yes, yes.
Come along Marlene.
Come along.
Come along Marlene.
Get your coat.
We're leaving.
So was he a player, did he play?
Yes, he played.
He's a good sportsman.
He was good.
Well that's the main thing.
And has a good mustache.
That's the main thing, yeah, yeah.
What's his name?
Milan. Milan.
Milan.
Yes.
And how long ago was that?
Oh, it's around fifty years ago, yeah.
Fifty years ago, oh.
Oh yes, 47 to
This is other,
but yes, it's during the seventies.
Yeah.
More than seventies, in the beginning.
Oh, I can see he's a confident
man, he has lots of money.
He knows what to do, you know?
He maybe has good cars.
Nice cars. He sells cars.
Yes.
You can recommend him good car.
Oh fantastic.
Present, a jersey,
can you just-
Oh yeah, a shirt, no, really?
Show it, yeah,
because it's special.
It's this one here.
It's just for you, yeah.
I can-
You hold the bag.
Yeah.
Ohh.
So I have to play center forward.
I have to score all the goals.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, that's fantastic.
Can you just show the name.
Yeah.
That's the name in Serbian, Boycie.
Boycie? Is that it?
Yeah, you like number nine?
I do, yes I-
when I did play
at one point I played the
number nine at school.
Number?
Number nine, yes.
Center forward, we called it.
Center forward
and I was supposed to
score all the goals.
And you scored?
Yes, I scored a lot of goals.
Ah, okay.
So. Oh, that's fantastic.
Thank you so much.
That's for you.
So when do I start playing?
16 February.
I'll be here.
I'll be here, right, yeah, I'll see you.
Spell it? karii.
Karii?
Yeah, that's it.
Okay. Right.
So I'll start training
when I get back to England.
Yeah. Okay.
But you must train hard.
Yes. I think I must. Yes.
Well, when I found out
that Serbia had a Royal Family
and they had a palace,
I thought that sounds
like my sort of area.
Very much Boycie's area,
that sort of thing.
I thought, well, I'd
better go and have a look,
check this out
and see what's happening.
Hi.
Good
morning Mr. Challis.
Welcome to the Royal Palace.
Thank you very much.
My name is Gavrilo.
I shall be a guide today through-
Oh good. Good. Well,
thank you for having me.
Not at all, not at all.
This is the home of the
Royal Family of Serbia,
built by King Alexander the first,
the grandfather
to his Royal Highness,
crown Prince Alexander,
who today is the head
of our Royal Family.
Okay.
The building was finished in 1929.
That's when the Royal
Family moved in here
and lived here until the breakout
of the Second World War in our country,
which happened in the Spring of 1941.
Ahh.
The King's main wish
was for his home to reflect
Serbian medieval tradition.
The library.
It's Italian Renaissance art.
Oh yeah.
The ceiling, the furniture,
the book cases.
Right so,
a whole team of architects,
designers deciding-
The chief architect was a Serbian one,
Mr. Zivojin Nikolic.
However, he was assisted very much
by some very prominent and
very good Russian architects.
But I will tell you
more about the Russians
when we go to the basement.
So there's something good about Russians.
They-at that moment in-
Of course, I'm sorry,
I'm being frivolous.
There were two kinds of Russians.
Yeah.
The so-called white Russians,
who were very much supported
by King Alexander the first.
He was a great patron of the
so-called white Russians,
and of course the communist Russians.
Now this is the blue salon
with examples of yet
another artistic influence.
That would be the French
Baroque art, of course.
The furniture was modeled
on Louis the fifteenth
and Louis the sixteenth styles.
Over there, the King's office.
So, another first for me,
I got invited to the King's room,
I've never been in the King's room.
I've been to the King's Head,
but has nothing to do with it, is it?
This is his majesty
King Alexander, the first.
And is that his chair?
Exactly. And his desk.
And his desk-
Both original from 1929,
when the palace was finished.
This is where he would sit
and sort everything out
and make sure everything
was working properly.
Yes, yes, yes.
The most important decisions
for the fate of the Kingdom
of Yugoslavia were brought
right here in this room.
Wow.
That is-that's an
amazing thought, isn't it?
Is the monarchy here, like
the monarchy in England,
do you think? Is there
a similarity between
the roles of the monarchy?
Not really.
No, it's very different?
Very, very different, I would say.
First of all, we're still
very much a Republic
or at least on paper
and our current government has,
shall we say, rather
ambivalent relationship
towards the Royal Family.
On the one hand, they
kind of accepted that
the Royal Family is important in
humanitarian work and in
representing Serbia to
our foreign guests and
even some important investors.
But on the other hand,
this is still all the
confiscated property.
The government has not returned yet,
any of the Royal Family's property.
Oh, is that right?
Oh, I didn't know that, I see.
And the notorious decree
that was issued in 1947,
which prohibited the Royal Family
from returning to the country
and strip them of their
citizenship and confiscated
the entire property,
is still, in one part, in force,
and that is the issue of property.
The citizenship was restored
and the Royal Family of course was let
to return to the country
and they were even
given their own home to use,
but officially and
legally,
none of the property
has been returned yet.
Oh, how interesting.
Yes, cause, well, you know,
in England there's,
there's discussion about it
and. of course, we had
that so-called revolution
in 1600 and Oliver Cromwell took over
and abolished the monarchy,
but then,
some years later back came the monarchy
and we've had it ever since,
because it's a-
I don't know something that we need,
I suppose.
The relationship between
Serbian and British monarchy.
This is an interesting photograph,
2012,
the Diamond Jubilee.
A rare occasion when almost
all monarchs
from all over the world, not just Europe,
but also the middle East and Asia
and even Africa gathered
in Windsor Castle
to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee.
Here's our crown Prince in the back row.
And Her majesty
is actually the godmother
to our crown Prince.
Is that right?
That's right.
She's the one who held him in her arms
at his baptism and his
christening ceremony.
Now the dining room
is a very good example
of the eclectic impression
that the Royal Palace leaves.
This is a blend of Italian
Renaissance, French Baroque,
Neoclassical style.
View of the patio
and the Royal chapel.
Dedicated to Saint
Andrew, the First-Called.
Now,
to the basement.
To the basement.
Many people have been to the
basement and never returned.
Ha, ha.
I was terrified.
I mean,
go down to a crypt in a
Royal Palace in Serbia.
And he was never seen again.
But luckily I found myself
next to a pool table.
I thought, oh, it's
just like the Nags Head.
Ah.
Oh.
Was I right, or was I right.
You were certainly right.
Of course.
Now we come to the Russians.
Yes.
The man behind this was
Mr. Nikolay Krassnoff,
a Russian architect who emigrated to
Belgrade after the end of
the Civil War in Russia,
just like many other
Russian intellectuals,
and who was hired,
or was commissioned by
King Alexander the first
to help finish the Royal Palace.
Mr. Krassnoff
and his team of course
were extremely nostalgic
after they lost fatherland,
the Imperial Russia,
so, they decided to apply
many elements copied
from the Russian Imperial
Palace in Kremlin, Moscow,
but in a very unique and
extremely skillful way.
They combined those elements
with, with the elements
from some Oriental arts,
like the Persian art.
Yes.
Turkish art
or even the art of the Crimean Tatars.
The Room of Whispers.
Now the Room of Whispers comes
from this marble fountain,
which allegedly served a special purpose.
The sound of the water
flowing down the fountain,
would muffle the sound of
any of the conversations
that the King would have on this sofa.
So that anybody who would pass by,
couldn't hear anything
except faint whispers.
Now, this room used to be
the King's wine cellar.
Today of course, it's changed
its purpose completely.
However, at the time of
King Alexander, the first,
this is where some of the
King's wines used to be kept.
And the paintings are illustrations
of one the most beautiful
Serbian medieval folk poems.
There was a great submission of
oral poetry in medieval Serbia.
And of course, throughout
the poem, he has a champion,
a young man who is his
actually nephew,
who protects the Emperor all the time,
symbolizing the people's
love for Emperor Dusan,
who was very popular.
He was our most
successful medieval ruler.
Of course the King's private cinema,
which must have been one of the first
private cinemas in this part
of the world at that time.
We're talking about the
era when there were still
silent movies being shown,
because of that this niche
was designed for the piano
and the piano player,
who would accompany the
projections of the silent films.
No need for the piano or
the piano player today,
of course, they Royal
Family uses a DVD projector.
But comes down here quite
often to watch films just
like they used to do when
King Alexander lived here.
Just the most fantastic cinema
I've ever seen, I think.
Very, very nice room.
Superb.
The so-called smoking salon.
Our King used to be
a chain smoker. He
was a person who would
literally light one cigarette on another,
although
he never allowed
smoking anywhere inside
the Royal Palace,
except in this room.
Oh right.
And after the Second World War,
the communists also discovered
the purpose of the room
and used it to the same purpose.
And then yet, again,
they were very much
irritated by the symbols
of our monarchy.
So at one point they ordered
all the Royal coats of arms,
all the Royal initials, all the crowns
to be either removed or painted over
and here in the smoking salon,
they ordered them to be
painted over with five pointed
communist red stars.
That's one over here
and the one over there.
Oh yes.
Well, well, well.
Now the King deliberately
chose the very peak
of Dedinje Hill,
because of this unbelievable,
spectacular view.
So North of here, North
of here is Hungary?
That's right in this direction.
That way.
That's right.
And that way,
what do we see over there?
We see a lot of, we see a lot of trees.
We see nothing.
Behind New Belgrade,
if you imagine a hypothetical line,
you would go all the way to Croatia,
all the way to Zagreb.
The next country over there-
That would be
Romania,
some 500 kilometers
away in that direction.
That's how our medieval
monasteries looked like.
Yes.
This is almost
as a copy of our medieval monastery.
It has been a great pleasure
for all the employees
of the Royal Palace fund
and her Royal Highness
crown Princess Katherine's foundation
to have Mr. Challis
visiting the Royal Palace.
We were all thrilled to have him
take a tour of the Royal Palace
and to tell him more about the life
of our Royal Family and the
humanitarian activities of,
especially of her
Royal Highness, crown
Princess Katherine.
Even the younger generations
who were not even born
when Only Fools and Horses
was originally broadcast
in Serbia, are very much familiar.
The show was immensely popular
in Serbia and in Belgrade.
It almost had the kind
of a cult followers
and we were all delighted
to have one of the
members of the crew visiting
Belgrade and the Royal Palace.
All my friends would be
really angry with me,
if I did not take a photograph
with him and told him-
and told them that I had
the pleasure of guiding
Mr. Challis through the
Royal Palace, so it meant
a lot to me.
He's very, very relatable
and all the characters
in Only Fools and Horses,
including of course the
character of Boycie,
played so, so brilliantly
by Mr. Challis
are very much relatable to our mentality,
which is the reason why the show was so,
so very much popular in,
at least in Belgrade.
Well now, as you know, a
Boycie loves his brandy.
A large cognac, please,
Michael, he was said to say
in the Nags Head on a regular occasion.
But over here in Serbia,
of course the brandy
is entirely different
and it's made out of
something entirely different,
it's made out of plums,
which I never knew about.
And the famous plum brandy
in Serbia is called rakija.
So, somebody said, why
don't you come and see
how it's made and what happens to it.
I thought, well, that is
an offer I can't refuse.
So here I am and is all
a bit eerie to be honest
and suddenly the door opens
and two rather large men
come down. One with a
mustache looking like
something out of the
Godfather, who immediately
kisses me three times on the cheeks.
And then I realized I had to kiss him
back three times on the
cheeks and then kiss
the other man, who turned out
to be his son, three times.
I'd been kissed more times than
I'd ever been kissed in my life.
Boycie! Welcome to Serbia.
Hello, hello. Three time.
One, two, three.
Welcome.
And for you too, oh.
Welcome.
Thank you so much.
It's nice to be here.
Thank you for asking me.
Great pleasure and great
honor to have you here.
An honor?
Well, it's an honor
for me to be here too.
And I'm glad to see someone
else has a mustache.
Yeah.
Serbian and the like English are similar.
Yes.
Boycie, this is our
production in Belgrade.
I'm going to show you a
little bit of how we produce
rakija and talk a little
bit about tradition
and so you know too-I
know you are brandy fan.
Wow. That's amazing.
Thirty-five years ago in Serbia,
everybody was making brandy and you know,
every brandy producer says,
"oh, mine is the best,
mine is the best".
Somebody just needs to bottle it
and we're gonna earn lots of money
and everybody was talking this,
but my father was the one of
the few who actually did it,
but didn't do just the talking,
but he did do the bottling
part and started offering
a little by little to the
restaurants, to like the premium stores,
and it became interesting.
At the beginning,
when you bring the
rakija to the restaurant
or to the store
and it costs like a
good cognac or whiskey.
And two thirds said, "what are you doing?
I mean, you cannot sell
me rakija for the price".
Well, one third of the
people were saying,
"okay, finally somebody did it".
And that was you.
So we have you to thank.
Well, now after thirty-five years,
nobody's asking this question,
should rakija be the, considered
the very same quality.
Fortunately, now it's
very trendy in Serbia
in best restaurants,
in best wine stores or
gift stores.
The rakija is a-
So did you, did you know the process
instinctively or was it an experiment?
Yeah, I learned, but I made
agreement with the professor
of the university in the Belgrade.
He was a, like a technolog,
according the law.
He was-responsibility for the quality
and why my wishing had
I said, for me it's only
interesting to be top.
Maximum top.
Different between all the others.
And you're starting small quantity, but
slowly, slowly, slowly, but
people recognize-oh,
that's something different.
Quality, yes, yes I see.
So this is kosher, kosher brandy.
Yeah, this is a tank where
we keep kosher brandy
for our customer in a UK actually.
So, so why is it kosher?
Well, it is, there is
special requirement that is
for the kosher certificate.
And the main thing is about production.
The brandy cannot be in contact with
tanks that have wine
or wine products in it.
And you need to use special
yeast for the fermentation,
that is also kosher.
Ah, I see.
That's why it is,
it is quite a strong,
strong requirement, but-
Oh, I didn't-
I always thought it just-
the word just applied to meats and so on-
No, no, no, actually the
Jews are very big consumers of
plum brandy.
Yeah.
Plum brandy, but not grape.
No, no, grape brandy.
No, for grape brandy
you need to be produced
by the observant Jew.
It cannot be produced by the Serb
or maybe English was not Jew.
Well, there's something
else I never knew.
Among many things.
So Boycie, you wanna go
inside to try some rakija?
Well, I've always been
interested in a large cognac,
you see, but I'm not trying drink cognac,
I'm gonna try brandy your instead,
is that okay?
You see, it's as good as cognac.
I hope so, yeah, I'm sure it will be.
I don't have to drink a bottle of each
do I?
Well, in the evening, yes.
In the morning just a little bit.
I don't think I can do
that just today, anyway.
So what shall I choose?
Well, I suggest we start with apricot.
This is Stara Sokolova kajsija.
You better pour it for me.
Kajsija is the Serbian name for apricot.
So it is a hundred
percent fruit distilled,
aged for three years in oak barrels.
Wow, yes. It smells very good.
Apricot. Is this your favorite?
Is this your favorite one?
What do you do? What's
the best way to do it?
Stir it a little bit and then you
stick your nose inside.
Can you get your nose
inside the glass? Yes.
And then you sip.
And then you swallow.
Then you move it in your mouth.
Oh, I forgot to do that.
And in the end,
so you feel the all the aroma
and then you sip.
That is fantastic.
And this is a twelve
years old plum brandy.
Twelve years old.
This is very limited quantity.
Around 3000 bottles per year
and one that we bottle once a year
and then usually for three,
four months, we are out of it.
We wait for the next-
The next crop of plums, yeah.
The next barrel to be open.
Okay.
Twelve years old.
Plum brandy, twelve years old.
Very much like Boycie cognac.
You just sniff it, I mean, you know,
it's a very good smell, isn't it?
This is an evening drink.
Oh yes, it's very nice, isn't it?
So this here, this was,
Quince was three years old.
And Stara Sokolova twelve,
was twelve years old.
Yes, that's wonderful, I have to say.
Which one is your favorite?
I think I've changed from
the Quince to this one.
Yeah. I dunno why,
it's just got-
So much complexity and-
Yes, yes.
It's so complex, I don't understand it.
The more it ages,
it gets more mellow and-.
Yes, I think, that's right.
That's a good word.
I think it's more mellow than the others.
For me, that's-
I'm just wondering about this
abandoned car, I can see.
Cause you know, I'm a bit famous for
reselling secondhand cars,
so I'm quite interested to see
how this car actually appears there.
It's a long story.
Part of this property is
owned by the state company
that's in the bankruptcy.
So this is the part of the-
Oh, it's a part of bankruptcy.
Mess, so you cannot touch it until-
I love
the tree growing out
of the side of the car.
It hasn't been moved for ten years.
Fantastic. Yeah.
Well young man,
I mean, that's a very
interesting little motor,
I think I can do a little
something with this.
So, for a consideration,
I'll take this off your hands
for a bottle of your lovely
brandy. How do you feel?
Ah, that would be a good service to me.
Good man. Very good.
You know it makes sense.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well of course one of the
perks of my trade is that
you get to walk the streets
with an attractive blonde woman,
talking about your
life under an umbrella.
I have to say with this
particular example,
it took us about an hour
to get the streets cleared,
so we could actually walk up and down,
because there was just
people all over the place.
Tell me,
were you surprised when Serbian
people recognized you here?
I was, yes. When
I first came, I-
particularly in the street,
I'm used to it in England,
but here I was very surprised, yes.
A lot of people will have a look
and then look away and shake their heads
and look back again and then
come up and apologize for not
recognizing me straight away,
you know and I think it's
okay. It's not compulsory.
So I was very surprised, yes.
Okay.
When I told my friend yesterday.
I do interview with you,
he said me, "oh my God, that's amazing.
I think that he's the most
interesting guy in the UK".
So I should be prime minister.
Maybe.
Are you like that, even the cameras off?
So with the cameras off?
Yeah.
Well, I suppose so.
I am one of those people who
all my life, I've tried to
find the comedy in life.
I always found life quite funny,
the things that happen
to people and so on.
So,
I tend to sort of try and make life,
people's lives a bit happier.
Cause I believe in it, cause
basically-
I just think life works
better like that, you know,
with laughter and so on.
And there's so much to laugh at in life.
You know, if you could just
see the funny side of it,
I think you can get through it.
The whole week was really
flooded with interviews
from all sorts of directions
and all sorts of attitudes,
including one gentleman who came up
and said to me "what
are you doing here?"
As if I crept up under
the customs or something,
got into the country illegally.
It was a bit of a shock,
but, but no,
I'm sure he meant well anyway,
but I spent a lot of
time trying to understand
why it has such a connection with
people, this particular show.
And in the end, I found myself explaining
or trying to explain it as
I have to do in England,
so there's even more of a connection that
still nobody can quite
put a finger on it.
I mean, it's a combination
of so many things,
but it was very gratifying to
find that there was that depth
of interests from all
sorts of angles for me.
Welcome John.
Thank you, father.
Welcome to Belgrade.
Welcome to the temple of the Saint Sava.
The temple of Saint Sava,
I've always wanted to be here, but
I'd like to know more about it.
Yes, you want to come
with me inside to see?
-I'd love to. Is that okay?
-Yes.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Inside,
the biggest temple of
in this part of the Europe.
That is amazing,
and more scaffolding than I
have ever seen in my life.
Really?
Just amazing.
Do you want to go upside,
up to see.
Oh God no. Sorry,
God it's too high for me, yes.
I am-
Okay.
You know, people jump out of airplanes
and all sorts of things,
but not me I'm afraid.
So heights is not good for me, I'm sorry.
Okay John, no problem.
Next time.
When did all this start?
When did the re-
Is it rebuilding
or is it completely new?
It is very good question.
Yes.
We start to build this temple
at 1935,
before the Second World War.
And when the Second World War start,
we stopped with the building
until 1985. When we start again,
building the-
Fifty years, fifty years-
We had a problem.
We have a communist here in Yugoslavia.
He didn't let us to start
again with the building
until 1985.
Before the Second World
War, we built about nine
to twelve meters of the
walls of the temple.
After the Second World War, I told you,
we didn't build it,
in 1985 we start again
and we build until 1991,
when we stopped again with the building,
because the wars in former
Yugoslavian republics.
And we start again in 2000
and we're still building.
We hope that we will
finish this or next year.
Ah, I see, but when the,
when the Russians were here,
surely there is a
Russian Orthodox church,
and you are a Serbian Orthodox church.
So why would they stop
you building your church?
Because the communists,
don't believe in God.
They don't believe in the
powerful power of God.
They thought that the
Serbian church was the enemy
of the country at that time
and that's why they didn't
let us to start again.
But the God is powerful,
the God is big and
they can't win the God.
No, that's right. No,
no, no, that's right.
Only, they can only fifty years-
So you have started to build three times.
Yes, three times.
And this is the third time?
And we hope the last one.
And this time you'll finish?
Yes, yes, yes.
In this temple we think that,
I told you we will finished this year
or maybe next year.
But we hope that we will
be finished this year.
Who will pay for all this?
This, that is all-
I have a little money.
I have a euro, maybe two euros.
No, no.
Oh and
we don't in.
Orthodox church we don't look
at how much money give people
for the building of the temple,
because sometimes the one euro
from the someone who don't have
the money is a bigger than a
maybe one million euro from
someone who have a lot of money.
And that's why this temple is building,
all Serbian people, not only one person,
all Serbian people is
building this temple.
Ah, I see, right.
And this, this is the
temple to Saint Sava.
Yes, yes.
Who was Saint Sava?
Saint Sava was the biggest-
he's the biggest Saint in
Serbian Orthodox church.
He lived at the end of second-until the
1235 in the third century.
He was a Royal Prince,
however, but he didn't want to be a King.
He only want to be a monk.
He-
Life give to the church and
for the Orthodox church.
Yes.
After the 14th century with the Turkish
army came on this ground,
on Serbian ground,
we were under the Turkey
army about five centuries.
Five.
Yes, yes.
Only what was in the
mind of the Serbian man
was the name of the
Saint Sava. Saint Sava
was the guy who lead
all the Serbian people.
And that's why when the Turkish army
saw that, they took the dead
body from the monastery militia
and bring the body of Saint
Sava here on this ground.
And they bring the Serbian
people and they burned the body.
They burned the body to see,
to show the Serbian people
how Turkish army is big,
how Turkish army is strong,
but they did the wrong.
They maybe burn the body,
but they didn't burn the
spirit of the Saint Sava.
The spirit of Saint Sava was in the mind
and heart of the Serbian people,
of the Serbian soldiers was more bigger.
And that's why on this place,
where they burn the
body of the Saint Sava,
we are building the
biggest Orthodox temple
who is named the Saint Sava
for all Serbian people.
That's wonderful. What a story.
I mean, but how Serbia has suffered
under other regimes,
you know, for so long.
Yes, yes.
But as you say the spirit survives,
and that's wonderful.
These are the mosaics.
This year, we hope that we will finish
the mosaics in the
temple. For two years,
we finished the dome.
The dome will be the mosaics.
The mosaics are a gift
from the Russian people,
Russian president Putin and
the Russian Orthodox church
to Serbian Orthodox church
and to Serbian people and
the company of the gospel.
They finished the dome
before about two years
and we are still finishing
the mosaics in the
all walls of the temple.
We, when you came to
the center of the temple
and when you turn around
yourself, everything you'll see
with your eyes will be all mosaics.
Everything, everything, yes, everything.
That's an extraordinary thought.
And so-it's just put
directly onto the stone
or onto boards covering
the stone or all mosaic is-
All 300
Russian artists in Moscow
and they are making that mosaics.
And they're bringing that
mosaics here in Belgrade.
About 90 people is now
working in the temple
and they're putting that
mosaics on the walls.
Ah right.
Before a few days came 1,200
more meters, more of mosaics
for North and East galleries
and some ornamentics
for the temple.
And I tell you, we hope that with mosaics
we will finish this year,
until the end of this year.
This time, next year, we
will be ready-finished.
That's wonderful.
That is remarkable, I
mean, looking at that,
it's just extraordinary.
So is this a,
is this a record for scaffolding?
I've never seen
scaffolding at this height.
Yes. Over here, about 65
meters until the dome.
The all temple is about
eighty to ninety meters.
And in the temple can
stay about 10,000 people.
And that is the lifts
that'll, that would take-
It is the lift for the workers now,
who are working upside at the dome, yes.
When you're up, when
you get up to the dome,
you can go out and see,
go around at the dome
and you have a lookout
and you can see the old Belgrade.
I feel nervous already.
I can feel it in the back of my legs.
I can't do this.
We will have a lift for the tourist
and the tourist when
came to see the temple,
they can go up with the lift.
I think it's a remarkable
story of survival and spirit,
as you say,
that this is happening.
It's wonderful.
Yes.
But this is not the all,
we have a understair church or crypt
and it is-
And you have a smaller church outside.
Yes. Outside, yes, outside,
but downstair, we have a something.
Something special?
Yes. You will see that.
-I will?
-You want to come with me?
I would love to, thank you very much.
Okay.
As long as we don't have to go up there.
No, no, we go down.
Wow.
Well this is
magical, magical.
You have finished this?
Yes, we finished this.
We start to build this church in 2004
and we finished that before three years.
Father of Saint Sava, his
brothers and other Serbian.
It's the Saints in Serbia
history of the Orthodox church.
Saint Lazarus lead Serbian
troops against the Turkish army,
when the Turkish army came on Kosovo,
Kosovo is the South part of the Serbian,
but the Turkish army came.
They wanted to take the Serbian land
and steal or going
upstairs in the Europe.
And they was threatened for
the all the Christianity,
people in the Europe and Saint Lazarus
was the first war against
that Turkish army.
We didn't,
our army was much smaller
than Turkish army,
but our hearts
and our strength was much bigger
than the Turkish army.
We stopped them on the Kosovo.
They catch Saint Lazarus and
they cut his head.
You could see this, this picture here.
How is Saint Lazarus giving his head,
giving his life for the Serbian country.
These are the Turks here
about to execute him?
Yes, yes.
The angel take his head, that
is why he is a Saint in our-
Everybody over the centuries
seems to want Serbian land.
Yes.
Everybody wants-
I don't know why.
Backwards, forwards, you know.
That's extraordinary.
With this picture you can see how-
Oh yes.
The body of saint Lazarus.
So I told you upstairs,
they win this war, they win this battle.
They came in Serbia and we
were under Turkish army about
500 years. A lot.
But in that 500 years, we
didn't forget who we are
and what we are able to do.
When we have
Saint Sava in our heart.
When we have a church and a faith in God
and in our hearts.
This is a gift for
you. A part of mosaic.
For me?
Next time, when you came in the temple,
the temple will be finished
and you will say,
"wow, look at the mosaics,
I have a part in my house".
Ah, but there's a bit missing.
There's a bit missing in the temple.
This is gold, right?
Yes, this is glass with
the gold paper inside.
I'll just test this for gold, hey.
Yes, gold, thank you very much.
I will come back and put it
in the space that is missing.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Well, when I was asked
to visit a motor museum,
I thought, bonnet de douche,
this is my area.
So in I went to meet the
man whose museum it was.
Welcome, welcome Boycie.
Thank you.
Bratislav.
My motors museum.
Ah well, thank you
very much. This is it.
This is all there is.
No, no.
Oh, there's more.
Oh, you have more cars.
Let me see. Let me see.
Yes, of course.
Where did this come from?
From United States.
It is capital of Indiana in America.
Oh yeah.
It's a town, Albany.
So how much is it worth?
Millions?
It is maybe half a million.
Maybe this time.
And you have a parking meter.
My euro, I must find a
euro. I must find a euro-
And put my money in here.
There.
Drive me mad.
This is very old, this very old like me.
Yeah, yeah.
Maybe not as old as me.
Yes, this is from 1902.
Is that one of the first?
One of the first Fords.
Yeah, the very first Ford.
This is, of course-
This is not the original numberplate.
Well, I don't think I could
see it on my forecourt,
you know,
perhaps a Laura Ashley interior
and clean out the ashtray,
I might be able to-
You never know, do you.
That's fantastic.
What a collection.
This is a Charron-
Our King Peter the first, from 1908.
1908? Wow.
That was driven by our first chauffeur,
first Serbian who-
Do they work? Would they run?
If you took them out on the street?
You couldn't park, of course.
But would they run?
They could still run, yeah?
Fantastic.
Well, certainly amongst this
wonderful selection of cars,
we saw some fantastic vehicles.
Not vehicles I would have
on my forecourt in Peckham,
of course.
However, there was some
fantastic stuff there,
including a collection
of president Tito's cars
and that was very evident from
particularly his Mercedes,
how he protected himself.
It's a Mercedes, look at that, yeah.
You know, four tons.
Look at the-
Oh yeah!
The glass was three centimeters.
So this was protective glass?
Yes.
Yes. Who was in this car?
Tito.
This was Tito's car?
Yes.
So he was worried that somebody
was going to do him harm,
yeah. So he would
draw the curtains.
Yes, draw the curtains and
that the division glass also.
Yeah. So this is
bulletproof and-
Bulletproof yes.
Everything would bounce off.
Yes. Yes.
So did he use this right till the end?
Yes.
Yeah? Wow.
That is fantastic, isn't it.
And his driver-
also glass, yes, of
course it would, yeah.
Gosh.
So Mercedes is for his
wife, Jovanka Broz.
I bought it from the military scrapyard.
Yes.
And repaired it-
Yeah, yeah.
So did she have thickened glass too?
No.
No.
I protect myself, but my wife is okay.
I don't believe it.
After all I've done, all
the places I've been,
I cannot get away from
this yellow, Reliant Regal.
How does this happen all the time?
Ahh.
Ohh.
No, no.
In Serbia.
It's a very popular-
Yes, so does it travel around?
Go to different places.
Yes, yes, yes.
But the Only Fools and Horses is the
number one in Serbia.
Yes. It's very
popular, isn't it?
It's very surprising to me.
Maybe New York, Paris,
Peckham and Belgrade.
And Belgrade.
I think you should put Belgrade
on there, that would be-
that would be very good, yeah.
Yes.
But it looks in a lot better condition
than the ones we used in the show.
Yes, yes.
They made me drive it
once, not in the show,
but I drove round the car
park where we were filming.
And it was the most uncomfortable-
My knees were up here by my ears.
And the thing that does that,
because of the one wheel, yes.
Smaller taxes for three-wheeler,
for four-wheel it's higher tax.
Yes.
And is not good for people who
are trying to avoid being run over.
Cause they forget there's
a wheel in the middle.
Yeah. No that's-
So where did you find this?
It came from England.
Oh, you bought it-
For 200 pounds.
200 pounds.
And drove it from London to Belgrade.
And now an unexpected pleasure.
A local artist has come up with
a fantastic view of London.
A real kaleidoscope of images.
And guess what is at the top.
A yellow Reliant Regal.
You see what I mean?
Everywhere I go, even in a piece of art,
there it is,
haunting me to this day.
Suddenly the two actors that
I'd met at the British Embassy,
they turned up with a script.
Would I be part of their
very successful show?
Mais oui, mais oui, mangetout, mangetout.
Action!
Have you decided to buy sir?
Yes, sir.
Thank you very, very much.
Is it good?
Well,
they certainly don't make
them like this anymore.
Stop!
Perfect, thank you.
It's a great pleasure for me.
It's a great pleasure.
I couldn't express-
When I-maybe tomorrow,
because my generation and my friends
that was the some kind of
festivity, when we look and we
discuss all the week until the
new Only Fools and Horses
come on our television.
It's a part of our life.
British people
and the British nation
is the great nation that
they can laugh on themselves.
It is,
the character of a big nation.
And then they're-
also they have a master actors.
While I was in Belgrade,
I was very lucky to be staying at a
hotel right in the center of Belgrade.
And there, I learnt about the
most successful businessman
in Serbia, possibly the world, who knows.
Philip Zepter.
And it was his hotel.
He's got a whole chain of hotels
and he just started off
by selling pots and pans.
I mean this
could be Boycie and his cars, I mean,
it could be the start of that, I suppose.
Boycie start of it all, but just starting
off by pots and pans and
finishing up the most successful
businessman in the countr-
This is sort of Boycie country, isn't it?
So, I think Boycie's
probably got aspirations
to be as successful as him.
Very lucky to have lunch
with the manager of
the hotels there and he
was telling me all about
all his inventions.
The stories, maybe Boycie is very good
example for us,
because everyone was
thinking that the founder
and the owner of the company was not
normal when he thought that
he's going to make millions
and billions only by the pots,
so we started with the producing of pots
thirty-five years ago.
Pots and pans for cooking?
For cooking,
and we started with that
thirty-five years ago.
Mr. Zepter was the first
one who made the fastest
first billion.
He made the first billion in three years.
The first?
Turnover, yeah. The turnover.
And Philip went off to sell
his pots and pans in Poland,
first. Was like the
first place he went.
And everybody said you're crazy.
He said, "okay I will
make maybe ten million
turnover for the first year".
They said "oh, no, that's impossible,
you want to be happy with one
million, if you make this-".
He said, "okay, I will try".
And in one year he made the
turnover of $100 million.
Wow.
Eventually I was shown up to
this rather nice apartment,
right at the top of the
building there, Belgrade.
Wonderful views out there.
Far too big for me though,
I mean we could get the
whole family there. I think
you can get about twenty-seven
people there staying the night, but
an interesting thought.
This is our presidential suite,
one of the biggest in
this part of the Europe.
350 square meters.
So you can see,
this is the kitchen.
It is fully equipt so you
can use everything, coffee.
This is what I told you,
it's a water purifying system.
Oh yes, yes.
You can try our water
or we can say, cheers.
Cheers to you.
Thank you.
How do I become a president?
So I can stay in your suite.
You stay in the suite and that's all.
So everyone will call you president.
Ah, I could get addicted to that,
very nice, very nice water indeed.
So this is the-
We have also here living room.
So where you can rest
as a president or
work as a president.
Ah, so you can bring your friends and
talk about presidential things.
Yeah. How to be a
president, how to solve
the problems in the country.
I'm blessed that.
Zepter or Zepter
Hotels or Mr. Zepter
gave me opportunity to sit with Boycie.
Boycie's visit means
to all of us in Serbia,
because all-
when we grow up,
we was watching Fools
and Horses, of course,
and everybody knows that
and everybody knows him.
But, I think, the most
important for us is that.
Boycie one of the actors who
is always doing some business,
that's what we are doing in Serbia
for the last thirty years.
We are just doing something
and it's gonna be something at the end.
So that's why he's a perfect
guide for our country.
More or less, we didn't have internet
and that period, but on
TV, they repeated always
the Fools and Horses,
because they didn't
have to do anything else
except this or the news about
bombing, so if you choose.
Fools and Horses and news about bombing,
we all chose Fools and Horses.
That's normal to escape and
to have a laugh a little
bit during that period.
As all of us are thinking that
next year we are gonna be a millionaires.
That's the most important thing for us,
so we are always thinking
and we are always acting like
we are doing some business.
So, which the-like they made
the comedy in Serbia, not in England, so
it's the same thing like
all the actors, I mean, are
from Serbia, not from England,
so for us, that's our motto.
Well, I suppose if I was doing
something really important
I might need an office, you know, but-
And you can maybe try
out some our models,
which is our gift to you,
to have this special glasses.
No, for me?
Yeah.
No, really?
You can try it.
Should I put them on?
Yeah.
Okay.
See how, how you look.
How do I look?
Yes. I look, I don't
know, how do I look?
I'm not sure they suit me
as well as they suit you,
you know.
You can find some other ones.
Oh, I don't know. I don't know.
So there's lots of choices are there?
Yeah.
Okay. I have this one
also.
What do you think?
I think they're better.
You think they're better?
Can I trust him?
I suppose I can.
Yes, you made me-
Look like a professor.
So in the darker ones,
what do I look like?
An idiot?
No.
Those are extraordinary, yeah, yeah.
So it's these or those, yes?
The choice is yours.
So if you prefer
bigger glasses, then this one.
If you-smaller ones.
The smaller ones, yeah.
I think this one is perfect.
Yes. I think so. Yes, yes.
Good. Thank you very much.
Very kind.
I'll put them back in here.
Terrific, thank you.
So is there someone in here now
who all this belongs to, or this is your,
this is where all your stuff lives, yeah?
This is where Mr. Zepter
works at the moment.
So he's staying here and
working when he's in Belgrade.
Oh, fantastic.
Well, that's very kind,
thank you very much.
Here is also a brochure.
So you can read a little bit more.
Yeah, sure, sure.
That would be good.
Hyper light optics. Wow.
Wait till I go home and I talk
to Specsavers about these.
Yeah.
They will not know
what I'm talking about.
Yeah.
Thank you very much.
That's very good of you.
Thank you.
It was a pleasure having lunch
and having time with you.
Yes, very good lunch. Very good.
She looks good in them, I must say.
Well, I was asked to
go to a shopping center
in the middle of Belgrade
and I thought, well there
might be a few people there
doing a bit of shopping, I suppose, but
that's about all.
But I was absolutely flabbergasted that
over 500 people turned up.
The extraordinary thing was
that most of them spoke English.
And not only that English
I could understand.
Hello. Yeah. Very
well thanks and you?
All the cushty here mate.
Yeah, cushty oh very cushty.
Well, it's not a word I use
my character, you know,
but that's for the lower classes.
I'm a lower class mate.
That's brilliant.
So you're from London, are you?
No, I'm not from London.
I'm from Belgrade and Stockholm.
I'm half-Swedish, half-Serbian,
but I go in London quite often.
Next month I go.
Yeah?
What on business or?
Pleasure probably, yeah.
Punk music, concerts.
Ah, fantastic.
From Australia.
And it's gonna be signed in Belgrade
and send back to where?
No, it's mine.
The security was really something else.
It was really sort of-
No.
They frightened the hell
out of me, I can tell you.
To see Boycie today?
Big stuff
here for me, you know.
I always wanted to meet someone
from Only Fools and Horses.
And now, this is the day,
you know, to meet Boycie.
And you've
brought something here for him.
What is it?
Yes, yes. This is a present.
This is a sketch from.
TV show
and the Green Green Grass.
And you drew it yourself.
Yes, yes, yes. I'm
artist, you know.
Yes, yes, this is a
special present to him.
I wanted to give it to Boycie.
Well, I'm really excited
to meet Boycie, because
he's one of my favorite actors
from Only Fools and Horses
and I watched every episode
for a couple of times, so
I'm very excited to be here.
Awaiting this, almost forty years.
Shopping center is the biggest
and most popular shopping
center in the region.
For us like leading the market is really
privilege to have the star like Boycie.
We are privileged to
host fans of Boycie here.
The great man. It's
a honor to meet
a man like him.
He's so nice. He's gentle.
He is so on the ground
and he is really a star.
I was given an invitation
to meet the health minister
and off we went, this
extraordinary building.
We met the health minister and
I was interested really, because
of the NHS here. It's a great
bone of contention, you know.
What do you do with it?
How do you support it?
How do you fund it?
So, and I wondered if it was
the same there in Serbia.
Well, as far as I can remember,
Boris Johnson started
his election campaign
from a hospital,
promising that he's
gonna improve the system
and everything else and make sure
that these things would be better.
I'm not sure if he's gonna succeed.
It's a really difficult task.
Yeah, remember Margaret Thatcher
also started a healthcare
reform, but hasn't completed it fully
and has-
It's not just a question
of throwing money.
Everybody throws more money,
but it is how it is organized.
I just wondered if you,
your system works better
than ours, that's all.
The health care is free and so on,
but you know, for certain cases,
I think you still have
to pay, which sounds like
private medicine, which
sounds very similar to us.
While we're there, we touched
on Princess Katherine,
who does some wonderful
work, charity work,
raising money to look after
people, less fortunate people.
And she goes all round
the world, raising funds
and does an absolutely remarkable job and
the health minister was very keen to say
how much good work she's doing,
so that was very gratifying.
I think the conclusion
that I've come to is that,
not only that comedy unites people,
but how lucky I was to be part
of a show like Only Fools and Horses
and being out here brings it home to me,
really how much it can help people.
When I think of the bombing in Serbia
and groups of people
escaping from that reality
into the land of Only Fools and Horses
and laughing and hugging each other,
it really brings it home to me.
That that's important.
That's the important thing,
whatever else is going on,
but that laughter, that
enjoyment, that sort of culture,
I suppose I could say,
brings everybody together.
And if only we could bottle that feeling,
just take a swig of it
every now and again,
perhaps all our problems in
this world would be over.
So, here we are in the Peckham of Serbia,
mind you I'm not sure Peckham
ever looked this good, really.
A few abandoned cars
around, a Lada or two,
maybe I could put them on my forecourt,
maybe a bit of profit here, who knows?
So, what do we got round the corner here.
Oh, hello.
So this is where you finished
up post-Brexit Del Boy.
I often wondered what happened to you.
I think you could have done
better than this though,
couldn't you?
Ever been to the Seychelles, have you?
popular.
Only Fools and Horses was
in Serbia,
so I decided to go out
and try and find out why this was.
Belgrade,
a Balkan nation,
a part of the world that I
didn't know an awful lot about.
I mean, the odd thing, but
it was all very scatter gun.
So,
I was fascinated
not only to find out about the history
of this Balkan nation,
but also meet the people
and find out why
they were so in love with
Only Fools and Horses.
And I had a lot of adventures,
and I met an awful lot of people,
and there are some very,
very surprising results,
but it was fascinating
for me on so many levels.
I mean, this history,
I've always been fascinated by history,
to find out the history of a place,
whether that had anything
to do with the fact
that there was this connection
with humor between us.
If humor can unite people.
Maybe there's the answer.
As an actor,
I found myself
being sort of known for comedy shows
that I've done,
which was always a big
surprise to my mother,
who obviously didn't
think I was very funny.
She always said,
"I always thought you'd
make your name in drama,
not in comedy."
Okay, mum, sorry.
Anyway, I started thinking about this,
about comedy, why,
and it's always-looking back
it's always been part of my life.
You know, ever since I was a child,
I was always trying to make people laugh.
A sort of defensive mechanism
you could say, I suppose,
but I always found comedy amusing,
you know? And I'd watch
the Marx Brothers,
I'd watch a French comedian
called Jacques Tati, you know,
and I was riveted by all those things,
The Goon Show. Spike
Milligan and his Merry Men
and.
I just found that was
the way I tended to go,
even though I was
playing a dramatic part,
like Jack the Ripper or
Dracula, or something like that,
I'd invest it with a
bit of humor, I think.
And then I play a lot
of pantomime villains,
these days,
I have done for the last twenty years.
But they're always villains
with a sense of humor,
you know,
because I think it's such a
great way to reach people,
as is, borne out by the fact
that I can go to Belgrade,
I can talk to people there and
connect with them.
Just through that show,
through that humor.
Well, while I was in
Belgrade, the Ambassador,
the British Ambassador
called me and said,
"would you like to come to
this reception?", she'd
set up a reception
especially for me and my
visit, and she'd invited
a lot of British expats
and people doing business out there.
And I had never been invited
to an Embassy before.
I don't know why,
probably not considered
quite the right quality.
But on this occasion,
there I was in Belgrade
at the British Embassy.
After you.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
This is really-
Good heavens!
Ah, it's a great honor
-for us to have you here.
-Well, I mean,
I'm immensely flattered,
I don't know what to say.
So, what do I do, just sign it?
Just sign it.
Sign it.
My famous signature,
getting worse and worse
and more and more.
There, how does that look?
Fantastic, that's excellent.
All right.
All our guests sign the guest list-
Well, today is a historic day
for the British Embassy in
Belgrade. It's always great
to have VIP visitors
and it's very special
to have VIP visitors
that are as much fun as this one.
Hey, nice to meet
you too. How are you?
Likewise.
How are you, who are you?
Huge fans.
Of yours.
Huge fans?
Oh, I'm so sorry.
Cheerio.
You're receiving treatment, I hope.
Yeah, a little.
A little bit,
but not to worry.
They're from the local sitcom,
which, if you'd agree
was also influenced by Fools and Horses.
Great agree or whatever you say.
Oh right, so you're-
We are screen writers and comedians.
We like to say.
Your comedians.
Yeah. So, we'll have
a nice time tonight.
Well, thank you for watching the show.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
The most extraordinary
thing about it really was,
that it was a terribly British occasion.
There in the middle of the Balkans.
There we were having tea and cakes,
just like in England,
but I suppose that's what you
do at the British Embassy.
But if I ever get invited
to a British Embassy again,
I shall-that'll be my template.
And I shall expect it to
match up to those standards.
Thank you.
There's the milk.
Can I help you?
Yeah.
So, how long have you been here for?
I've been here four months.
Four months of being
a British Ambassador.
I've been here four months, and yes-
There's a lot to do.
Come and meet our Boycie
and some guy had shuffled up,
like this-
And he was about 5'4,
but he had a mustache,
so therefore he was Boycie.
Oh, he's so-
It was really nice
to actually just give those
people a little sort of insight,
hopefully,
into my life and how
the series have gone.
The reach of Only Fools and Horses,
so it has gone international,
particularly to this part of the world.
And
as Del Boy would say,
we're big in the Balkans.
Take out of that what you will.
No, I made that up. He
didn't say that at all.
I'll just say,
well, it seemed to get
through to people, including
our Ambassador, who put on
the theme tune from Only Fools
and Horses and did a
little sofa dance for me.
You want to dance.
Sofa dancing-
sofa dancing, yeah.
But thank you really.
I hope you enjoy the
rest of your time here in Belgrade.
Well thank you very much
for asking us here.
We're really very honored ourselves,
so we're all honored.
Thank you very much.
And thanks all of you for
coming and being our guests.
Thank you.
Fantastic.
You'll see my wife is
wearing a Marlene skirt.
Yeah.
Whooh!
I have a feeling that everybody,
at least in Serbia, I don't
know about Great Britain,
but they know a Boycie in their life.
Boycie's coming here,
it's one of my childhood
dreams coming true.
Right, come on Marlene, get
your coat, we're leaving.
And I wish you a very, very
-warm welcome to our academy.
-Very nice to meet you.
While I was there,
I was asked to go to
a Belgrade university
and talk to a lot of English students.
And we were expecting, I don't know,
I think about fifty people odd like that.
And
over 200 turned up,
which was extraordinary.
Completely unexpected,
but there I am, an Englishman talking
to English students about English.
What shall we learn from your lecture?
What from my lecture?
What shall we learn from your lecture?
Practically nothing.
So I continued the character-
thank you very much, thank you.
Can you hear me at the back?
Can you hear me?
I don't need this-
Just for camera.
Oh, it's for you.
Is about people's lives, as you say.
It's about
difficult subjects.
I mean, John Sullivan, the writer, writes
about difficult things that happen
in everybody's life, really
and he approaches them,
but he just makes you smile
at the end of it
and makes you think, "oh,
maybe it's not too bad".
I suddenly thought to myself,
perhaps it'd be fun
to teach them a bit
of English that not a lot
of English understand,
not a lot of English people understand.
And this is the Cockney rhyming slang.
If you think you know English,
if you think you know English properly,
just think about this.
If somebody came up to you
and said.
I was sitting with the trouble, right?
I was sitting with the trouble
and we were watching the strawberry.
All right.
I'd be, so that's boring,
so we'll get in the jam jar
and we'll go off for a Ruby.
So we're at the Ruby and it
wasn't up to much, you know?
So I offered him a godiva
and the man holding the restaurant,
running the restaurant and he said
you're having a bubble bath.
I was gonna charge you a pony.
You wouldn't understand a
word I was saying, would you
even though you knew English.
So the age range was very
impressive, I thought,
they were from about
16 years old up and to
slightly older, possibly
as old as me, who knows.
Yes, yes.
What's your name.
Vesna.
V E S N A.
B?
V V
V
V
V
E S
Hello. Who is this
for may I ask?
Hello.
For my father.
He will die from happiness.
I don't want your father to die.
He will be okay.
What's his name.
A
A
C
Thank you very so much.
Pleasure.
So nice that.
Boycie came and that he was
so willing to be part of
people that came to see him,
to be so close, friendly
and approachable.
He's a tremendous similarity
in the subject that he depicts,
the way of life, it's all so close
and yet it's presented in
a novel way through fun.
Through mishap and how to,
in the end, turned right.
It
Fits with Serbian spirit.
We fight, we work hard,
but we also have great
fun and enjoy life.
Well, I'm a great football fan
here in England. For my sins
I suffer supporting the Arsenal.
I have done ever since
I was five years old.
No idea why. I've never lived
in North London in my life.
Anyway, the Arsenal are my team
and the equivalent in Serbia
of course are Red Star who
play in the same colors.
Maybe there's a connection there.
So,
I was delighted to be invited to,
to go to Red Star.
It's one of those names
that always had a little
frisson for me.
You know, obviously
used to European football
and all our teams playing
in Europe as well,
but Red Star Belgrade just
had a ring to, you know.
It's somewhere I had always wanted to go.
Yugoslavian Championship.
The current Serbian Championship.
Oh it's is the-
that's the trophy, yeah?
Yes it's old, 73 years old.
I was gonna say
that's not the new one, is it?
That's wonderful.
Yeah.
They played some team before.
Some team before, yeah.
That's fantastic.
Yeah, Maradona played.
Did he play here?
Maradona, yeah?
Pele, Garrincha, Beckenbauer,
Bertie Fox, Bobby Charlton.
Bobby Charlton yes.
That Maradona.
Douglas, Keegan.
Maradona, whose name
is not good in England.
I know.
The hand of-
Yes, I know.
Shame cause he's a wonderful player,
but he's just so-
It's unsport move.
Yes. That's not good.
It's not popular.
No, no, no, it's not.
Remember the great games,
in the Europe friendly-
Ah yes.
Mostly for the Europe like this.
I skipped this one because
you dislike Manchester.
No, I mean, no, I'd
say it's a big rivalry.
There's always a big, more of a rivalry.
Than there is with Tottenham,
Tottenham, our neighbors.
But I always liked Tottenham.
I just,
I've always liked the way they played,
but Manchester United, I just-
There's a phrase in England:
anybody but Manchester United.
Who is this? Is this
a Serbian Boycie?
It's look like, yes, yes.
Come along Marlene.
Come along.
Come along Marlene.
Get your coat.
We're leaving.
So was he a player, did he play?
Yes, he played.
He's a good sportsman.
He was good.
Well that's the main thing.
And has a good mustache.
That's the main thing, yeah, yeah.
What's his name?
Milan. Milan.
Milan.
Yes.
And how long ago was that?
Oh, it's around fifty years ago, yeah.
Fifty years ago, oh.
Oh yes, 47 to
This is other,
but yes, it's during the seventies.
Yeah.
More than seventies, in the beginning.
Oh, I can see he's a confident
man, he has lots of money.
He knows what to do, you know?
He maybe has good cars.
Nice cars. He sells cars.
Yes.
You can recommend him good car.
Oh fantastic.
Present, a jersey,
can you just-
Oh yeah, a shirt, no, really?
Show it, yeah,
because it's special.
It's this one here.
It's just for you, yeah.
I can-
You hold the bag.
Yeah.
Ohh.
So I have to play center forward.
I have to score all the goals.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, that's fantastic.
Can you just show the name.
Yeah.
That's the name in Serbian, Boycie.
Boycie? Is that it?
Yeah, you like number nine?
I do, yes I-
when I did play
at one point I played the
number nine at school.
Number?
Number nine, yes.
Center forward, we called it.
Center forward
and I was supposed to
score all the goals.
And you scored?
Yes, I scored a lot of goals.
Ah, okay.
So. Oh, that's fantastic.
Thank you so much.
That's for you.
So when do I start playing?
16 February.
I'll be here.
I'll be here, right, yeah, I'll see you.
Spell it? karii.
Karii?
Yeah, that's it.
Okay. Right.
So I'll start training
when I get back to England.
Yeah. Okay.
But you must train hard.
Yes. I think I must. Yes.
Well, when I found out
that Serbia had a Royal Family
and they had a palace,
I thought that sounds
like my sort of area.
Very much Boycie's area,
that sort of thing.
I thought, well, I'd
better go and have a look,
check this out
and see what's happening.
Hi.
Good
morning Mr. Challis.
Welcome to the Royal Palace.
Thank you very much.
My name is Gavrilo.
I shall be a guide today through-
Oh good. Good. Well,
thank you for having me.
Not at all, not at all.
This is the home of the
Royal Family of Serbia,
built by King Alexander the first,
the grandfather
to his Royal Highness,
crown Prince Alexander,
who today is the head
of our Royal Family.
Okay.
The building was finished in 1929.
That's when the Royal
Family moved in here
and lived here until the breakout
of the Second World War in our country,
which happened in the Spring of 1941.
Ahh.
The King's main wish
was for his home to reflect
Serbian medieval tradition.
The library.
It's Italian Renaissance art.
Oh yeah.
The ceiling, the furniture,
the book cases.
Right so,
a whole team of architects,
designers deciding-
The chief architect was a Serbian one,
Mr. Zivojin Nikolic.
However, he was assisted very much
by some very prominent and
very good Russian architects.
But I will tell you
more about the Russians
when we go to the basement.
So there's something good about Russians.
They-at that moment in-
Of course, I'm sorry,
I'm being frivolous.
There were two kinds of Russians.
Yeah.
The so-called white Russians,
who were very much supported
by King Alexander the first.
He was a great patron of the
so-called white Russians,
and of course the communist Russians.
Now this is the blue salon
with examples of yet
another artistic influence.
That would be the French
Baroque art, of course.
The furniture was modeled
on Louis the fifteenth
and Louis the sixteenth styles.
Over there, the King's office.
So, another first for me,
I got invited to the King's room,
I've never been in the King's room.
I've been to the King's Head,
but has nothing to do with it, is it?
This is his majesty
King Alexander, the first.
And is that his chair?
Exactly. And his desk.
And his desk-
Both original from 1929,
when the palace was finished.
This is where he would sit
and sort everything out
and make sure everything
was working properly.
Yes, yes, yes.
The most important decisions
for the fate of the Kingdom
of Yugoslavia were brought
right here in this room.
Wow.
That is-that's an
amazing thought, isn't it?
Is the monarchy here, like
the monarchy in England,
do you think? Is there
a similarity between
the roles of the monarchy?
Not really.
No, it's very different?
Very, very different, I would say.
First of all, we're still
very much a Republic
or at least on paper
and our current government has,
shall we say, rather
ambivalent relationship
towards the Royal Family.
On the one hand, they
kind of accepted that
the Royal Family is important in
humanitarian work and in
representing Serbia to
our foreign guests and
even some important investors.
But on the other hand,
this is still all the
confiscated property.
The government has not returned yet,
any of the Royal Family's property.
Oh, is that right?
Oh, I didn't know that, I see.
And the notorious decree
that was issued in 1947,
which prohibited the Royal Family
from returning to the country
and strip them of their
citizenship and confiscated
the entire property,
is still, in one part, in force,
and that is the issue of property.
The citizenship was restored
and the Royal Family of course was let
to return to the country
and they were even
given their own home to use,
but officially and
legally,
none of the property
has been returned yet.
Oh, how interesting.
Yes, cause, well, you know,
in England there's,
there's discussion about it
and. of course, we had
that so-called revolution
in 1600 and Oliver Cromwell took over
and abolished the monarchy,
but then,
some years later back came the monarchy
and we've had it ever since,
because it's a-
I don't know something that we need,
I suppose.
The relationship between
Serbian and British monarchy.
This is an interesting photograph,
2012,
the Diamond Jubilee.
A rare occasion when almost
all monarchs
from all over the world, not just Europe,
but also the middle East and Asia
and even Africa gathered
in Windsor Castle
to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee.
Here's our crown Prince in the back row.
And Her majesty
is actually the godmother
to our crown Prince.
Is that right?
That's right.
She's the one who held him in her arms
at his baptism and his
christening ceremony.
Now the dining room
is a very good example
of the eclectic impression
that the Royal Palace leaves.
This is a blend of Italian
Renaissance, French Baroque,
Neoclassical style.
View of the patio
and the Royal chapel.
Dedicated to Saint
Andrew, the First-Called.
Now,
to the basement.
To the basement.
Many people have been to the
basement and never returned.
Ha, ha.
I was terrified.
I mean,
go down to a crypt in a
Royal Palace in Serbia.
And he was never seen again.
But luckily I found myself
next to a pool table.
I thought, oh, it's
just like the Nags Head.
Ah.
Oh.
Was I right, or was I right.
You were certainly right.
Of course.
Now we come to the Russians.
Yes.
The man behind this was
Mr. Nikolay Krassnoff,
a Russian architect who emigrated to
Belgrade after the end of
the Civil War in Russia,
just like many other
Russian intellectuals,
and who was hired,
or was commissioned by
King Alexander the first
to help finish the Royal Palace.
Mr. Krassnoff
and his team of course
were extremely nostalgic
after they lost fatherland,
the Imperial Russia,
so, they decided to apply
many elements copied
from the Russian Imperial
Palace in Kremlin, Moscow,
but in a very unique and
extremely skillful way.
They combined those elements
with, with the elements
from some Oriental arts,
like the Persian art.
Yes.
Turkish art
or even the art of the Crimean Tatars.
The Room of Whispers.
Now the Room of Whispers comes
from this marble fountain,
which allegedly served a special purpose.
The sound of the water
flowing down the fountain,
would muffle the sound of
any of the conversations
that the King would have on this sofa.
So that anybody who would pass by,
couldn't hear anything
except faint whispers.
Now, this room used to be
the King's wine cellar.
Today of course, it's changed
its purpose completely.
However, at the time of
King Alexander, the first,
this is where some of the
King's wines used to be kept.
And the paintings are illustrations
of one the most beautiful
Serbian medieval folk poems.
There was a great submission of
oral poetry in medieval Serbia.
And of course, throughout
the poem, he has a champion,
a young man who is his
actually nephew,
who protects the Emperor all the time,
symbolizing the people's
love for Emperor Dusan,
who was very popular.
He was our most
successful medieval ruler.
Of course the King's private cinema,
which must have been one of the first
private cinemas in this part
of the world at that time.
We're talking about the
era when there were still
silent movies being shown,
because of that this niche
was designed for the piano
and the piano player,
who would accompany the
projections of the silent films.
No need for the piano or
the piano player today,
of course, they Royal
Family uses a DVD projector.
But comes down here quite
often to watch films just
like they used to do when
King Alexander lived here.
Just the most fantastic cinema
I've ever seen, I think.
Very, very nice room.
Superb.
The so-called smoking salon.
Our King used to be
a chain smoker. He
was a person who would
literally light one cigarette on another,
although
he never allowed
smoking anywhere inside
the Royal Palace,
except in this room.
Oh right.
And after the Second World War,
the communists also discovered
the purpose of the room
and used it to the same purpose.
And then yet, again,
they were very much
irritated by the symbols
of our monarchy.
So at one point they ordered
all the Royal coats of arms,
all the Royal initials, all the crowns
to be either removed or painted over
and here in the smoking salon,
they ordered them to be
painted over with five pointed
communist red stars.
That's one over here
and the one over there.
Oh yes.
Well, well, well.
Now the King deliberately
chose the very peak
of Dedinje Hill,
because of this unbelievable,
spectacular view.
So North of here, North
of here is Hungary?
That's right in this direction.
That way.
That's right.
And that way,
what do we see over there?
We see a lot of, we see a lot of trees.
We see nothing.
Behind New Belgrade,
if you imagine a hypothetical line,
you would go all the way to Croatia,
all the way to Zagreb.
The next country over there-
That would be
Romania,
some 500 kilometers
away in that direction.
That's how our medieval
monasteries looked like.
Yes.
This is almost
as a copy of our medieval monastery.
It has been a great pleasure
for all the employees
of the Royal Palace fund
and her Royal Highness
crown Princess Katherine's foundation
to have Mr. Challis
visiting the Royal Palace.
We were all thrilled to have him
take a tour of the Royal Palace
and to tell him more about the life
of our Royal Family and the
humanitarian activities of,
especially of her
Royal Highness, crown
Princess Katherine.
Even the younger generations
who were not even born
when Only Fools and Horses
was originally broadcast
in Serbia, are very much familiar.
The show was immensely popular
in Serbia and in Belgrade.
It almost had the kind
of a cult followers
and we were all delighted
to have one of the
members of the crew visiting
Belgrade and the Royal Palace.
All my friends would be
really angry with me,
if I did not take a photograph
with him and told him-
and told them that I had
the pleasure of guiding
Mr. Challis through the
Royal Palace, so it meant
a lot to me.
He's very, very relatable
and all the characters
in Only Fools and Horses,
including of course the
character of Boycie,
played so, so brilliantly
by Mr. Challis
are very much relatable to our mentality,
which is the reason why the show was so,
so very much popular in,
at least in Belgrade.
Well now, as you know, a
Boycie loves his brandy.
A large cognac, please,
Michael, he was said to say
in the Nags Head on a regular occasion.
But over here in Serbia,
of course the brandy
is entirely different
and it's made out of
something entirely different,
it's made out of plums,
which I never knew about.
And the famous plum brandy
in Serbia is called rakija.
So, somebody said, why
don't you come and see
how it's made and what happens to it.
I thought, well, that is
an offer I can't refuse.
So here I am and is all
a bit eerie to be honest
and suddenly the door opens
and two rather large men
come down. One with a
mustache looking like
something out of the
Godfather, who immediately
kisses me three times on the cheeks.
And then I realized I had to kiss him
back three times on the
cheeks and then kiss
the other man, who turned out
to be his son, three times.
I'd been kissed more times than
I'd ever been kissed in my life.
Boycie! Welcome to Serbia.
Hello, hello. Three time.
One, two, three.
Welcome.
And for you too, oh.
Welcome.
Thank you so much.
It's nice to be here.
Thank you for asking me.
Great pleasure and great
honor to have you here.
An honor?
Well, it's an honor
for me to be here too.
And I'm glad to see someone
else has a mustache.
Yeah.
Serbian and the like English are similar.
Yes.
Boycie, this is our
production in Belgrade.
I'm going to show you a
little bit of how we produce
rakija and talk a little
bit about tradition
and so you know too-I
know you are brandy fan.
Wow. That's amazing.
Thirty-five years ago in Serbia,
everybody was making brandy and you know,
every brandy producer says,
"oh, mine is the best,
mine is the best".
Somebody just needs to bottle it
and we're gonna earn lots of money
and everybody was talking this,
but my father was the one of
the few who actually did it,
but didn't do just the talking,
but he did do the bottling
part and started offering
a little by little to the
restaurants, to like the premium stores,
and it became interesting.
At the beginning,
when you bring the
rakija to the restaurant
or to the store
and it costs like a
good cognac or whiskey.
And two thirds said, "what are you doing?
I mean, you cannot sell
me rakija for the price".
Well, one third of the
people were saying,
"okay, finally somebody did it".
And that was you.
So we have you to thank.
Well, now after thirty-five years,
nobody's asking this question,
should rakija be the, considered
the very same quality.
Fortunately, now it's
very trendy in Serbia
in best restaurants,
in best wine stores or
gift stores.
The rakija is a-
So did you, did you know the process
instinctively or was it an experiment?
Yeah, I learned, but I made
agreement with the professor
of the university in the Belgrade.
He was a, like a technolog,
according the law.
He was-responsibility for the quality
and why my wishing had
I said, for me it's only
interesting to be top.
Maximum top.
Different between all the others.
And you're starting small quantity, but
slowly, slowly, slowly, but
people recognize-oh,
that's something different.
Quality, yes, yes I see.
So this is kosher, kosher brandy.
Yeah, this is a tank where
we keep kosher brandy
for our customer in a UK actually.
So, so why is it kosher?
Well, it is, there is
special requirement that is
for the kosher certificate.
And the main thing is about production.
The brandy cannot be in contact with
tanks that have wine
or wine products in it.
And you need to use special
yeast for the fermentation,
that is also kosher.
Ah, I see.
That's why it is,
it is quite a strong,
strong requirement, but-
Oh, I didn't-
I always thought it just-
the word just applied to meats and so on-
No, no, no, actually the
Jews are very big consumers of
plum brandy.
Yeah.
Plum brandy, but not grape.
No, no, grape brandy.
No, for grape brandy
you need to be produced
by the observant Jew.
It cannot be produced by the Serb
or maybe English was not Jew.
Well, there's something
else I never knew.
Among many things.
So Boycie, you wanna go
inside to try some rakija?
Well, I've always been
interested in a large cognac,
you see, but I'm not trying drink cognac,
I'm gonna try brandy your instead,
is that okay?
You see, it's as good as cognac.
I hope so, yeah, I'm sure it will be.
I don't have to drink a bottle of each
do I?
Well, in the evening, yes.
In the morning just a little bit.
I don't think I can do
that just today, anyway.
So what shall I choose?
Well, I suggest we start with apricot.
This is Stara Sokolova kajsija.
You better pour it for me.
Kajsija is the Serbian name for apricot.
So it is a hundred
percent fruit distilled,
aged for three years in oak barrels.
Wow, yes. It smells very good.
Apricot. Is this your favorite?
Is this your favorite one?
What do you do? What's
the best way to do it?
Stir it a little bit and then you
stick your nose inside.
Can you get your nose
inside the glass? Yes.
And then you sip.
And then you swallow.
Then you move it in your mouth.
Oh, I forgot to do that.
And in the end,
so you feel the all the aroma
and then you sip.
That is fantastic.
And this is a twelve
years old plum brandy.
Twelve years old.
This is very limited quantity.
Around 3000 bottles per year
and one that we bottle once a year
and then usually for three,
four months, we are out of it.
We wait for the next-
The next crop of plums, yeah.
The next barrel to be open.
Okay.
Twelve years old.
Plum brandy, twelve years old.
Very much like Boycie cognac.
You just sniff it, I mean, you know,
it's a very good smell, isn't it?
This is an evening drink.
Oh yes, it's very nice, isn't it?
So this here, this was,
Quince was three years old.
And Stara Sokolova twelve,
was twelve years old.
Yes, that's wonderful, I have to say.
Which one is your favorite?
I think I've changed from
the Quince to this one.
Yeah. I dunno why,
it's just got-
So much complexity and-
Yes, yes.
It's so complex, I don't understand it.
The more it ages,
it gets more mellow and-.
Yes, I think, that's right.
That's a good word.
I think it's more mellow than the others.
For me, that's-
I'm just wondering about this
abandoned car, I can see.
Cause you know, I'm a bit famous for
reselling secondhand cars,
so I'm quite interested to see
how this car actually appears there.
It's a long story.
Part of this property is
owned by the state company
that's in the bankruptcy.
So this is the part of the-
Oh, it's a part of bankruptcy.
Mess, so you cannot touch it until-
I love
the tree growing out
of the side of the car.
It hasn't been moved for ten years.
Fantastic. Yeah.
Well young man,
I mean, that's a very
interesting little motor,
I think I can do a little
something with this.
So, for a consideration,
I'll take this off your hands
for a bottle of your lovely
brandy. How do you feel?
Ah, that would be a good service to me.
Good man. Very good.
You know it makes sense.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well of course one of the
perks of my trade is that
you get to walk the streets
with an attractive blonde woman,
talking about your
life under an umbrella.
I have to say with this
particular example,
it took us about an hour
to get the streets cleared,
so we could actually walk up and down,
because there was just
people all over the place.
Tell me,
were you surprised when Serbian
people recognized you here?
I was, yes. When
I first came, I-
particularly in the street,
I'm used to it in England,
but here I was very surprised, yes.
A lot of people will have a look
and then look away and shake their heads
and look back again and then
come up and apologize for not
recognizing me straight away,
you know and I think it's
okay. It's not compulsory.
So I was very surprised, yes.
Okay.
When I told my friend yesterday.
I do interview with you,
he said me, "oh my God, that's amazing.
I think that he's the most
interesting guy in the UK".
So I should be prime minister.
Maybe.
Are you like that, even the cameras off?
So with the cameras off?
Yeah.
Well, I suppose so.
I am one of those people who
all my life, I've tried to
find the comedy in life.
I always found life quite funny,
the things that happen
to people and so on.
So,
I tend to sort of try and make life,
people's lives a bit happier.
Cause I believe in it, cause
basically-
I just think life works
better like that, you know,
with laughter and so on.
And there's so much to laugh at in life.
You know, if you could just
see the funny side of it,
I think you can get through it.
The whole week was really
flooded with interviews
from all sorts of directions
and all sorts of attitudes,
including one gentleman who came up
and said to me "what
are you doing here?"
As if I crept up under
the customs or something,
got into the country illegally.
It was a bit of a shock,
but, but no,
I'm sure he meant well anyway,
but I spent a lot of
time trying to understand
why it has such a connection with
people, this particular show.
And in the end, I found myself explaining
or trying to explain it as
I have to do in England,
so there's even more of a connection that
still nobody can quite
put a finger on it.
I mean, it's a combination
of so many things,
but it was very gratifying to
find that there was that depth
of interests from all
sorts of angles for me.
Welcome John.
Thank you, father.
Welcome to Belgrade.
Welcome to the temple of the Saint Sava.
The temple of Saint Sava,
I've always wanted to be here, but
I'd like to know more about it.
Yes, you want to come
with me inside to see?
-I'd love to. Is that okay?
-Yes.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Inside,
the biggest temple of
in this part of the Europe.
That is amazing,
and more scaffolding than I
have ever seen in my life.
Really?
Just amazing.
Do you want to go upside,
up to see.
Oh God no. Sorry,
God it's too high for me, yes.
I am-
Okay.
You know, people jump out of airplanes
and all sorts of things,
but not me I'm afraid.
So heights is not good for me, I'm sorry.
Okay John, no problem.
Next time.
When did all this start?
When did the re-
Is it rebuilding
or is it completely new?
It is very good question.
Yes.
We start to build this temple
at 1935,
before the Second World War.
And when the Second World War start,
we stopped with the building
until 1985. When we start again,
building the-
Fifty years, fifty years-
We had a problem.
We have a communist here in Yugoslavia.
He didn't let us to start
again with the building
until 1985.
Before the Second World
War, we built about nine
to twelve meters of the
walls of the temple.
After the Second World War, I told you,
we didn't build it,
in 1985 we start again
and we build until 1991,
when we stopped again with the building,
because the wars in former
Yugoslavian republics.
And we start again in 2000
and we're still building.
We hope that we will
finish this or next year.
Ah, I see, but when the,
when the Russians were here,
surely there is a
Russian Orthodox church,
and you are a Serbian Orthodox church.
So why would they stop
you building your church?
Because the communists,
don't believe in God.
They don't believe in the
powerful power of God.
They thought that the
Serbian church was the enemy
of the country at that time
and that's why they didn't
let us to start again.
But the God is powerful,
the God is big and
they can't win the God.
No, that's right. No,
no, no, that's right.
Only, they can only fifty years-
So you have started to build three times.
Yes, three times.
And this is the third time?
And we hope the last one.
And this time you'll finish?
Yes, yes, yes.
In this temple we think that,
I told you we will finished this year
or maybe next year.
But we hope that we will
be finished this year.
Who will pay for all this?
This, that is all-
I have a little money.
I have a euro, maybe two euros.
No, no.
Oh and
we don't in.
Orthodox church we don't look
at how much money give people
for the building of the temple,
because sometimes the one euro
from the someone who don't have
the money is a bigger than a
maybe one million euro from
someone who have a lot of money.
And that's why this temple is building,
all Serbian people, not only one person,
all Serbian people is
building this temple.
Ah, I see, right.
And this, this is the
temple to Saint Sava.
Yes, yes.
Who was Saint Sava?
Saint Sava was the biggest-
he's the biggest Saint in
Serbian Orthodox church.
He lived at the end of second-until the
1235 in the third century.
He was a Royal Prince,
however, but he didn't want to be a King.
He only want to be a monk.
He-
Life give to the church and
for the Orthodox church.
Yes.
After the 14th century with the Turkish
army came on this ground,
on Serbian ground,
we were under the Turkey
army about five centuries.
Five.
Yes, yes.
Only what was in the
mind of the Serbian man
was the name of the
Saint Sava. Saint Sava
was the guy who lead
all the Serbian people.
And that's why when the Turkish army
saw that, they took the dead
body from the monastery militia
and bring the body of Saint
Sava here on this ground.
And they bring the Serbian
people and they burned the body.
They burned the body to see,
to show the Serbian people
how Turkish army is big,
how Turkish army is strong,
but they did the wrong.
They maybe burn the body,
but they didn't burn the
spirit of the Saint Sava.
The spirit of Saint Sava was in the mind
and heart of the Serbian people,
of the Serbian soldiers was more bigger.
And that's why on this place,
where they burn the
body of the Saint Sava,
we are building the
biggest Orthodox temple
who is named the Saint Sava
for all Serbian people.
That's wonderful. What a story.
I mean, but how Serbia has suffered
under other regimes,
you know, for so long.
Yes, yes.
But as you say the spirit survives,
and that's wonderful.
These are the mosaics.
This year, we hope that we will finish
the mosaics in the
temple. For two years,
we finished the dome.
The dome will be the mosaics.
The mosaics are a gift
from the Russian people,
Russian president Putin and
the Russian Orthodox church
to Serbian Orthodox church
and to Serbian people and
the company of the gospel.
They finished the dome
before about two years
and we are still finishing
the mosaics in the
all walls of the temple.
We, when you came to
the center of the temple
and when you turn around
yourself, everything you'll see
with your eyes will be all mosaics.
Everything, everything, yes, everything.
That's an extraordinary thought.
And so-it's just put
directly onto the stone
or onto boards covering
the stone or all mosaic is-
All 300
Russian artists in Moscow
and they are making that mosaics.
And they're bringing that
mosaics here in Belgrade.
About 90 people is now
working in the temple
and they're putting that
mosaics on the walls.
Ah right.
Before a few days came 1,200
more meters, more of mosaics
for North and East galleries
and some ornamentics
for the temple.
And I tell you, we hope that with mosaics
we will finish this year,
until the end of this year.
This time, next year, we
will be ready-finished.
That's wonderful.
That is remarkable, I
mean, looking at that,
it's just extraordinary.
So is this a,
is this a record for scaffolding?
I've never seen
scaffolding at this height.
Yes. Over here, about 65
meters until the dome.
The all temple is about
eighty to ninety meters.
And in the temple can
stay about 10,000 people.
And that is the lifts
that'll, that would take-
It is the lift for the workers now,
who are working upside at the dome, yes.
When you're up, when
you get up to the dome,
you can go out and see,
go around at the dome
and you have a lookout
and you can see the old Belgrade.
I feel nervous already.
I can feel it in the back of my legs.
I can't do this.
We will have a lift for the tourist
and the tourist when
came to see the temple,
they can go up with the lift.
I think it's a remarkable
story of survival and spirit,
as you say,
that this is happening.
It's wonderful.
Yes.
But this is not the all,
we have a understair church or crypt
and it is-
And you have a smaller church outside.
Yes. Outside, yes, outside,
but downstair, we have a something.
Something special?
Yes. You will see that.
-I will?
-You want to come with me?
I would love to, thank you very much.
Okay.
As long as we don't have to go up there.
No, no, we go down.
Wow.
Well this is
magical, magical.
You have finished this?
Yes, we finished this.
We start to build this church in 2004
and we finished that before three years.
Father of Saint Sava, his
brothers and other Serbian.
It's the Saints in Serbia
history of the Orthodox church.
Saint Lazarus lead Serbian
troops against the Turkish army,
when the Turkish army came on Kosovo,
Kosovo is the South part of the Serbian,
but the Turkish army came.
They wanted to take the Serbian land
and steal or going
upstairs in the Europe.
And they was threatened for
the all the Christianity,
people in the Europe and Saint Lazarus
was the first war against
that Turkish army.
We didn't,
our army was much smaller
than Turkish army,
but our hearts
and our strength was much bigger
than the Turkish army.
We stopped them on the Kosovo.
They catch Saint Lazarus and
they cut his head.
You could see this, this picture here.
How is Saint Lazarus giving his head,
giving his life for the Serbian country.
These are the Turks here
about to execute him?
Yes, yes.
The angel take his head, that
is why he is a Saint in our-
Everybody over the centuries
seems to want Serbian land.
Yes.
Everybody wants-
I don't know why.
Backwards, forwards, you know.
That's extraordinary.
With this picture you can see how-
Oh yes.
The body of saint Lazarus.
So I told you upstairs,
they win this war, they win this battle.
They came in Serbia and we
were under Turkish army about
500 years. A lot.
But in that 500 years, we
didn't forget who we are
and what we are able to do.
When we have
Saint Sava in our heart.
When we have a church and a faith in God
and in our hearts.
This is a gift for
you. A part of mosaic.
For me?
Next time, when you came in the temple,
the temple will be finished
and you will say,
"wow, look at the mosaics,
I have a part in my house".
Ah, but there's a bit missing.
There's a bit missing in the temple.
This is gold, right?
Yes, this is glass with
the gold paper inside.
I'll just test this for gold, hey.
Yes, gold, thank you very much.
I will come back and put it
in the space that is missing.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Well, when I was asked
to visit a motor museum,
I thought, bonnet de douche,
this is my area.
So in I went to meet the
man whose museum it was.
Welcome, welcome Boycie.
Thank you.
Bratislav.
My motors museum.
Ah well, thank you
very much. This is it.
This is all there is.
No, no.
Oh, there's more.
Oh, you have more cars.
Let me see. Let me see.
Yes, of course.
Where did this come from?
From United States.
It is capital of Indiana in America.
Oh yeah.
It's a town, Albany.
So how much is it worth?
Millions?
It is maybe half a million.
Maybe this time.
And you have a parking meter.
My euro, I must find a
euro. I must find a euro-
And put my money in here.
There.
Drive me mad.
This is very old, this very old like me.
Yeah, yeah.
Maybe not as old as me.
Yes, this is from 1902.
Is that one of the first?
One of the first Fords.
Yeah, the very first Ford.
This is, of course-
This is not the original numberplate.
Well, I don't think I could
see it on my forecourt,
you know,
perhaps a Laura Ashley interior
and clean out the ashtray,
I might be able to-
You never know, do you.
That's fantastic.
What a collection.
This is a Charron-
Our King Peter the first, from 1908.
1908? Wow.
That was driven by our first chauffeur,
first Serbian who-
Do they work? Would they run?
If you took them out on the street?
You couldn't park, of course.
But would they run?
They could still run, yeah?
Fantastic.
Well, certainly amongst this
wonderful selection of cars,
we saw some fantastic vehicles.
Not vehicles I would have
on my forecourt in Peckham,
of course.
However, there was some
fantastic stuff there,
including a collection
of president Tito's cars
and that was very evident from
particularly his Mercedes,
how he protected himself.
It's a Mercedes, look at that, yeah.
You know, four tons.
Look at the-
Oh yeah!
The glass was three centimeters.
So this was protective glass?
Yes.
Yes. Who was in this car?
Tito.
This was Tito's car?
Yes.
So he was worried that somebody
was going to do him harm,
yeah. So he would
draw the curtains.
Yes, draw the curtains and
that the division glass also.
Yeah. So this is
bulletproof and-
Bulletproof yes.
Everything would bounce off.
Yes. Yes.
So did he use this right till the end?
Yes.
Yeah? Wow.
That is fantastic, isn't it.
And his driver-
also glass, yes, of
course it would, yeah.
Gosh.
So Mercedes is for his
wife, Jovanka Broz.
I bought it from the military scrapyard.
Yes.
And repaired it-
Yeah, yeah.
So did she have thickened glass too?
No.
No.
I protect myself, but my wife is okay.
I don't believe it.
After all I've done, all
the places I've been,
I cannot get away from
this yellow, Reliant Regal.
How does this happen all the time?
Ahh.
Ohh.
No, no.
In Serbia.
It's a very popular-
Yes, so does it travel around?
Go to different places.
Yes, yes, yes.
But the Only Fools and Horses is the
number one in Serbia.
Yes. It's very
popular, isn't it?
It's very surprising to me.
Maybe New York, Paris,
Peckham and Belgrade.
And Belgrade.
I think you should put Belgrade
on there, that would be-
that would be very good, yeah.
Yes.
But it looks in a lot better condition
than the ones we used in the show.
Yes, yes.
They made me drive it
once, not in the show,
but I drove round the car
park where we were filming.
And it was the most uncomfortable-
My knees were up here by my ears.
And the thing that does that,
because of the one wheel, yes.
Smaller taxes for three-wheeler,
for four-wheel it's higher tax.
Yes.
And is not good for people who
are trying to avoid being run over.
Cause they forget there's
a wheel in the middle.
Yeah. No that's-
So where did you find this?
It came from England.
Oh, you bought it-
For 200 pounds.
200 pounds.
And drove it from London to Belgrade.
And now an unexpected pleasure.
A local artist has come up with
a fantastic view of London.
A real kaleidoscope of images.
And guess what is at the top.
A yellow Reliant Regal.
You see what I mean?
Everywhere I go, even in a piece of art,
there it is,
haunting me to this day.
Suddenly the two actors that
I'd met at the British Embassy,
they turned up with a script.
Would I be part of their
very successful show?
Mais oui, mais oui, mangetout, mangetout.
Action!
Have you decided to buy sir?
Yes, sir.
Thank you very, very much.
Is it good?
Well,
they certainly don't make
them like this anymore.
Stop!
Perfect, thank you.
It's a great pleasure for me.
It's a great pleasure.
I couldn't express-
When I-maybe tomorrow,
because my generation and my friends
that was the some kind of
festivity, when we look and we
discuss all the week until the
new Only Fools and Horses
come on our television.
It's a part of our life.
British people
and the British nation
is the great nation that
they can laugh on themselves.
It is,
the character of a big nation.
And then they're-
also they have a master actors.
While I was in Belgrade,
I was very lucky to be staying at a
hotel right in the center of Belgrade.
And there, I learnt about the
most successful businessman
in Serbia, possibly the world, who knows.
Philip Zepter.
And it was his hotel.
He's got a whole chain of hotels
and he just started off
by selling pots and pans.
I mean this
could be Boycie and his cars, I mean,
it could be the start of that, I suppose.
Boycie start of it all, but just starting
off by pots and pans and
finishing up the most successful
businessman in the countr-
This is sort of Boycie country, isn't it?
So, I think Boycie's
probably got aspirations
to be as successful as him.
Very lucky to have lunch
with the manager of
the hotels there and he
was telling me all about
all his inventions.
The stories, maybe Boycie is very good
example for us,
because everyone was
thinking that the founder
and the owner of the company was not
normal when he thought that
he's going to make millions
and billions only by the pots,
so we started with the producing of pots
thirty-five years ago.
Pots and pans for cooking?
For cooking,
and we started with that
thirty-five years ago.
Mr. Zepter was the first
one who made the fastest
first billion.
He made the first billion in three years.
The first?
Turnover, yeah. The turnover.
And Philip went off to sell
his pots and pans in Poland,
first. Was like the
first place he went.
And everybody said you're crazy.
He said, "okay I will
make maybe ten million
turnover for the first year".
They said "oh, no, that's impossible,
you want to be happy with one
million, if you make this-".
He said, "okay, I will try".
And in one year he made the
turnover of $100 million.
Wow.
Eventually I was shown up to
this rather nice apartment,
right at the top of the
building there, Belgrade.
Wonderful views out there.
Far too big for me though,
I mean we could get the
whole family there. I think
you can get about twenty-seven
people there staying the night, but
an interesting thought.
This is our presidential suite,
one of the biggest in
this part of the Europe.
350 square meters.
So you can see,
this is the kitchen.
It is fully equipt so you
can use everything, coffee.
This is what I told you,
it's a water purifying system.
Oh yes, yes.
You can try our water
or we can say, cheers.
Cheers to you.
Thank you.
How do I become a president?
So I can stay in your suite.
You stay in the suite and that's all.
So everyone will call you president.
Ah, I could get addicted to that,
very nice, very nice water indeed.
So this is the-
We have also here living room.
So where you can rest
as a president or
work as a president.
Ah, so you can bring your friends and
talk about presidential things.
Yeah. How to be a
president, how to solve
the problems in the country.
I'm blessed that.
Zepter or Zepter
Hotels or Mr. Zepter
gave me opportunity to sit with Boycie.
Boycie's visit means
to all of us in Serbia,
because all-
when we grow up,
we was watching Fools
and Horses, of course,
and everybody knows that
and everybody knows him.
But, I think, the most
important for us is that.
Boycie one of the actors who
is always doing some business,
that's what we are doing in Serbia
for the last thirty years.
We are just doing something
and it's gonna be something at the end.
So that's why he's a perfect
guide for our country.
More or less, we didn't have internet
and that period, but on
TV, they repeated always
the Fools and Horses,
because they didn't
have to do anything else
except this or the news about
bombing, so if you choose.
Fools and Horses and news about bombing,
we all chose Fools and Horses.
That's normal to escape and
to have a laugh a little
bit during that period.
As all of us are thinking that
next year we are gonna be a millionaires.
That's the most important thing for us,
so we are always thinking
and we are always acting like
we are doing some business.
So, which the-like they made
the comedy in Serbia, not in England, so
it's the same thing like
all the actors, I mean, are
from Serbia, not from England,
so for us, that's our motto.
Well, I suppose if I was doing
something really important
I might need an office, you know, but-
And you can maybe try
out some our models,
which is our gift to you,
to have this special glasses.
No, for me?
Yeah.
No, really?
You can try it.
Should I put them on?
Yeah.
Okay.
See how, how you look.
How do I look?
Yes. I look, I don't
know, how do I look?
I'm not sure they suit me
as well as they suit you,
you know.
You can find some other ones.
Oh, I don't know. I don't know.
So there's lots of choices are there?
Yeah.
Okay. I have this one
also.
What do you think?
I think they're better.
You think they're better?
Can I trust him?
I suppose I can.
Yes, you made me-
Look like a professor.
So in the darker ones,
what do I look like?
An idiot?
No.
Those are extraordinary, yeah, yeah.
So it's these or those, yes?
The choice is yours.
So if you prefer
bigger glasses, then this one.
If you-smaller ones.
The smaller ones, yeah.
I think this one is perfect.
Yes. I think so. Yes, yes.
Good. Thank you very much.
Very kind.
I'll put them back in here.
Terrific, thank you.
So is there someone in here now
who all this belongs to, or this is your,
this is where all your stuff lives, yeah?
This is where Mr. Zepter
works at the moment.
So he's staying here and
working when he's in Belgrade.
Oh, fantastic.
Well, that's very kind,
thank you very much.
Here is also a brochure.
So you can read a little bit more.
Yeah, sure, sure.
That would be good.
Hyper light optics. Wow.
Wait till I go home and I talk
to Specsavers about these.
Yeah.
They will not know
what I'm talking about.
Yeah.
Thank you very much.
That's very good of you.
Thank you.
It was a pleasure having lunch
and having time with you.
Yes, very good lunch. Very good.
She looks good in them, I must say.
Well, I was asked to
go to a shopping center
in the middle of Belgrade
and I thought, well there
might be a few people there
doing a bit of shopping, I suppose, but
that's about all.
But I was absolutely flabbergasted that
over 500 people turned up.
The extraordinary thing was
that most of them spoke English.
And not only that English
I could understand.
Hello. Yeah. Very
well thanks and you?
All the cushty here mate.
Yeah, cushty oh very cushty.
Well, it's not a word I use
my character, you know,
but that's for the lower classes.
I'm a lower class mate.
That's brilliant.
So you're from London, are you?
No, I'm not from London.
I'm from Belgrade and Stockholm.
I'm half-Swedish, half-Serbian,
but I go in London quite often.
Next month I go.
Yeah?
What on business or?
Pleasure probably, yeah.
Punk music, concerts.
Ah, fantastic.
From Australia.
And it's gonna be signed in Belgrade
and send back to where?
No, it's mine.
The security was really something else.
It was really sort of-
No.
They frightened the hell
out of me, I can tell you.
To see Boycie today?
Big stuff
here for me, you know.
I always wanted to meet someone
from Only Fools and Horses.
And now, this is the day,
you know, to meet Boycie.
And you've
brought something here for him.
What is it?
Yes, yes. This is a present.
This is a sketch from.
TV show
and the Green Green Grass.
And you drew it yourself.
Yes, yes, yes. I'm
artist, you know.
Yes, yes, this is a
special present to him.
I wanted to give it to Boycie.
Well, I'm really excited
to meet Boycie, because
he's one of my favorite actors
from Only Fools and Horses
and I watched every episode
for a couple of times, so
I'm very excited to be here.
Awaiting this, almost forty years.
Shopping center is the biggest
and most popular shopping
center in the region.
For us like leading the market is really
privilege to have the star like Boycie.
We are privileged to
host fans of Boycie here.
The great man. It's
a honor to meet
a man like him.
He's so nice. He's gentle.
He is so on the ground
and he is really a star.
I was given an invitation
to meet the health minister
and off we went, this
extraordinary building.
We met the health minister and
I was interested really, because
of the NHS here. It's a great
bone of contention, you know.
What do you do with it?
How do you support it?
How do you fund it?
So, and I wondered if it was
the same there in Serbia.
Well, as far as I can remember,
Boris Johnson started
his election campaign
from a hospital,
promising that he's
gonna improve the system
and everything else and make sure
that these things would be better.
I'm not sure if he's gonna succeed.
It's a really difficult task.
Yeah, remember Margaret Thatcher
also started a healthcare
reform, but hasn't completed it fully
and has-
It's not just a question
of throwing money.
Everybody throws more money,
but it is how it is organized.
I just wondered if you,
your system works better
than ours, that's all.
The health care is free and so on,
but you know, for certain cases,
I think you still have
to pay, which sounds like
private medicine, which
sounds very similar to us.
While we're there, we touched
on Princess Katherine,
who does some wonderful
work, charity work,
raising money to look after
people, less fortunate people.
And she goes all round
the world, raising funds
and does an absolutely remarkable job and
the health minister was very keen to say
how much good work she's doing,
so that was very gratifying.
I think the conclusion
that I've come to is that,
not only that comedy unites people,
but how lucky I was to be part
of a show like Only Fools and Horses
and being out here brings it home to me,
really how much it can help people.
When I think of the bombing in Serbia
and groups of people
escaping from that reality
into the land of Only Fools and Horses
and laughing and hugging each other,
it really brings it home to me.
That that's important.
That's the important thing,
whatever else is going on,
but that laughter, that
enjoyment, that sort of culture,
I suppose I could say,
brings everybody together.
And if only we could bottle that feeling,
just take a swig of it
every now and again,
perhaps all our problems in
this world would be over.
So, here we are in the Peckham of Serbia,
mind you I'm not sure Peckham
ever looked this good, really.
A few abandoned cars
around, a Lada or two,
maybe I could put them on my forecourt,
maybe a bit of profit here, who knows?
So, what do we got round the corner here.
Oh, hello.
So this is where you finished
up post-Brexit Del Boy.
I often wondered what happened to you.
I think you could have done
better than this though,
couldn't you?
Ever been to the Seychelles, have you?