Doctor Who

Dani Harmer has reunited with her Tracy Beaker co-star Nisha Nayer more than 20 years after the hit CBBC show came to an end and fans were quick to react to the surprise social media post

Dani Harmer has reunited with her Tracy Beaker co-star Nisha Nayer more than 20 years after the hit CBBC show ended.

The actress, 37, was just 12 years old when she was cast in the title role of The Story of Tracy Beaker and, over the course of five series, played the tough care home kid who fantasised that her mum was a Hollywood star. Nisha played Elaine ‘The Pain’ Boyak, an incompetent social worker who was often at odds with Tracy.

The series, which is based on the books by Dame Jacqueline Wilson, aired from 2002 until 2005. The two former co-stars reunited on social media ahead of their debut at Swansea Comic Con on Sunday and urged fans to come along.

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Fans of the hit TV series rushed to the comments section to see two beloved characters reunited, with one writing: “Way too surreal seeing Elaine the Paine and Cheeky Beaker getting along like BFFs. I reckon Dani is hiding a butcher knife behind, LOL,” to which Dani responded: “Nah, she’s my bestie in real life!”

Another fan joked: “Was not expecting these two to be so happy to be in the same room,” whilst a third said: “Ahhhhh! The most iconic duo everrrrrr.”

After Tracy Beaker ended, a spin-off, Tracy Beaker Returns, followed, in which the titular character returned to work in care. When Dani opted to leave the series, it was retooled into The Dumping Ground, which is still being produced for CBBC after more than a decade on air.

Outside of Tracy Beaker, Dani has competed on Strictly Come Dancing, starred in the sitcoms Dani’s House and Dani’s Castle and ultimately returned to her signature role in 2021 for My Mum Tracy Beaker and The Beaker Girls. Prior to landing the part of Tracy, Dani had starred in West End productions of The Who’s Tommy and Annie, and is a regular in pantomime.

Meanwhile, prior to being cast as Elaine on Tracy Beaker, Nisha became known as Debra Kumar in the film Out of Hours and went on to appear in Doctor Who, Holby City and The Bay.

Other cast members of the original Tracy Beaker included former Casualty actress Lisa Coleman, who played Tracy’s foster mum Cam Lawson, and Clive Rowe, who has more recently appeared in sitcom So Awkward and the BBC’s The Hairdresser Mysteries, starred as care home chef Duke.

Just weeks ago, actress Montanna Thompson, who played Tracy’s rival Justine Littlewood, revealed that she initially landed the role of Tracy before Dame Jacqueline Wilson stepped in. “I didn’t actually audition for Justine,” Montanna said.

Speaking on the Embarrassing For No Reason podcast, the actress, 37, went on to add: “I auditioned for Tracy, and I got the phone call, and they said, ‘Oh, you’ve got the part as Tracy.’ So me and my mum was jumping around…

“We was all jumping around and celebrating and then an hour later, I get a call from the BBC. Jacqueline Wilson said she wanted to keep the illustration of Tracy original. So I was like ‘Ok’, and they was like ‘Would you like to be Justine?’ so I was like ‘Yeah, ok, great’.”

Montanna went on to tell hosts Sam Darlaston and Tatum McGreal that her mother was asked if she would “cut her hair off” as Dame Jacqueline wanted Justine to have a bob. “My mum said, ‘Well, no, not really,'” she explained. I think that’s why Justine has got the plaits, and they made that character like that.”

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EXCLUSIVE: His co-star Tessa Peake-Jones, who played Raquel, says it was ‘poignant and quite sobering’ watching the comedy legend grapple with the past

Only Fools and Horses star Tessa Peake-Jones has told how Sir David Jason felt saddened watching himself playing Del Boy in lost archive clips, as he hankered to be back in his prime.

The actress, who played his wife Raquel from 1988 for 15 years, says she enjoyed sitting with him, and other actors from the hit BBC sitcom, to watch newly discovered gems that they all believed had been lost many decades ago.

But she revealed that at times the 86-year-old became maudlin as he looked back. “You know, he’d just been knighted, he was in every programme going, Darling Buds of May, all of them. And he said, ‘There I am in my prime, and now here I am as an old man sitting watching it.’ I found that really quite moving.

“He just said, ‘Oh, I’m finding it very sad,’ and I said, ‘What do you mean?’ I ended up becoming his therapist on the sofa and he said, ‘I just I look at myself then in my prime as the best I could possibly be,’ which of course he was then – in his forties and fifties, he was more famous than anyone in Britain on telly.

“And I knew what he meant when he said he felt sad because this is us looking back on what we were, particularly for him because he was at his absolute peak. It must have felt very peculiar. You’re not ever going to be what you were then.”

And she added: “He’s still a very vibrant man, he’s got a lot of energy, he’s doing things all the time, but it was just very poignant and quite sobering.”

At the end of the first episode, which airs on Tuesday, David can’t get over how good the pair of them looked back then. “It is difficult because we are looking back at a time when we were both beautiful,” he says. Tessa responds with positivity, telling him: “Maybe we still are but we don’t see it as easily.”

But speaking afterwards she said she had also found watching the lost archive clips and outtakes difficult at times too. “Some actors really like looking at themselves. I will run a mile, I absolutely loathe it. So it was slightly torturous for me, particularly because not only are you watching scenes that you’re acting in, but you’re 30 years older.”

She believes that the secret of the comedy’s longevity is that its humour, written by the late John Sullivan and also starring Nicholas Lyndhurst as Rodney, had universal appeal. “John didn’t leave anyone out. He really cared about family and he cared about what people shared watching on telly.

“I know we all go, ‘oh, isn’t Del awful with all his scams’, but at the end of the day he’d do anything for anyone. He was kind. Looking at comedy these days, bar the odd brilliant one like Ghosts, some of them are quite cruel. It doesn’t make me laugh when you see someone being horrid about someone else.”

Tessa, now 69, says that she has received thousands of letters from fans over the years wanting to talk about her role as Raquel.

But even though she was in Only Fools for many years, she still gets more fan mail for one tiny role that she played in 2013.

“I had 30 seconds of screen time on Doctor Who,” she laughs. “But it happened to be when one Doctor becomes another. I was in a Christmas special when it happened – it was Matt Smith leaving and Peter Capaldi coming in. I must have had six lines in it, maybe seven. But I’ve had more fan mail about that 30 seconds of screen time than anything I’ve ever done in my career.”

She said the Only Fools fans aren’t far behind the Doctor Who ones. “We have many extremely obsessive fans who are almost as as powerfully connected.”

Tessa said the remaining cast from the hit sitcom were all astonished to hear that 66 bits of film, including full scenes and outtakes, had been discovered. “What’s so hilarious is that I believe all these bits and bobs were found in like a drawer at the BBC in White City,” she laughs. “Think what other gems are in drawers somewhere in those buildings. It’s extraordinary, isn’t it?”

She said it had been hard at times to work out if she even knew whether the clips had been cut from the original upsides. “I suppose you’re you’re wound up in the general whirly gig of all of it. You’re rehearsing constantly. You’re filming every weekend – life’s marching at quite a pace. So I suppose even when you record these things, if they don’t get put in, you sort of forget them.”

But, in the films, Sir David marvels at just how much ends up on the cutting room floor. He laughs: “I remember discussing it with John – we cut more jokes out than other shows had got in their entire episode.” The extra bits span 10 episodes from the 90s and cover the stories about blow-up dolls, Peckham Spring water, Cassandra’s miscarriage and Raquel giving birth to Damian., as well as the Jolly Boys coach trip to Margate.

By the time Tessa joined in 1988 the show had been on air for seven years and was a huge hit. The actress is enormously proud of the reaction her first episode got, when Derek Trotter first met Raquel on a blind date. “John wrote that brilliant script and it’s the only time the programme’s ever won a BAFTA,” she recalls. “He did that just to see what would happen for Del Boy’s character if if he was to fall in love.”

Having conceived Raquel as a one-off character, the writer quickly changed his mind. “John saw the public response and thought he could take this character of Raquel further – that it might change the dynamics of Derek and Rodney Trotter’s relationship. He thought, ‘Iet’s bring her back and see what happens’. And then a lot did happen. Such a lot.”

Unlike Sir David Tessa does not consider Only Fools to be the pinnacle of her career. “This was one of many, many things. I wouldn’t call it the thing I’m proudest of, I don’t think it’s my greatest achievement being in Only Fools, much as I’ve loved doing it. I’ve still got to meet my peak,” she laughs. “I might reach it next year.”

And well she might because 2027 brings viewers not only the last series of ITV’s Grantchester, in which Tessa has played vicarage housekeeper Sylvia Chapman since 2014, but also new Channel 5 crime series The Last Resort, in which she stars as a sixty-something sleuth alongside Caroline Quentin and Jason Watkins.

Tessa believes that, for fans, these new documentaries will be the last surprise from Only Fools and Horses, which is marking its 45th anniversary having launched in 1981.. “We’re all too old and also there is no one to carry John Sullivan’s mantle,” she says. “He was a one-off genius. So I don’t think there can be any other surprises. Thank God for things like UK Gold – who knows, in 100 years people might still be watching it.”

– Only Fools and Horses: The Lost Archive, U&Gold, Tuesday 20th & 27th October