Heroes and Villains and Modern Men were watched by 21.3 million viewers while Time on our Hands was watched by 24.3 million viewers, a record for a British sitcom. David Jason said that was "a staggering number. It made me dizzy to think about it. You simply couldn't get it into your head how popular this show had grown to be".
Douglas Hodge appears as the adult 'Damien Trotter' in a futuristic, nightmare sequence that Rodney has at the beginning of the episode. At the time, Hodge was Tessa Peake-Jones' (Raquel) long-term partner.
Many people consider this and the other two subsequent Christmas Specials the story's true conclusion rather than the second trilogy five years later; it was the moment the curtain came down on Only Fools and Horses (1981). David Jason said "everything about the narrative pointed to these being the last ever episodes of Only Fools. The Trotters now officially on their way to wealth".
Everyone loved the script, but David Jason had some ideas about the costumes; they had to be tired, tatty and ill-fitting, but to get the full comedy out of the moment, they should look like Batman and Robin. And when they finally got that shot of them running through the smoke, it just lent itself even more to the ridiculous.
David Jason filmed this and the other two Christmas Specials concurrently with episodes of A Touch of Frost (1992).