 With "Only Fools and Horses" moving into its sixth series, writer John Sullivan wanted Del Boy to start looking for more mature women, rather than continually chasing 20-year-olds, and to have a long-term relationship, so he came up with the character Raquel for the 1988 Christmas special episode, "Dates".During the episode, she was introduced to Del via a dating agency and at first the two got on well.She told Del that she was a trained actress, with ambitions to have a full-time career in the profession, although her only experiences of the business had been an unsuccessful pop duo with a friend, "Double Cream".