Sir David Jason has one present he wants for Christmas this year from the BBC - the chance to finish his sitcom Still Open All Hours.
The legendary comic actor who played Del Boy in Only Fools, also made his name as Granville in the other BBC comedy Open All Hours with Ronnie Barker from 1976 until 1985. Follow up series Still Open All Hours ran for six series until 2019 on the BBC but a final series remains unmade and the storyline unfinished.
Asked if it is ever going to be finished, 84-year-old David said: "That would be wonderful, but you'd have to get in touch with Mr. BBC about that. The script is written by Roy Clark. It's there and all it needs is the BBC to commission it and everybody that was in the original in the series was up for doing the last series because everybody thought it would be nice to the sew up the parcel, the one that Granville gets married to Wavy Mavy(Mavis), which we haven't done, but that is what it's about. Finally he makes an honest woman of her."
Image:
BBC)Asked if it will happen, he added: "I'd like to think so, yes, but because the gap is getting longer without a commission… You can't commission it and do it next week. You have to put all the bits together. That takes a lot of time putting that together. So the longer you don't commission something, the more you get in trouble pushing it away."
Sir David was speaking as he promoted his latest biography which came out this Christmas. For many years he was a staple of Christmas Day TV as Del Boy on Only Fools. And earlier this month he attended a gala performance of Only Fools. Sir David credits Open All Hours co-star Ronnie Barker for some of his success on screen.
He said: "Ronnie wasn't aware of the influence that he was having on me and I kept it quiet, as you do. But was an amazing influence and one of the big things that I tried to emphasise in thebook was he was one of the kindest, nicest actors to work with. Most of them are, to be honest, but Ronnie was special."
The original Open All Hours was set in a grocer's shop in South Yorkshire. The owner, Albert Arkwright was played by Ronnie Barker and was a middle-aged man who was tight with his money but also had a knack for selling. His nephew Granville was played by David Jason) and was a put-upon errand boy lacking a social life because of the amount of work his uncle gave him.
* This Time Next Year - the new memoir for 2024 by David Jason is out now, published by Penguin.
Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .
English (US) ·