- Showbiz
- David Jason
Only Fools TV legend started acting after becoming 'fed up' with work as a mechanic to help support his family as a teenager in North Finchley, London
Sir David Jason says the freezing British winters are to thank for him entertaining the nation as Derek Trotter.
The Only Fools legend got fed up with the cold winds blowing "right up your how’s your father" while working in a garage. The actor had wanted to become a mechanic to help support his family as a teenager in North Finchley, London.
But he quit fixing cars when he became miserable in the bone-chilling conditions. Instead he tried out for amateur dramatics groups, before forging a career as one of Britain’s finest screen talents.
He said: "When I left school at 15 just before that my parents were telling me you have got to get a job... a real job. And I got myself a job in a garage, because I was interested in mechanical things.
"I was alright for six months and then winter started to come along and the drafts started to come under the doors. and when you are lying under a car that is dripping with snow and is wet.
"The draft is coming in right up your how’s your father. You thought: 'I don’t really enjoy this anymore'."
The actor - who has also starred in Open All Hours and A Touch of Frost - says meeting girls was part of the reason he joined a theatre group.
He revealed: "Just before I left school I was cast in the school play which we entered in a drama festival.
"We win the festival and a gentleman came up to me afterwards to congratulate me and the team and I said I just wonder if you would be interested in joining an amateur theatre group. Me and my mate thought we don’t want to do that do we?
"We have got 20 girls and no boys. And we responded: 'when can we start?' And I am afraid it was as simple as that. I got the bug from that. I was very shy.
"It gave me an opportunity to hide myself and project myself into a character that I was playing. That allowed me to come out of my shell."
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