The strong bond between Del Boy and Rodney Trotter that millions loved has been carried over into real life - with Sir David Jason offering support when Nicholas Lyndhurst needed it. Sir David has been there for actor Nicolas following the death of his son Archie in 2020 caused by a condition called Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma/Leukaemia.
Sir David said: "Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely I have been there for him and he was very grateful, and his wife was particularly grateful, for that contact, but sort of said, in not so many words, that we're going through this really, really tough time and a lot of people are wanting interviews and press, he said ‘Don’t worry if we don’t get in contact with you, because everybody and his brother wants us and we don’t want to do that. We just want to get on with life and grieve quietly on our own’, which you would respect. "So I haven't physically seen Nick or his lovely wife since then, but we have spoken on the phone, and my wife has spoken to his wife, and we understand it hit them really, really hard."
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Internet Unknown)Looking back fondly on their time on screen, which is loved by millions, he adds: "We had such a wonderful working relationship and we became quite close friends, which is not that unusual for me, but it does become a bit unusual for partnerships in general, of television or film series because sometimes you've got two personalities that were perhaps quite individual and quite dominant in their own worlds, their own career, both on separate paths.
"Then you put them together to form a partnership with Nick and I, and that closeness could cause friction and then you start to drift apart. Fortunately, that never happened with Nick and I. We got on and we had such good fun, and that’s why we did such silly things like pretending to have a row, shaking the caravan, shouting at each other and making sure that the rest of the crew knew that we were having a row. That’s all it was. We were having a laugh, having some fun - together."
Sir David was giving an interview to promote his new memoir and also spoke about his growing relationship with daughter Abi he didn't know existed for 52 years.
He said: "The shock of the news that I had an undiscovered daughter is wearing off but, like I say in the book, we are slowly getting to know each other and things are working out on this voyage of discovery."
Plans are now afoot for another festive day together around Christmas, before a small party in February for his 85th birthday. In the book, Sir David spoke of experiencing “wonder and amazement, through anxiety and heartache, to fear and outright panic” when he learned about Abi through an "astonishing" letter she sent to him. Only Fools and Horses was first broadcast on BBC One in September 1981. It ran for seven series and sixteen Christmas specials until 25 December 2003. In total, 64 regular episodes of Only Fools and Horses, all written by John Sullivan, were produced.
* This Time Next Year - the new memoir for 2024 by David Jason is out now, published by Penguin.
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