Sir David Jason has spoken out to clarify the truth of the ‘fake news’ circulating about his alleged ‘feud’ with his Only Fools and Horses co-star Nicholas Lyndhurst.
As the iconic Del Boy, he captivated UK audiences in the hit BBC sitcom about the ups and downs of a working-class family from Peckham seeking prosperity.
Sir David, who penned his thoughts in his autobiography ‘My Life’, put aside speculation that there was bad blood between him and Lyndhurst, while also shedding light on the potential origins of such rumours.
In his words: “With Nick, I feel a little guilty about some of these fake ‘feud’ news, because what is often used as supporting evidence in these stories is a story I told about Nick and I in an earlier volume of my memoirs, Only Fools.” “We had a huge fight while filming it.”
“And we had a really big argument that day; a really spectacular fight. The kind of all-out, yelling, swearing, object-throwing Barney that relationships don’t usually come back from.”
“The only thing was, it was a brawler; an ending, a practical joke we played on the rest of the cast and crew. It was raining, the cameras hadn’t been turned on all morning; Nick and I had already exhausted the wide range of entertainment opportunities available to us in those frustrating days; namely, the newspapers.” “We would read and then we would use these papers to make paper planes. We competed and saw who could fly their plane the farthest. Frankly, we were very bored and it is famous that the devil deals with idle players.”
Sir David continued his story by telling how they were sitting in the ‘luxury caravan’ provided by the BBC, which was actually ‘a small caravan with dirty, soft furnishings’.
To amuse themselves, the actors decided to ‘start a heated fight’ to ‘convince everyone on set that we had a huge disagreement’.
Team members attempted to intervene, hoping to diffuse tensions following the pair’s mock argument. But Sir David said: “Nick and I sullenly rejected diplomacy.”
He added: “Eventually someone went and called the producer and came to see if he could use his personal magic, at which point Nick and I realized we were probably pushing this as hard as we could.”
Revealing more about his off-screen antics with Only Fools co-star Nick, Sir David shared another anecdote in his memoirs about the day they jokingly threatened to quit the show.
Sir David shared a memorable moment from the set of Only Fools and Horses that almost jokingly led him to consider retirement.
He recalled: “There is a moment in the third series of Only Fools and Horses when Del and Rodney argue over the feasibility of Rodney’s plans to go it alone in business and invest his £200 start-up capital into holiday trading, where he can cater for himself.”
“Lennard [Pearce] As the grandfather, he had almost no lines in this scene – he was just a silent presence in his living room armchair. But now, at the mention of Rodney’s proposed £200 holiday property investment, he snaps and says: ‘What have you got, Rodney, Wendy’s house? ‘”.
“It’s hard even now to find words to adequately describe the intensity of the laughter that line drew from the studio audience. The laughter went on for so long that it was about to move on to the next segment – and Nick and I did the only thing we could do. I stood there riding it while trying not to join in.”
“When we finished shooting, I stepped forward to say a few words of thanks to the audience, which I always liked to do. This time, just to piss Lennard off, I said, ‘That’s it. I’m quitting. Nick.'” Lyndhurst and I worked our butts off all evening for this show. Lennard Pearce didn’t say a word and then he just said ‘Wendy’s house’ and laughed the biggest laugh I’ve ever heard in my life.”
Sir David revealed that a strange on-set incident led the cast and crew to develop a ‘laughter rating system’ during filming; this system has become an inside joke for judging the humor in scenes.
He explained: “The laughs will be ranked according to their perceived Wendy-ness. A decent sentence might be scored as ‘mini-Wendy.’ A good sentence would be ‘sub-Wendy.’ Of course, that’s what you’d hope for, ‘all-Wendy,’ or ‘full-blown.’ It was Wendy. ‘Full-blown Wendy’ was the holy grail.”
During a revealing chat with presenter Jon Kay on BBC Breakfast, Sir David talked about the persistent “ghost” of his character Derek Trotter and admitted it was overshadowed by his other achievements.
Sir David reflected on his time in Only Fools and Horses: “My only regret” is that he felt overshadowed by Del Boy, who was reminiscent of the haunting ghosts in A Christmas Carol.
Despite his diverse acting career, Sir David lamented that most people remember him mainly as Derek Trotter: “It just puts me in the background, it makes me a little sad because that seems to be the only thing people remember me for.”
“In a way, I was so happy that it reached so many people and that they were happy with what I did with the character, but I also did a lot of other things that everyone seemed to have forgotten about. He just played Derek Trotter.”
The star expressed her deep sadness with the following words: “My real disappointment or regret, so to speak, is that I always wanted to be a National Theater actor. I always wanted to be on the National Theater stage. It was just like that. It was romantic to act in those big productions with such great, great actors.” image This never happened.”