Ninety minutes of David Jason’s finest moments? Lovely jubbly!
ALL right, ladies and gents, let’s be having you, it’s Christmas quiz time. today’s special prize is a one-legged turkey— hold it up, Rodders, let the customers have a good gander at the bird.
this magnificent bit of festive poultry is free for £10 to the first person who can tell me which of these unlikely facts about David Jason is actually true. It should be easy, if you were paying attention during Britain’s Favourite TV Star (C5), a celebration of the Del Boy actor at 80. So which is it: A) He is famous for his rude noises — so good that Ronnie Barker hired him to supply the ‘ thhwwwrrpppps’ for the Phantom Raspberry Blower on the two Ronnies. B) He is a brilliant impressionist, who played Prime Minister Jim Callaghan in the satirical Radio 4 series Week Ending. C) A surviving twin (his brother died at birth), he grew up a tearaway in North London and was hauled in front of the juvenile court for stealing five bits of lead piping. D) He was nearly a founding member of Monty Python’s Flying Circus after starring in an ItV children’s show called Do Not Adjust Your Set, with Michael Palin, terry Jones and Eric Idle. E) He based Del Boy on a Cockney builder who dressed like a West End toff.
If you think you know the answer, please send a cheque for a tenner, care of the Daily Mail tV department. I thank you. Every one’s a winner, because all those improbable biographical details are true.
this enjoyable 90-minute salute to the man born plain David White (he borrowed his stage name from Jason And the Argonauts) was crammed with well- chosen clips, including a glimpse of him in Crossroads in the mid-1960s and another from a PG tips ad with him holding a giant teabag. He paid his dues, before he found stardom on Only Fools And Horses.
Before that, he was Ronnie Barker’s foil as Granville in Open All Hours, and played a supporting role as the old lag Blanco in Porridge. Sir David reveres Ronnie as his mentor, and it was touching to see them reunited at the Baftas in 2003, when Jason proudly referred to Barker as ‘the Guvnor’.
Heartfelt appreciation came from other co- stars including tessa Peake- Jones, who was Raquel in Only Fools. Philip Franks (tax inspector Charley in the Darling Buds Of May) summed it up best: ‘He has that quality when he walks on screen — you think: “Oh good, it’s you.” ’
Another character on his way to becoming a national treasure is Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford. It’s impossible not to admire the 23-year- old, who is using the power of his celebrity to help feed children from under-privileged homes.
Inevitably and cynically, his good intentions are being twisted for political profit. Marcus Rashford: Feeding Britain’s Children ( BBC1) betrayed the Beeb’s own anti- Conservative bias, as it turned into an exercise in bashing the Government.
One especially partisan segment showed how backbencher Robert Halfon worked to help the Rashford campaign, as the narrator sneered that a tory MP was ‘an unlikely ally’.
Political partiality has become so ingrained at the BBC that I believe they honestly don’t know they’re doing it.
Much of the documentary was filmed in the back of limousines. So ask yourself this — if the BBC interviewed a Cabinet minister, lounging in a chauffeured car as he talked about child poverty, how loudly would the voiceover sneer about that?