Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Only Fools Grandad’s handshake with Hitler
Lennard’s regret over Nazi encounter
HERE’S an Only Fools and Horses tale that trumps any of Uncle Albert’s war stories – actor Lennard Pearce could have shot Hitler dead. The star, who played Grandad, met the dictator in the 30s and he later told how he wished he had killed him and stopped his murderous Nazi regime in its tracks. Lennard revealed his big chance, which came when he was in his early 20s, to f e l l o w a c t o r Ni c h o l a s Lyndhurst. Nicholas, who played dipstick Rodney in the BBC comedy, said: “He was a young actor touring Europe and th ey were pl aying some German city and the Nazis walked in. The top honchos of the Nazi party had seen the play and came to congratulate them afterwards. Lennard shook hands with Adolf Hitler.
“He only ever told me once, but he said, ‘Had I known then what I know now, I would have drawn the pistol from one of the bodyguards and I’d have done my best to kill him’.” Steve Clark, author of Only Fools and Horses – The Official Inside Stor y, added: “We’re used to hearing Uncle Albert’s stories about his rather dubious wartime service in the navy, but it’s incredible that Lennard Pearce actually met Hitler during his rise to power and could have put a stop to him before he was able to do so much evil.”
Lennard died aged 69 during the fourth Only Fools and Horses series in 1984. His was one of five deaths on the show.
The others were writer John Sullivan, Roger Lloyd Pack (Trigger), Buster Merryfield, (Uncle Albert) and Mike the landlord, Kenneth Macdonald.
Del Boy actor David Jason, 77, wrote in his new memoir Only Fools And Stories: “People talk about the curse of Dad’s Army, but surely the less noticed curse of Only Fools runs it a close second.”
Nicholas makes his revelation in Tuesday’s The Story of Only Fools and Horses, the last in the series, on Gold.