I’ll never retire because I still get a thrill from entertaining... but not getting Monty Python role was a blow
DAVID JASON ON 50 YEARS AS A TELLY LEGEND
RETIRE at 77? Au contraire. Sir David Jason may have been one of our biggest TV stars for 50 years but don’t dare suggest that maybe he’s had enough.
“People ask me if I am thinking of retiring” he says. “Well it doesn’t occur to me. Different day, different challenge, different way. Lovely jubbly.”
It seems the famous catchphrases of his legendary character Del Boy Trotter in Only Fools and Horses, have seeped into his speech as much as they have the national consciousness.
From Porridge to the Darling Buds of May and A Touch of Frost to Open All Hours, he has an enviable list of shows to his credit. Many in the same position would have already put their feet up for good, not Sir David.
“I’ve been lucky enough to do this fantastic job now for more than 50 years” he adds. “To make people laugh, to entertain, create a wide range of emotions. It has always been a tremendous thrill for me and it still is.”
To celebrate his 50 years on TV, the actor has taken an emotional trip down memory lane for a new show, David Jason: My Life on Screen, from his childhood in Finchley, North London, to finding TV stardom – with a few hiccups along the way.
He was born David White during the war, in February 1940, to Arthur, a porter at Billingsgate Fish Market, and Olwen, a char lady. His twin brother died at birth and Sir David grew up with older brother Arthur and little sister June.
He says: “It was a poor workingclass family, we didn’t have electricity, it was gas, we didn’t have a fridge. We never aspired to anything, you didn’t in those days.”
But what he lacked in aspiration, young David made up for with his sense of humour. It was at school he got his first taste of acting, in the school play. “At that age you would have said the chances of me finding fame and fortune were about as likely as me flying to the moon,” he says. “I was never good academically. It was mainly my own fault.
“One of the things I did achieve at was making other kids laugh. It was a safety valve really, in order to survive being beaten up. I was small and spindly, the answer was to make the devils laugh. And whilst they are laughing they are too busy to beat you up to give you chance to run away.”
The school entered the play into a drama festival, which they won and David caught the eye of the man in
charge of a local theatre group. He adds: “He came up to me and said, ‘I wondered if you had thought about joining an amateur theatre group?’ My friend and I looked at each other and went, ‘Oh it’s not for us.’
“He said we have 18 girls and we have got no boys. We both looked at each other… when can we join? Ever since acting has been my life.”
But David didn’t find instant stardom. He juggled acting with his job as an electrician. His break came in 1967 while doing a summer season on Bournemouth Pier. He was spotted by a pro du c e r looking for new comic talent to star in a children’s TV sketch show, Do Not Adjust Your Set, written by unknown actors Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Eric Idle.
“At last this was the opportunity I had been waiting for to make a name for myself on television and one I intended to take with both hands,” he explains. “It was so popular because of the madness.”
Here he honed the comic skills that would one day make him famous.
But unbeknown to David, Palin and his pals were concocting a whole new comedy show, Monty Python – with no plans to have David in it.
It was to become one of the most iconic TV shows of all time. David says: “Missing out on Monty Python was a real blow at the time. I sometimes wonder how things would have been different if I had been invited to join Monty Python, but as the saying goes, one door closes another opens.”
Through that open door he met Ronnie Barker and the pair went on to be lifelong friends.
Roles in Porridge, The Odd Job and Open All Hours followed. David says: “Ronnie would become both a wonderful friend and a great teacher to me. I owe him a great deal for the life and career that I have had.
“He was such a genius. I used to call him the guv’nor because he was.”
With Ronnie’s help, David established himself as a top TV comedy sidekick. But he still craved a starring role in his own right.
His first shot was in The Top Secret Life of Edgar Briggs, but the show was axed after just one series.
Next, he became Shorty in Lucky Fella. It too was dropped. He was 40 when he first read the script for Only Fools and Horses and knew immediately he had to get the part of Del Boy. After having played older codgers such as Blanco in Porridge, some at the BBC questioned David’s suitability for the role. But when he, Nicholas Lyndhurst and Lennard Pearce – who played Rodney Trotter and grandad – sat and read the scripts, the chemistry was instant.
David, who has a daughter Sophie Mae, 16, with wife Gill Hinchcliffe, said: “Against the odds, I got the part. For inspiration I went back to my own working-class roots and remembered a real life East End wheeler-dealer I met whilst working as an electrician, Derek Hockley.
“He impressed me so much that I thought that has got to be Del Boy.
Del Boy’s catchphrases such as “Rodney, You Plonker” and “One day Rodney we’ll be millionaires” had millions of people in stitches.
David says: “It was the age of the yuppie and oversized mobile phones. Millions of wannabe entrepreneurs all with plans of how to get rich quick. Del Boy captured the moment. After two decades on television it brought me a level of fame way beyond anything I had expected.”
In 1996, 24 million viewers tuned in to watch Del and Rodney finally become millionaires. The series ended in 2003. Writer John Sullivan had planned a special episode for Del’s 60th birthday in 2010, but died before he got a chance to write it.
David also tackled more serious drama. His part as Scullion in Porterhouse Blue won him a best actor Bafta. He played Pop Larkin in Darling Buds of May and Detective Jack Frost in A Touch of Frost.
The star plays hapless Granville in Still Open All Hours.
Despite his stardom here, he never wanted to head across the pond.
David says: “Despite offers I have never felt the urge to try to make it in Hollywood. There are too many interesting parts for me to play here.
“I have been so fortunate. I always say, it is not the arrival, it is the journey. And there is still more to the journey left hopefully. I will continue to entertain the great British public. Because that is what I love doing.”
David Jason: My Life on Screen airs this Saturday at 6pm on Gold.