Don’t mention the F-word
Thanks to Only Fools and Horses, Nicholas Lyndhurst is one of the most recognisable faces in Britain. Just don’t tell him he’s famous, Michael Donaldson writes.
Nicholas Lyndhurst is famous in that slightly awkward ‘‘don’t I know you from somewhere?’’ fashion. ‘‘People used to think I lived next door but one – they knew my face but didn’t know where from,’’ Lyndhurst says, in what turns out to be a very rare interview. ‘‘They’d go ‘how’s your mum?’ ‘Fine’. ‘You still at No 21?’ ‘Yeah’. It’s a lot easier to agree rather than say ‘sorry you’ve been mistaken’.’’
He attributes his boy next-door-but-one fame to the fact his career has followed ‘‘a gradual recognition curve’’ – as opposed to modern famous-15-minutes-ago trend of reality TV stars and talent show performers (more on them later).
Lyndhurst is one of Britain’s best known comedic talents, most famous for his role as Rodney (you plonker) opposite David Jason’s Del Boy in Only Fools and
Horses, a show watched by approximately half of Great Britain when the 19th and final Christmas special ran in 2003.
Before that he was the son of Ronnie Barker’s Fletch in Going
Straight, the sequel to Porridge, before a stint on Butterflies (the real purpose of our interview) with Wendy Craig and Geoffrey Palmer.
Despite being in the homes of most Brits (and quite a few Kiwis) most weeks for the best part of 40 years, real fame – as measured by regular appearances in the British tabloids – passed him by. At lot of that has to do with the fact he runs from the ‘‘pack of wolves’’ that is British media, shunning interviews and photo shoots.
Fame and it’s many false faces is something dear to Lyndhurst. He got the acting bug at a young age – going to drama school at 10 – but never wanted to be in the public spotlight. As a result he was in two minds when his son Archie – ‘‘despite me protesting about it’’ – announced he too wanted to be an actor.
Lyndhurst told his wife Lucy he would support Archie’s choice as long as he never uttered the ‘‘f-word – famous’’.
So far Archie, 15, has pleased his father and is making his own way along the gradual recognition curve with a part in a popular children’s drama So Awkward.
‘‘He started small and whatever recognition he gets is enough to handle, but he’s like me, he doesn’t like it. If we could both take our faces off and put another on it would be ideal.’’
Lyndhurst feels lucky to have made the best of his career in an era before instant fame, social media, and insatiable digital news desires – and is grateful to have separated his job as a performer from his private life.
‘‘I don’t know many actors socially but the ones I do know are crushingly shy – among actors I’m not alone in that when I go to another country and someone asks me what I do, I’ll make something up. I’ll say ‘I’m a pavement inspector’ – it’s a way to stop the conversation dead.
‘‘I wish I knew – I still don’t know why – I became an actor. My son would probably give you the same answer – we were just drawn to it.
‘‘But I don’t think I could have started my career now when there is a tremendous blurring between your job and your private life.
‘‘For those of us in their 50s, the papers aren’t much interested in what we flaunt on the beach in Dubai – but for the up-andcoming generation it seems to be you do the publicity first and you get everyone interested, and then they see the show. One minute they’re normal people and the next they have the press camped outside their door and interviewing all your exboyfriends and girlfriends.
‘‘The prime example is the Kardashians. I looked at their TV ratings because I thought ‘Oh my god these girls are everywhere’ – they are in the tabloids every day and online – but when you look at the ratings of their show, most of the BBC’s children’s shows double their ratings. And yet there they are every day – part of the famehungry phenomenon sweeping our country.’’
Lyndhurst is so incensed by the nature of reality TV and so-called talent shows he compares them with the practice of selling tickets to mental institutions a century ago so people could watch the ‘‘lunatics’’.
‘‘I don’t think we’ve gone much further with reality TV and talent shows.
‘‘These people are clearly delusional and yet they get up on stage with the four judges and everyone knows there’s something wrong, but they are allowed to perform – I think it’s cruel. I don’t quite see where it’s going to end – what’s going to happen on some of these talent shows?’’