FROST SMITTEN
MARION MCMULLEN looks back thirty years to the start of Sir David Jason’s arresting role as DI Frost
SIR DAVID JASON found himself on the right side of the law in A Touch Of Frost after years flogging dodgy goods as Del Boy in hit comedy Only Fools and Horses.
The ITV crime drama launched on December 6, 1992, and saw the TV favourite in a new guise as the plain-talking Detective Inspector Jack Frost.
Sir David went on to play the role for 18 years and nearly 16 million viewers switched on to watch one particular episode in 1999.
Sir David said it was a “long time to spend in the skin of a shabby detective but, boy, I did love playing that part”.
He took on the role after finishing work on The Darling Buds Of May and his real-life older brother, Arthur White, also appeared in a number of episodes of A Touch Of Frost, as fellow copper Ernie Trigg. Caroline Harker played uniformed officer Hazel Wallace and there were appearances by future Line Of Duty star Adrian Dunbar, as well as future Hollywood actors Colin Farrell and Damian Lewis.
Sir David, who was knighted in 2005, was 70 by the time he filmed the final episodes of A Touch Of Frost – a decade older than most serving police officers.
He bowed out with a two-part special and two alternative endings were filmed, with Frost’s final scenes shrouded in secrecy.
He once described his character as “a detective to whom sergeants got seconded to learn the trade. There were a couple of regulars, but new assistants kept A Touch Of Frost fresh, gave Frost new characters to bounce off and challenge his slightly set view of the world”.