David Jason "trying desperately" for acting roles in his 80s
"I've got many characters still left to play."
This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
When Sir David Jason was invited by his publisher to write a new memoir, the award-winning actor faced a dilemma: "I said, 'I’ve done it. I’ve nothing else to say.' And he said, 'I’m sure you can find something to interest the audience…'"
They were both right. Jason has already penned a couple of autobiographies, but over the past year the actor’s life has delivered some unexpected twists and turns, notably a brand new "bionic" left hip, then the discovery of a long-lost daughter and his first grandchild.
At the end of 2022, Jason received a letter from an actress called Abi Harris, then 52, who shared her hunch that he was her father – the result of a brief relationship with her mother, actress Jennifer Hill, in early 1970.
Since a paternity test proved she was right, Jason and his wife of 19 years, Gill, have welcomed Abi and her young son Charlie into the family. "Time is helping with us all getting to know each other," smiles Jason, who tells the story in the final chapter of This Time Next Year: A Life of Positive Thinking, where he describes the "jumble of competing emotions" at their first meeting at a London hotel.
Poignantly, Abi established her birth father’s identity just before her mother died. "Apart from the occasional mutual friend’s get-togethers, I hadn’t seen Jenny for many years. But it must be comforting for Abi to know that her true story had come full circle and her mum had confirmation before her death," he tells me, when we meet close to "Jason Towers", the 18th-century farmhouse near Wendover, Buckinghamshire, where he will host Abi and Charlie at Christmas.
"We’ll share some Christmas time together and will probably play lots of games," says Jason. Charlie loves bingo – "and I’m usually the caller, which generally provides a lot of amusement!"
He’s certainly on entertaining form today, effortlessly morphing into Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter, the career-defining role he played in Only Fools and Horses from 1981 to 2003. "You walk around with the ghost of Del Boy on your shoulder or behind you, peering over your shoulder saying, 'Go on. Tell her Bonjour.' [And I’m thinking,] 'Will you shut up!?' But that is what the character would do. He’d say, 'Well, bonjour, bonjour! Bonnet de douche?'"
It’s from Only Fools, of course, that Jason’s new book takes its name. "This time next year, we’ll be millionaires..." Del Boy would tell his hapless brother Rodney – but it’s also a reflection of its author’s positive outlook and resilience.
Born David John White, Jason grew up in a working-class family in North Finchley, London, and started out in amateur dramatics while training as an electrician and mechanic. "Sometimes I think, 'How did I get that role?' I was only an amateur," he muses. "The real actors were the ones that went to drama school."
Did roles like Pop Larkin in The Darling Buds of May, Granville in Open All Hours, DI Frost in A Touch Of Frost win him his own millionaire status? "My biggest reward has been having such a fulfilling career for so many years," he replies.
"That’s what drove Derek Trotter too; when he became a millionaire he didn’t have the same chase. He realised then that riches can be counted in so many ways. Although it does help to have a few ponies in the bank."
The new book also squashes rumours of a rift with Jason and Only Fools co-star Nicholas Lyndhurst, and explains they struggle to see each other because "so often the time simply does not allow". Tellingly, it was Jason who was one of the first to support Lyndhurst in September 2020 after the death of his 19-year-old son Archie from leukaemia. "We were on the phone instantly," he says.
Jason, who turns 85 in February, intends to keep working for as long as his mind and body allow, so he bemoans the shortage of TV roles available to older actors: "I’m trying desperately to convince producers and directors that I’ve got many characters still left to play. Senior actors have got a tremendous amount to offer."
His most recent TV gig was co-presenting the 15-part BBC series Jay and David’s Touring Tool Shed with Jay Blades. The latter has since been charged with controlling and coercive behaviour against his estranged wife, and Jason confirms there will be no follow-up series. So what’s next for the national treasure? "I’m open to offers!" he beams.
He exhibits noticeably less enthusiasm for his upcoming milestone birthday. "Don’t remind me about it! I’m never a great one for celebrations like that," he laughs. "I always find it a bit tiring, a bit embarrassing, a bit, 'Just get on with it…' And the older you get, the worse that becomes!"
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