Only Fools and Horses legend David Jason has bemoaned role opportunities for older men on telly.
The comedy great – best known as Del Boy Trotter – was fed up getting offered small roles and cameos.
Sir David, 84, sighed: “I had grown concerned in that period of recovery after the pandemic that I was now officially subject to the law of diminishing parts.
“It seemed to me for a while that I was destined from this moment to get offers to appear in things – but only very briefly. We’d only need David for two days.’ That was a sentence I grew used to hearing. Or: ‘We’d only need David for a day and a half.’
“And most worrying of all: ‘We’d only need David for an hour or so’. That last one, incidentally, seemed to be offering me the chance to walk up the path from a church and say ‘Good morning’ to someone.
(Image: BANG Showbiz.)
“That was to be the sum total of my contribution to this drama, as things stood. I mean, I suppose I’ve done less in my time. But not that much less.”
Sir David reckons he is worth more after a stellar career starring in a raft of other hits shows like Darling Buds of May and A Touch of Frost.
He continued: “Now, I appreciate that a person should always be grateful for small mercies, and that, as we used to say on Only Fools, it’s better than a kick up the bot from Bobby Charlton.
“But it would be nice in general to see a few more proper parts going to the older actor, wouldn’t it? And I don’t just mean replacement hips. So maybe there’s some campaigning to be done.”
In his new book This Time Next Year, the national treasure revealed he and TV writer Roy Clarke – who penned shows like Open All Hours and Last of the Summer Wine – even pitched a comedy series idea about a group of “oldies”.
He said: “Roy Clarke had a great idea not long ago for a comedy series about a village where an entrepreneur has decided to come in with his bulldozers and build some kind of moneymaking monstrosity to the detriment of the neighbourhood.
“And the oldies in the village form a vigilante group who creep around sabotaging this building project to the best of their abilities. I thought it had a lot going for it, yet Roy couldn’t get it away. In a better world, I think he would have done.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
