Sir David Jason thinks that family values are to thank for the huge success seen by Only Fools and Horses.
Sir David Jason
The actor played wide boy Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter in the popular comedy series, and admits telling the story of Del and his brother Rodney's (Nicholas Lyndhurst) journey through life allowed those watching to connect with them.
Speaking about the show, he explained: "Nobody had done one before about families and, of course, everyone has a family. You've either got a family or in a family. One of the things that [writer] John [Sullivan] put his heart into was that he knew London, and he knew its people. He knew all about the world he was writing about and family was desperately important to him."
Sir David is seen counting down the nation's favourite episodes in a new show for Gold, and revealed that he never thought of OFAH as a sitcom, but rather as a "comedy drama" because of the character development.
Explaining how he chatted to Nicholas and Lennard Pearce - the character's Granddad - after they landed the role, he says: "We went to the bar and we were elated to get the jobs, and I said to the pair of them - because I'd had a little bit of experience of sitcoms - that his wasn't a sitcom, I'd call it more a comedy drama. What we've got here is a comedy drama. From that moment on and the way we approached it, OFAH changed the way sitcoms were viewed.
"You had a very strong narrative, and the characters were being funny during the journey they were going on."
Sir David presents 'Only Fools and Horses: The Favourites', nightly at 9pm from 31st January on Gold
Tagged in John Sullivan Sir David Jason Nicholas Lyndhurst