David Jason

He was born in Edmonton, London, and started his career at the same time as Michael Palin in At Last the 1948 Show. He appeared in variety shows in support of stars such as Dick Emery. He appeared, most notably as a spoof super-hero Captain Fantastic, in Do Not Adjust Your Set, and co-starred with Denise Coffey[?] in End of Part One[?]. He was somewhat ahead of the Austin Powers and Johnny English film genre in an inventive TV series about an inept spy called The Secret Life of Edgar Briggs. Humphrey Barclay, who recruited David to Do Not Adjust Your Set partly to offset the rather intellectual style of Idle, Jones and Palin, admired David's masterful sense of timing. This was of course in an era when British performers such as Peter Cook, Marty Feldman, Tony Hancock, Benny Hill and Kenneth Horne were all regularly demonstrating superb timing skills to humorous effect.

Jason went on to play Dithers, the hundred-year old gardener to Ronnie Barker and co-worker of a maid played by Josephene Tewson[?], in Hark At Barker[?], then Blanco in Porridge, a prison-based comedy also starring Ronnie Barker, then junior employee Granville in Open All Hours, starring Ronnie Barker as the proprietor of a general store.

This was followed by his most enduring and popular role, that of Del Boy[?] in Only Fools and Horses, a wide-boy who makes a dubious living in Peckham south London trading in stolen goods with the assistance of his brother (played by Nicholas Lyndhurst) and Grandad (played by Lennard Pearce[?]) or, latterly, Uncle Albert, played by Buster Merryfield[?]. In this role David popularised some slang words; examples being the mild insults "dipstick" and "plonker" and the celebratory "lovely jubbly".

He has also played serious roles, for example as Detective Jack Frost in the TV series A Touch Of Frost[?] and acted with Catherine Zeta-Jones in the rural Kentish tale The Darling Buds of May[?] (based on the H.E. Bates novel).

He also provides the voice of Dangermouse[?] and does several other cartoon voice-overs.

TV:

• A Bit of a Do
• A Sharp Intake of Breath
• A Touch of Frost
• All the King's Men
• Amongst Barbarians
• The Darling Buds of May
• David Jason...In His Element
• Lucky Feller
• March in the Windy City
• Only Fools and Horses
• Open All Hours
• Porridge
• The Bullion Boys

Films:

• Royal Flash[?]
• The Odd Job[?]