Inside Only Fools and Horses' Nicholas Lyndhurst’s 'fake' feud with co-star David Jason

Sir David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst shared the screen on Only Fools and Horses for over two decades and became two of Britain's most beloved comedy stars. Speculation has swirled for years about the pair's alleged on-set blowout, but David, 85, has since set the record straight in his autobiography My Life. He revealed that the so-called bust-up was nothing more than a prank that got out of hand on the BBC set.

He recalled: "With Nick, I feel slightly to blame for some of this fake 'feud' news, because what's often used as supporting evidence in these stories is a tale I told in an earlier volume of these memoirs, about Nick and me having an enormous fight during a location shoot for Only Fools." He went on: "And we did have a huge row that day – a truly spectacular one. The kind of all-out, shouting, swearing, object-throwing barney that relationships often don't come back from."

But the truth, he revealed, was far less dramatic. He went on: "The only thing being, it was a play-fight – a wind-up, a practical joke we played on the rest of the cast and crew. It was raining, the cameras hadn't turned over all morning – it was one of those frustrating days."

Jason also lifted the lid on the pair’s behind-the-scenes antics, revealing: "Nick and I had already exhausted the wide variety of entertainment opportunities available to us at such times – which is to say, we'd read the papers and then we'd used those papers to have a paper-plane-building competition and seen who could fly their plane the furthest.

"We were bored stiff, frankly, and the devil famously makes work for idle actors." One day, stuck in what was described as a “deluxe trailer” — really "a small caravan with grubby soft furnishings" — Sir David and a colleague staged a mock bust-up to pass the time.

"We decided to 'stage a flaming row', tricking others into thinking they were in a serious tiff," reported Coventry Live. Crew members rushed in to mediate, but Sir David said: "Nick and I sullenly refused their diplomacy."

Eventually, somebody went off and summoned the producer to come and see if he could work his personal magic, explaining "at which point Nick and I realised we had probably pushed it as far as we could."

Despite the playful drama, Sir David and Nicholas, 63, have remained close — particularly after the heartbreaking loss of Lyndhurst’s 19-year-old son, Archie, in 2020.

A source told The Sun: "He’s been in regular touch ever since and – like everyone else who cares for Nick and his family – is just trying to provide whatever support he can."

So while rumours of a feud may have fooled even the crew at the time, the iconic British TV duo are still very close pals.