SIR David Jason, best known for his iconic comedy series, Only Fools and Horses, also popped up in another legendary show.
It has been revealed that the comedic icon appeared in The Two Ronnies series as the voice of the Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town.
David had long worked with Ronnie Barker, but his appearance in the 1976 sketch has come as a surprise to many.
The Jack the Ripper parody sketch tells of a psychopathic killer roaming the streets to Victorian London who attacked and murdered his victims by blowing them a raspberry.
Rumours had long circulated that the Irish comedian, Spike Milligan, was the voice of the character but David revealed in his 2013 autobiography called David Jason: My Life.
Milligan did in fact write the character which had first appeared on the show, Six Dates with Barker in 1971 and later adapted by Ronnie for his own sketch series.
“In 1976, The Two Ronnies included a weekly serial called The Phantom Raspberry Blower Of Old London Town, about an elusive figure who does for people by leaping out and blowing raspberries at them, and I was given the honour of providing the raspberries for the soundtrack,” David wrote in his autobiography.
“As Ronnie B knew, few people blow a raspberry as well as me. Indeed, I consider myself a world leader. But still Ronnie monitored my raspberry-blowing extremely carefully, for volume, tone and duration.”
David added: “At one point, he had me in the sound booth while he stood on the other side of the glass, and he conducted me, very earnestly, in an entirely blown-raspberry version of the 1812 Overture.
“I still have the credit board, which reads ‘Phantom Raspberry Blower — David Jason’ and I’m enormously proud of my contribution to that little moment of comic history.”
The character was so popular it got its own stage adaptation decades later.
Name after the raspberry-blowing killer, the theatre play debuted at St James Theatre in 2015 and performed a special show for the Princes Trust, before heading out on a UK tour the following year.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Only Fools and Horses legend Sir David Jason slams ‘vulgar’ TV scenes as he reveals his BBC rule book” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6364031281112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]David is most known for his work on Only Fools and Horses, A Touch of Frost and Darling Buds of May.
The star has been given a series of accolades in recognition for his work in acting and comedy – being given and OBE in 1993, before being knighted in 2005.
[authenticated-scripts src=”%3Cscript%20class%3D%22palin-poll%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesun.co.uk%2Fpollingwidgets%2Fv3%2Fwidget.js%3Fquestion_id%3D109565%26game%3Dpolling%22%3E%3C%2Fscript%3E” type=”embedded” width=”100″ /]His most iconic role was as Derek “Del Boy” Trotter in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses.
The sitcom was based in Peckham, South East London and ran from 1981 to 1996 – with specials in 2001, 2002 and 2003.
