Only Fools and Horses actor Lennard Pearce 'had the chance to kill Hitler'
His Only Fools and Horses character might have tried to avoid the war, but in real life actor Lennard Pearce once came face to face with Adolf Hitler, according to his co-star Nicholas Lyndhurst.
Lyndhurst, who played dim Rodney in the classic BBC sitcom, has said that his on-screen grandad met the German dictator before the war, and later regretted not taking the opportunity to kill him.
“He was a young actor touring Europe and they were playing some German city and the Nazis walked in," Lyndhurst said.
"The top honchos of the Nazi party had seen the play and came to congratulate them afterwards. Lennard shook hands with Adolf Hitler. He only ever told me once, but he said, ‘Had I known then what I know now, I would have drawn the pistol from one of the bodyguards and I’d have done my best to kill him.’”
Lyndhurst recounts the anecdote in tomorrow's concluding episode of The Story of Only Fools and Horses, a new documentary series about the show.
Steve Clark, author of Only Fools and Horses: The Official Inside Story, said: “We’re used to hearing Uncle Albert’s stories about his rather dubious wartime service in the navy, but it’s incredible that Lennard Pearce actually met Hitler during his rise to power and could have put a stop to him before he was able to do so much evil.”
Pearce starred in the sitcom from its first episode in 1981 until his death in 1984. The show remains one of Britain's most popular sitcoms; the 1996 Christmas episode Time on Our Hands (which featured a recording of Pearce's voice) was the most-watched single British TV broadcast of all time, drawing in more than 24 million viewers.
The Story of Only Fools and Horses is on Gold at 8pm on Tuesday October 3
Top 20 | TV shows by audience of the last 80 years
The best British TV shows of all time
