Paul Barber believes any new ‘Only Fools and Horses’ episode must deal with the real-life death of Roger Lloyd-Pack.
The 62-year-old actor plays Denzil in the classic sitcom and although he is excited about the rumours there could be a new instalment he believes the show can’t be the same following the passing of Roger, who portrayed dimwitted cleaner Trigger, in January.
Paul insists Trigger’s absence must be a key part of the plot in any comeback show.
When asked if it would be hard to bring the comedy back without Roger, Paul told BANG Showbiz: "Exactly, yeah. If they do bring it back, you’re going to have to be showing Roger in flashbacks. The scenario could be that you have all the surviving cast members sitting in the Nag’s Head and everybody is reminiscing about Trigger and it cuts to famous scenes.
"Personally, I think it would be hard for a lot of the actors because anybody who’s worked with Roger knew how talented he was. You know, he was classically trained, he could do Shakespeare. It was always a buzz going into rehearsals knowing that Roger was in the scene. I used to love doing my scenes with Roger. Anybody who’s ever worked with Roger looked forward to it because you just never knew how he was going to deliver his line."
The actor – who can be seen playing Captain Jack in the next episode of ‘Death In Paradise’ – is definitely up for reprising his role as Denzil again.
However, Paul insists he is always the last to know if there is going to be another ‘Only Fools and Horses’ and only found out that Sir David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst had reprised their roles as Del Boy and Rodney for an upcoming Sport Relief sketch with David Beckham when he saw it on TV.
He said: "I didn’t even know about the ‘Sport Relief’ sketch with Beckham until I saw a photo on the news. I am always the last one to know about ‘Fools and Horses’, whether we’re going again or another special or anything else. It’s just like Denzel’s character, I’m always being stitched up, you know what I mean? One time I was in a taxi in London somewhere and the taxi driver said to me, ‘Oh so you’re going to be doing more ‘Only Fools and Horses’ then.’ And I said, ‘I don’t know.’ By the time I got home that day there was a message on my answering machine from my manager saying, ‘Get down to Bristol we’re going again.’
He jokingly added: "But you know, we’ve made so many comebacks we’re beginning to sound like Frank Sinatra!"
‘Death In Paradise’ continues on Tuesday 18 February at 9pm on BBC One.
Paul Barber: Trigger needs to be part of Only Fools and Horses comeback
