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David Jason hits out at Only Fools and Horses tower block demolition

Sir David Jason has hit out at plans to demolish a tower block used as the setting for ‘Only Fools and Horses’.
The sitcom’s main star – who played Derek ‘Del Boy’ Trotter in the BBC show – believes Harlech Tower, which was used as the exterior for Del and his plonker brother Rodney Trotter’s (Nicholas Lyndhurst) home Nelson Mandela House, should be a protected building.
He said: "Of course I think it should be a listed building. What a shame. But they are not going to listen to me are they?"
As Del would not doubt say, David, 78, describes the building – which is based in Ealing, west London – as a "proper block of flats".
Speaking at the premiere of Cirque du Soleil’s ‘TOTEM’ show at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Wednesday evening (16.01.19), he added: "It was a proper block of flats and it was of its time, which was fine and is probably why we used it. It was great.
"Del Boy would say, ‘Next time this year Rodney we will be billionaires.’ And he’d be right. They are now aren’t they now?"
Harlech Tower is to be knocked down to make way for new flats after Ealing Council granted outline planning permission for 1,950 homes in December.
There are more than 3,000 planned for the future, with half set to be offloaded to private buyers.
While Harlech Tower is in west London, the sitcom was set 13 miles away in east London’s Peckham.
Last year, an ‘Only Fools’ super-fan splashed out £28,000 on pocket watch which made Del and Rodney millionaires in the sitcom.
The timepiece – which was known as the Harrison Lesser Watch in the show, in which it sold for £6.2 million at Sotheby’s 1996 Christmas special ‘Time on Our Hands’ – was expected to fetch around £15,000 at auction.