Sir David Jason was devastated when he wasn’t asked to join Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
The 79-year-old actor worked on the 1967 children’s TV show ‘Do Not Adjust Your Set’ with Denise Coffee and the trio Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Eric Idle, who went on to form Monty Python with Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam.
And David admitted that he was upset not to be asked to join the troupe but believes that maybe they didn’t feel he was "cerebral" enough to take part.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, he said: "Absolutely. At the time my nose was well out of joint. It would have changed the direction of my career – maybe I would have gone to America and been involved in that. But I’ve had such a good time and been very successful here and done such a spread of work.
"Well, I come from a different background which maybe they didn’t want. They were all a bit cerebral. They’d all been to university. I was an actor, maybe they felt I couldn’t contribute much to the writing… maybe they thought that Denise Coffee and I would be a bit of, perhaps, dead wood."
And he says Palin was the funniest and the nicest member of the group.
He explained: "Mike Palin. Not only was he the best, and for me the funniest, but he was the nicest of them all. He used to make me laugh."
Meanwhile, the ‘Only Fools and Horses’ star believes today’s comedies cannot compete with the classics.
He said: "That’s a different question really because styles change, modern people view things differently, but by and large I would say, trying to answer your question, yes.
"Censorship made writers more creative. Del Boy calling Rodney a ‘plonker’ wouldn’t have been as funny if creator John Sullivan had just written ‘you d**k’" as writers today can do.
Sir David Jason devastated by Monty Python snub
