Sue Holderness got pinched on the bottom by Sir David Jason the first time she met him on the set of ‘Only Fools and Horses’.
The actress portrayed Marlene Boyce, the wife of car salesman
Boycie (John Challis), in the acclaimed BBC sitcom from 1985 to 2003 and the couple are two of the best loved ensemble characters, even going on to get their own spin-off show ‘The Green Green Grass’ which ran from 2005 to 2009.
Sue, 67, was brought in as the character for the episode ‘Sleeping Dogs Lie’ in which Boycie arranges for his friends Derek ‘Del Boy’ Trotter (David) and his brother Rodney Trotter (Nicholas Lyndhurst) to look after Marlene’s cherished pet Great Dane dog Duke.
She was initially only hired for one appearance and was thrown into the deep end with no rehearsal and an instant bottom grabbing for the cameras.
During an appearance on ‘Loose Women’ on Wednesday (22.02.17), Sue recalled: "My first ever appearance with David Jason we had no time to talk and the director said, ‘Right, Sue we’ve got no time to rehearse, please run over to David and he’ll give you a hug, give you a bit of a snog, and pinch your bum.’ They only wanted me for one episode to hand over a dog in this story in which Boycie wanted Del to look after the dog and they thought, ‘Where’s the dog going to come from. Oh we’ll get Marlene, show her once and get her on and off quick.’ But from that scene he called me and that was it. John Sullivan put me in ‘Dear John’ and then the spin-off (‘The Green Green Grass’), I was very lucky."
Sue was appearing on the daytime show with Shaun Williamson to speak about their new comedy play ‘Out of Order’ – written and directed by Ray Cooney and also starring Andrew Hall, Susie Amy and James Holmes.
And former ‘EastEnders’ actor Shaun, 51, admitted he will be taking the opportunity to grill his co-stars about their most famous roles when they tour the UK together.
He said: "I’m too old to be cool so I’ll spend on night with Sue over a pint asking her everything about ‘Only Fools and Horses’ and I’ll spend a night with Andrew Hall talking and then one night with James Holmes on ‘Miranda’. These people have got very long CVs but these are great shows. I’m going to bore them one night each individually."
Sue Holderness had a cheeky start to Only Fools and Horses career
