Joan Trotter's Boys Trivia Quiz

Answer: David Jason

By the late 1960s, although he was still only in his late 20s, David Jason had developed a reputation for being able to play elderly characters. It was while performing with Dick Emery that Ronnie Barker first saw Jason's talent, and recruited him to work on the upcoming series "Hark at Barker", a combination sitcom/sketch show for ITV, in which the main element featured a spoof lecture given by Lord Rustless, during which he would be aided by a number of other characters, including his 100-year old, incoherent gardener, Dithers, played by Jason. "Hark at Barker" ended in 1970, but the characters were resurrected two years later in "His Lordship Entertains", a sitcom for BBC2.

Answer: David Jason

When the producers of "Porridge", the prison based sitcom starring Ronnie Barker as Norman Stanley Fletcher, were looking for an actor to cast in the role of the prison's oldest inmate, "Blanco" Webb, Barker immediately suggested David Jason for the role, as he knew that the actor, despite only being in his thirties at the time, could convincingly play a character several decades older. Following on from his performance alongside Barker in "Hark at Barker" and "His Lordship Entertains", Jason eventually appeared as the 63-year old "Blanco" in three episodes of "Porridge".

Answer: David Jason

In 1976, Ronnie Barker and David Jason began working on a new sitcom that had developed from a series of pilots Barker had made three years earlier. "Open All Hours", written by Roy Clarke, saw Barker playing the role of a miserly northern shopkeeper, Arkwright, who ran his little corner shop alongside his put-upon nephew, Granville. "Open All Hours" eventually ran for four series between 1976 and 1985.

In 2013, as a result of a conversation between the pair, Clarke and Jason decided to revisit the character of Granville who, by then, had taken over his uncle's little shop, alongside many of his character traits. "Still Open All Hours" began as a series in the same year.

Answer: David Jason

In 1976, writer Terence Frisby created the sitcom "Lucky Feller", about a pair of working-class brothers in South London, starring David Jason as the lovelorn Shorty Mopstead, and Peter Armitage as his ladies' man older brother Randy. The series, produced for ITV, has been seen as a precursor to "Only Fools and Horses", with a similar setting and a situation of a supremely confident older brother and a somewhat luckless younger brother, although in this case it is Jason in the latter role.

The show lasted for a single series of 13 episodes - despite an offer of a second batch of episodes, the writer elected to end the series as he had run out of ideas.

Answer: David Jason

In 1977, "Lucky Feller" had ended and "Open All Hours" had finished its first series on the BBC, when David Jason was cast as Peter Barnes in "A Sharp Intake of Breath", a comedy pilot broadcast as part of a series of six potential pilots under the umbrella title "The Sounds of Laughter"; the episode was a success, and it was picked up as a series early the following year. Peter Barnes acts as an everyman attempting to make his way through life, alongside his wife Sheila, with at every turn his simple attempts to "get things done" stymied by people whose response to his requests is the eponymous sharp intake of breath, generally followed by innumerable excuses as to why it's impossible.

The show ran for a total of four series between 1978 and 1981.

Answer: David Jason

In 2011, David Jason, following the end of his successful ITV drama series "A Touch of Frost", returned to the BBC for the first time in a decade when he agreed to do a new sitcom entitled "The Royal Bodyguard". Playing Captain Guy Hubble, an apparently incompetent army officer who, by accident, saves the life of the Queen, who is then appointed as her bodyguard, the series began with high hopes, but quickly garnered heavy criticism, not least of which was directed at the casting of David Jason in a lead role designed more in the vein of Inspector Clouseau.

The series was not successful and was cancelled after just six episodes.

Answer: Nicholas Lyndhurst

Although "Porridge" had ended the previous year, in 1978 the BBC had sought to find some way to keep the series going, which resulted in writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, along with Ronnie Barker, doing "Going Straight", which followed the lead character, Norman Stanley Fletcher, on his life after his release from prison.

This saw the 17-year old Nicholas Lyndhurst appear in four episodes as Fletcher's somewhat vacant son, Raymond, which began to cement the young actor into the nation's consciousness. "Going Straight" ran for just six episodes, as Richard Beckinsale, who played Fletcher's ex cell-mate and future son-in-law Godber, died in 1979.

Answer: Nicholas Lyndhurst

In 1978, at the same time as he had been cast as Raymond Fletcher in "Going Straight", Nicholas Lyndhurst was also cast in another sitcom, Carla Lane's "Butterflies". Playing Adam, the younger son of Ria and Ben Parkinson (played by Wendy Craig and Geoffrey Palmer), Adam was one of two teenaged boys living with their parents and dealing with various issues that affected teenagers in the late 1970s, primarily related to youth unemployment and lack of opportunity for young people, combined with their making fun of the traditional, post-war attitude of their father. "Butterflies" ran for four series between 1978 and 1983, while a one-off special, with the entire cast, was produced in 2000.

Answer: Nicholas Lyndhurst

In 1986, at the height of the success of "Only Fools and Horses", Nicholas Lyndhurst began working on another sitcom, this time for ITV. "The Two of Us" focused on Ashley and Elaine, played by Janet Dibley, a young, unmarried couple happily living together, which at the time was still something of a controversial topic on British television.

Although within the series Elaine was content with their relationship as it was, Ashley would often propose - the couple did eventually get married and, in the final episode of the series, took a pregnancy test, although the result was not revealed. "The Two of Us" ran for a total of four series, eventually ending in 1990.

Answer: Nicholas Lyndhurst

Following the end of "The Two of Us" in 1990, Nicholas Lyndhurst continued at ITV when he was cast in another sitcom, "The Piglet Files". University lecturer Peter Chapman is reluctantly recruited by the UK's Security Service (MI5) as an equipment officer to teach the increasingly incompetent field operatives of the service how to use the equipment they have been issued with, while at the same time keeping his new employment a secret from his wife.

There were a total of three series of "The Piglet Files" broadcast between 1990 and 1992.

Answer: Nicholas Lyndhurst

By 1993, the last full series of "Only Fools and Horses" had been broadcast, while Nicholas Lyndhurst's other sitcom at that time, "The Piglet Files" on ITV, had ended. His next work came when he was cast in the lead of "Goodnight Sweetheart", a new sitcom by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, playing Gary Sparrow.

A TV repairman by profession, Gary stumbles across a portal from the present back to 1940, where he begins a double life. "Goodnight Sweetheart" proved to be one of the most popular sitcoms of the 1990s, lasting for a total of six series until 1999, with a further one-off special produced in 2016.

Answer: Nicholas Lyndhurst

In 2007, Nicholas Lyndhurst began working on his first sitcom in almost a decade when "After You've Gone" began broadcast. Starring as Jimmy Venables, who moves back to his ex-wife's house when she departs for Africa to work, to look after their children, alongside his opinionated former mother-in-law (played by Celia Imrie). the series was created by Fred Barron, who was also responsible for the hugely successful "My Family", to which "After You've Gone" was often compared.

Although reasonably successful, with a total of three series broadcast, "After You've Gone" was abruptly cancelled in 2008 during pre-production for the fourth series.