MICKEY PEARCE (PATRICK MURRAY)
He talked a big game! Wheeler dealer Mickey Pearce, played by Patrick Murray, was seen in 20 episodes of the show, starring as Rodney’s best friend
In 2018, Murray, no longer with his trademark moustache appeared alongside John Challis – better known as Boycie to viewers – on ITV’s Loose Women
Patrick Murray became a familiar face thanks to his recurring role as moustachioed wheeler dealer Mickey Pearce in Only Fools and Horses.
Rodney’s friend Mickey was prone to exaggerating his achievements both in business and with women, and would think nothing of waltzing off with a girl that Rodney liked.
After appearing in 20 episodes, he went on to star in films the Curse of the Pink Panther and The Firm before turning his attention away from acting.
A brief career as a professional poker player, a bricklayer and a job as a taxi driver also followed.
After marrying his wife, Josie, from Thailand, the couple faced heartache when they were separated due to visa restrictions for almost two years, with Murray working as a chauffeur to earn enough money to bring his wife and their young daughter to live in the UK.
He said at the time: ‘I only saw my baby on the phone for two years, I was a Skype dad.’
He revealed on Loose Women in 2018 that the family had successfully been reunited.
But yesterday, Murray sadly confirmed that his lung cancer has returned.
The actor, 66, had said last year that the tumour in his liver was shrinking and his cancer appeared to be ‘cured’.
Murray told his Twitter followers that ‘despite all the wonderful efforts’ of staff at Guy’s, Medway Maritime and King’s College Hospitals his ‘lung cancer has returned’.
The actor, also known for the 1970s’ films Scum and Quadrophenia, added: ‘I thought I had a painful groin strain a couple of months ago, unfortunately that turned out to be the cancer getting into my pelvis and leg bones.
‘It has also entered my lymphatic system.’
He said he is having a combination of radiology treatment and chemotherapy and that doctors are hopeful for his survival.
He revealed in January 2022 that he had an operation to have a cancerous lung tumour in its early stages removed, followed by chemotherapy.
Subsequent scans found another tumour in his liver that was unconnected to his lung cancer and also treatable.
He also said he received transcatheter arterial chemoembolisation (Tace), a minimally invasive procedure performed in interventional radiology to restrict a tumour’s blood supply.
TRIGGER (ROGER LLOYD-PACK)
Trigger – real name Peter Baker – struggled to comprehend that Rodney Trotter wasn’t called Dave during much of the comedy series
Roger Lloyd-Pack played one of the show’s most likeable characters, road sweeper Colin ‘Trigger’ Ball, who famously always called Rodney by the name of Dave.
The actor sadly died aged 69 in 2014 following a battle with pancreatic cancer.
He also appeared in another much-loved British comedy, as Owen Newitt in The Vicar of Dibley, which aired in the 90s and also returned for one-off specials right up until 2007.
A succesful career saw Roger Lloyd-Pack star in the Harry Potter franchise and as Owen Newitt in The Vicar of Dibley
The actor (back row, third from left) played Owen Newitt in the BBC show The Vicar of Dibley
He also starred as Barty Crouch Sr in the film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, as well as in Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy and Made in Dagenham.
His final role was in Law & Order: UK.
MIKE FISHER (KENNETH MACDONALD)
Kenneth MacDonald as pub landlord Mike Fisher during a 1990 episode of Only Fools
Kenneth MacDonald was known for playing both pub landlord Mike Fisher in Only Fools and Horses, and Gunner Nobby Clark in It Ain’t Half Hot Mum.
He also appeared in the National Theatre’s production of Guys and Dolls and My Night With Reg in the West End.
MacDonald filmed scenes as Stephen Pearce in the TV series The Last Detective, starring Peter Davison, but suffered a massive heart attack and died at just 50 in 2001 while on holiday in Hawaii, before the show aired.
The actor died tragically at the age of just 50 in 2001 while on holiday in Hawaii
His role in Only Fools and Horses was referenced in the show’s revival that year, in which they said the pub landlord had been imprisoned for embezzling the brewery.
MacDonald previously said: ‘I’m a very, very lucky man. I’ve been blessed with the good fortune to have been in two great sitcoms.’
He was married to his wife Sheila, with whom he had a son and daughter.
BUSTER MERRYFIELD (UNCLE ALBERT)
Buster Merryfield as Uncle Albert in the hit BBC comedy Only Fools and Horses
Harry ‘Buster’ Merryfield was best known for his role as Uncle Albert in the hit BBC programme but was a bank manager before he become an actor.
He starred in Only Fools and Horses from 1985 after his character was written in to the show following the death in 1984 of Lennard Pearce who played Grandad.
Merryfield’s character had the catchphrase ‘during the war’ when he would refer to his exploits in the Royal Navy.
In real life, he was in fact an army officer in Africa during the Second World War.
Merryfield – who grew up in Battersea, South West London – died aged 78 years old in 1999 after being admitted to hospital with a brain tumour.
The actor appeared in the show from 1985 and proved a huge hit with fans. He died of a brain tumour at the age of 78
Speaking about auditioning for the role, Merryfield previously said: ‘All they wanted to know was whether I could put on a Cockney accent. As a Battersea boy, I told them, I would have no problem.’
He also fluffed his entrance lines on his debut in front of a studio audience, but Sir David rescued him by deliberately doing the same and joking to the crowd: ‘What are you lot sniggering at? You got in for nothing, didn’t you?’
In 1997, he stumbled and fell when collecting an award at the British Comedy Awards, but continued accepting the gong despite blood dripping from his forehead.
He and his wife Iris were married for 57 years and had one daughter.
GRANDAD (LENNARD PEARCE)
Derek Trotter (played by David Jason), his brother Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst) and Grandad (Lennard Pearce) pose for a photograph ahead of the 1981 Christmas special
Lennard Pearce worked mostly in theatre, but will always be remembered for his role as Grandad in Only Fools and Horses.
He starred in the series from 1981 up until his death in in 1984, at the age of 69.
Pearce had been in the middle of filming an episode with Sir David and Lyndhurst that year, but days later he was found by his landlady at the foot of the stairs to his flat after suffering a heart attack and was taken to Whittington Hospital in Highgate.
Pearce, who had suffered problems with his balance and critical hypertension, then suffered a second heart attack three days later and died on December 15 that year.
They had been filming the episode ‘Hole In One’, which saw Grandad fall into a pub’s beer cellar, before Del and Rodney try to claim compensation against the brewery.
The episode was eventually reshot with Buster Merryfield, who joined the cast as Uncle Albert after Pearce’s death, and broadcast in series four in March 1985.
Sir David wrote about filming the episode in the last few days of Pearce’s life in his 2017 biography Only Fools and Stories.
He said they were filming for a ‘daft series four story in which Grandad takes a tumble into a pub’s beer cellar and Del and Rodney then join him in pursuing a hefty compensation claim against the brewery, only to discover, when their case is heard, that this is not the first time that Grandad has tried this ruse’.
Sir David also recalled being told about the news of Pearce’s death while in make-up with Lyndhurst on a Sunday morning. He said the show’s director Ray Butt stood in the doorway, adding: ‘He didn’t say anything. He just shook his head and walked away.’
Sir David said the team knew Pearce had health issues and was taking tablets for his hypertension, but added: ‘The actuality of it – the finality of it – was overwhelming.
‘Neither Nick nor I knew what to say or do with ourselves. I remember just sitting silently in a chair for a long time, trying to absorb it and failing.
‘The day’s work, obviously, was abandoned. As we left in silence to go home, as if in some kind of maudlin film, there was a sudden flurry of snow.’
Sir David said he thought the show was over following Pearce’s death, but a meeting was called – led by then BBC comedy chief Gareth Gwenlan – about what to do next.
He attended the meeting along with writer John Sullivan amid the assumption ‘we were going to talk about calling it a day and about what the exit strategy would be’.
Only Fools And Horses first aired on the BBC in 1981, featuring Lyndhurst, Jason and Pearce
But the BBC said its transmission dates had been locked into the schedules, and they needed to come up with ideas of how to keep the hugely-popular show alive.
One idea that was initially floated was to bring in a lookalike to play Grandad, but this was crushed by Sir David and Sullivan amid fears it would be an ‘insult’ to Pearce.
However, Sullivan suggested the show could go on if they wrote Grandad’s death into the show, gave him a proper funeral scene and marked the exit of his character.
Sir David was fearful over what was uncharted territory for a TV comedy, but said Sullivan created ‘probably his greatest piece of writing for the show’ to make it work.
The episode, ‘Strained Relations’, was deeply moving for viewers, save for a few jokes including one that saw Del tell the gravediggers to shovel soil over the coffin ‘gently’.
It also memorably saw Del and Rodney drop what they thought was Grandad’s trilby into his grave – although the hat actually happens to belong to the vicar.
