David Jason reached out to Only Fools and Horses co-star Nicholas Lyndhurst after his son's death

The iconic on-screen bond between Del Boy and Rodney Trotter has transcended into real life, with Sir David Jason offering a shoulder to cry on during Nicholas Lyndhurst's darkest hour. Following the devastating loss of his son Archie in 2020 to Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma/Leukaemia, Sir David has been a source of comfort for his former co-star.

He revealed: "Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely I have been there for him and he was very grateful, and his wife was particularly grateful, for that contact, but sort of said, in not so many words, that we're going through this really, really tough time and a lot of people are wanting interviews and press. He said 'Don't worry if we don't get in contact with you, because everybody and his brother wants us and we don't want to do that.

"We just want to get on with life and grieve quietly on our own', which you would respect. So I haven't physically seen Nick or his lovely wife since then, but we have spoken on the phone, and my wife has spoken to his wife, and we understand it hit them really, really hard."

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Reflecting on their time on screen, which is adored by millions, he shared: "We had such a wonderful working relationship and we became quite close friends, which is not that unusual for me, but it does become a bit unusual for partnerships in general, of television or film series because sometimes you've got two personalities that were perhaps quite individual and quite dominant in their own worlds, their own career, both on separate paths.

"Then you put them together to form a partnership with Nick and I, and that closeness could cause friction and then you start to drift apart. Fortunately, that never happened with Nick and I. "We got on and we had such good fun, and that's why we did such silly things like pretending to have a row, shaking the caravan, shouting at each other and making sure that the rest of the crew knew that we were having a row. That's all it was.

"We were having a laugh, having some fun - together." Sir David was speaking in an interview to promote his new memoir and also touched on his blossoming relationship with daughter Abi, who he didn't know existed for 52 years .He said: "The shock of the news that I had an undiscovered daughter is wearing off but, like I say in the book, we are slowly getting to know each other and things are working out on this voyage of discovery", reports the Mirror.