RODNEY TROTTER (NICHOLAS LYNDHURST)
Nicholas Lyndhurst played Rodney Trotter, Del Boy’s younger brother. He has had a successful acting career but endured personal tragedy in 2020 when his son Archie died aged 19
Lynhurst played Rodney alongside his long-suffering partner Cassandra (Gwyneth Strong)
Born in 1961 in Emsworth, Hampshire, Nicholas Lyndhurst was intent on being an actor as a child although after graduating from drama school, he might not have envisioned the role that would mould his career.
Lyndhurst bagged the role of gangly sibling sidekick Rodney Trotter, Del Boy’s younger brother, as a young actor in 1981 and quickly became known to the nation as ‘Rodders’ – a moniker that has stuck.
During the mid 80s and 90s, Lyndhurst played Ashley Phillips in ITV’s The Two of Us, which co-starred Janet Dibley, and MI5 agent Peter ‘Piglet’ Chapman in The Piglet Files.
Now 62, the actor also achieved success playing Gary Sparrow in the popular time-travelling sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart. He won two National Television Awards for his performance in the show, which aired from 1993 to 1999 and returned for a one-off special in 2016.
From 1997 to 1999, Lyndhurst was the public face of the stationery chain store WH Smith, starring in their adverts as all four members of one family, and even winning a BAFTA for his acting in the commercials.
In 2007 Lyndhurst returned to the BBC with his first new sitcom in 14 years, After You’ve Gone, in which he played a divorced father moving back into the marital home to look after his daughter (Dani Harmer) and son (Ryan Sampson), together with his mother-in-law, played by Celia Imrie, after his ex-wife went to work as a recovery nurse on a third world disaster relief mission.
Goodnight Sweetheart: A more debonair Lyndhurst hit screens when he took on the role of time traveller Gary Sparrow, seen with co-stars Michelle Holmes, left, and Dervla Kirwan, right
Then there was the Only Fools and Horses prequel Rock & Chips, which also starred Inbetweeners actor James Buckley, in 2010. Lyndhurst played Rodney’s biological father Freddie Robdal.
There was a missed opportunity in 1997 when he turned down the role to play Gary in the film The Full Monty.
The UK-made film, about a group of men left unemployed by the end of the steelwork industry, went on to be a huge hit, turning its central star, Robert Carlyle, into a household name.
Lyndhurst’s co-star on Only Fools and Horses, Paul Barber who played Denzil, did appear in the film as Barrington ‘Horse’ Mitchell.
A role in the long-running BBC detective drama New Tricks, as the aloof retired Detective Chief Inspector Dan Griffin, followed in 2013.
His earnings, like his on-screen big brother’s, have remained handsome, with both Sur David and Lyndhurst offered £100,000 an episode to film the 2003 comeback series of Only Fools and Horses.
Lyndhurst married former ballerina Lucy in 1999 and the couple live in West Wittering on England’s south coast.
But huge personal tragedy hit them in September 2020 when their 19-year-old son Archie, a children’s TV star, died in his sleep from a brain haemorrhage caused by Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma/Leukaemia. He was found at his home in Fulham, West London.
Nicholas Lyndhurst’s wife Lucy posted a photo of father and his late son, calling the actor ‘My soul mate and Archie’s hero’
Archie was found dead at his home in Fulham in September 2020 after suffering a brain haemorrhage in his sleep
Lucy Lyndhurst wrote at the time on Instagram that losing Archie, who had starred as Ollie in So Awkward on CBBC, had had a ‘catastrophic effect’ on their family.
She posted a photo of father and son and called her husband ‘My soul mate and Archie’s hero.’
She added: ‘I never thought this would be part of our story but I will be forever grateful for every moment we all had together. Every day an absolute joy, filled with adventure, laughter and incredible love.
‘Archie is immensely proud of you as I am. It is an honour to be your wife and journey the rest of my days with you even though they are tough without our boy.’
Lyndhurst’s hobbies reportedly include underwater diving, beekeeping and piloting his own aeroplanes.
More recently Lyndhurst has busy filming the revival of popular US sitcom Frasier.
He is expected to appear in two episodes of the Paramount+ reboot of the show – which was a Cheers spin-off – as Alan, a friend of Kelsey Grammer’s character Dr Frasier Crane. It is due to air in mid-2023.
Grammer and Lyndhurst became friends when they starred together in the 2019 West End production of The Man of La Mancha.
