Albert is jacked
Only Fools and Horses was always about Derek and Rodney, but they’ve now been upstaged by Uncle Albert.
It seems people are only just realising that Albert Gladstone, played by Buster Merryfield, brought some big guns back from the war.
The character entered the iconic set following the death of Grandad (Lennard Pearce) and was a mainstay in Del Boy and Rodney’s lives from 1985 until the final episode in 1996.
Only Fools and Horses, set in working-class Peckham, in south-east London, was first broadcast on BBC One in 1981 to 1991, and had sixteen Christmas specials before ending in 2003.
Fast-forward twenty years, and people are just discovering that Albert was pretty jacked.
Writing on Twitter earlier this week, one fan of the show noted, “It is just me or is Uncle Albert fucking hench?”
The post included two screen shots of Arthur in a mesh tank top and shorts.
Another joked: “Well, he did use to box in the Navy.”
“You may not like it but Uncle Albert is what peak performance looks like,” another commenter noted.
Merryfield, according to his Wikipedia page (*disclaimer) was keen on fitness and followed a “strict fitness regime of daily press-ups and swimming.”
“As a boxer, he was a British schoolboy champion in the 1936 and Southern Command army champion in 1945.
“He was also an amateur football player and Millwall supporter, regularly attending games at the Old Den.
“In contrast to his pipe-smoking and rum-drinking character Uncle Albert, Merryfield was a teetotaler and nonsmoker his entire life.”
Merryfield died aged 78 in 1999.
Speaking at the time, David Jason, who played Del Boy in the show, said: “Buster Merryfield is a great loss personally as well, of course, to his family and the rest of the country. “He was a great man and a joy to work with and I will seriously miss him both as a friend and as an actor.”
While his on screen brother, Rodney, played by Lyndhust, added: “I was shocked and saddened to hear of Buster’s death. “He was a gentle, sweet-natured man and he will be greatly missed by everyone who knew him. He made the part of Uncle Albert a national institution.”
The character of Albert was a television classic. He was supposedly born close to the Docks. Joined the Royal Navy aged 17 and served during the Second Would War, tales of which he spent the rest of his life re-telling. Was awarded seven medals – but largely down to luck. Basic parachute training had taught Albert to fall without injuring himself, and he used it to his advantage later in life, staging mock falls down the cellars of pubs to receive payouts.
