‘Only Fools And Horses’ star Sue Holderness has said she doesn’t believe the classic BBC comedy would ever get made today in light of the #MeToo movement and “political correctness”.
The 69-year-old actress played Marlene in the 80s show opposite her screen husband ‘Boycie’, played by John Challis.
In one episode she famously had her bum pinched by David Jason’s Del Boy character - something Sue feels would be unacceptable nowadays.
“It’s a problem for writers,” she told The Sun.
“Would gentleman be allowed to pinch ladies’ bottoms without being slapped in the face and have a writ put on them? I don’t know.
“I must say I haven’t had my bottom pinched for a long time so gentlemen must be a little bit more nervous.
“People still shout ‘Marlene’ at me in the street. There were occasions where I’d get my bottom pinched by complete strangers, that, I’m happy to report has stopped, which might be because of my great age now, perhaps I look too old.”
Re-runs of the comedy, which was voted Britain’s Best Sitcom in 2004, were recently added to Netflix, but didn’t always go down well with a new generation of fans.
Sue added: “A lot of people on social media are saying Only Fools is racist and there are lots of things you couldn’t have and I think it’s a pity that we’ve gone quite as politically correct as that.
“An awful lot of that stuff is funny and I find that very few people are actually offended, because if the joke’s good enough. It was really very innocent.
“And you absolutely knew Del and Rodney were not racist people, they were good eggs — none of it was offensive.”
Last year, ’Only Fools And Horses’ stars Sir David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst confirmed they would never reunite for another caper as Del Boy and Rodney, despite rumours of another TV outing by the Peckham duo.
Sir David explained that it would be impossible for any writer to match the skills of the late John Sullivan, who penned the original series.
He said: “He was such an original talent. It’s very, very difficult for anybody to fill his shoes and that is no reflection on his sons at all.”
