A biography for David Jasonhasn’t been written yet.
“We have more and more rules coming out of Europe telling us what to do, and I think people are getting a bit fed up with it. This was supposed to be a common market. I don't remember them ever saying we would be governed by Brussels and become a satellite of Europe.”
“We were taught fortitude by our parents, who had gone through the war. Being a child then was fun. We could go out and play in the street - there were few cars - and we felt very safe.”
“If I want to go out to a restaurant with some friends, I'm more than happy that we go in under the radar, have a little evening on our own.”
“We get the impression through film and TV that Americans are violent gangsters with guns or upper-middle-class people in romcoms. I really liked the people. They were really warm. They could have been Brits. I mean that in the nicest possible way.”
“I wouldn't like to get trapped in a long series.”
“Don't get me started on BBC salaries. We were never the big league. Situation comedy has always been the poor relation in the television entertainment business.”
“When you're young, for God's sake, get out and try everything in terms of a career. Or go abroad, meet people.”
“I grew up in London, a city devastated by the bombing. I am, you might say, a Blitz Baby.”
“My mum, Olwen, was a bright and talkative woman who loved a gossip and a story and was given slightly to malapropisms. And she was Welsh, so, of course, she sang.”
“It seems to me that as soon as politicians get in, they become part of this club, and the rest of us, beneath them, are just ants running about. They become besotted with their position.”
“You can't make people enjoy what you're doing unless you're enjoying it yourself.”
“Classic comedy is classic comedy, and it will go on for years.”
“A show like the 'Only Fool and Horses' Christmas special got 24 million viewers, so practically everyone in the country was watching. But of course it's a different world now, with so many channels. And those kind of figures are really difficult to achieve.”
“When you had just three and then four channels, I could always find something that was watchable because the standard of TV was much higher. In those days, they had so much more money to put into so many less programmes.”
“All my work's been disguise, really: hiding behind the character.”
“The ups and downs are part of what has made you.”
“How do I feel about being called a national treasure? I think it's marvellous if that's people's opinion. But I'd rather have the money than the label.”
“While I've got my health and fitness, I'm available... except for panto, of course. Too bloody much like hard work.”
“I do recognise I have a responsibility to the audience. They feel fairly confident that if I'm in something, they can sit down with their family and be entertained by it. I don't desperately want to change that.”
“Driving a Model T Ford was extremely difficult. The pedals are reversed from the way they are now. It's so crude, but that was the motorcar that started it all. It's an incredible part of history.”