Only Fools and Horses: The one time Lennard Pearce and Buster Merryfield actually met despite never starring on the show together

Whilst the characters of Del Boy and Rodney are often the ones most fondly remembered by fans of Only Fools and Horses. It was always the crucial third Trotter that added the perfect extra ingredient to the legendary sitcoms formula.

When Grandad actor Lennard Pearce tragically died from a heart attack aged just 69 at the end of 1984, for a while it wasn’t clear how the show would continue until the new character of Uncle Albert was created to perform a similar role in the show.

Of course this role would be played by another much loved late actor in Buster Merryfield. But what many fans of the show may not realise is although Buster didn’t join Only Fools until after Lennard’s sad death, the pair did manage to film one scene together beforehand in an ITV detective drama

Earlier in 1984, audiences tuning in to watch ITV had been treated to the second in a series of P.D. James adapted mini-series starring the writer’s famous detective creation Adam Dalgleish. Funnily enough Adam was played by another Only Fools alum in Roy Marsden, one of the Driscoll brothers.

This mini-series based on the book Shroud For a Nightingale featured Lennard as security guard Mr Coles, who worked at the front gate of a hospital seeing a series of murders. It also had a sizeable speaking role for Buster as the local coroner Sir Miles Honeyman, the future Uncle Albert star looking unusual with a much shorter beard than audiences will be used to seeing.

The crucial scene comes when Buster arrives at the hospital in his car, pulling up to the gate alongside Lennard’s security booth and exchanging a word with who would become his Only Fools predecessor.

Sadly the windscreen pillars of the car hide Lennard in the shot so you never see the two together perfectly but the moment is nonetheless a historic and poignant one in light of the changing of the guard that occurred on the iconic BBC sitcom.