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Kelsey Grammer: Nicholas Lyndhurst is 'gifted' at getting laughs

The Frasier star says the Only Fools And Horses actor is gifted at getting laughs.

Kelsey Grammer (R) has heaped praise on Only Fools and Horses legend Nicholas Lyndhurst (L). (Getty)
Kelsey Grammer (R) has heaped praise on Only Fools and Horses legend Nicholas Lyndhurst (L). (Getty)

Kelsey Grammer has revealed he calls Nicholas Lyndhurst a "sandbagger" because he is so good at getting all the laughs.

The Frasier star has spoken for the first time about working with the Only Fools and Horses actor, whose role in the Paramount+ sitcom sequel series came as a surprise to some when it was revealed earlier this month.

Grammer, 67 told told BBC Radio Bristol: “We have the magnificent Nicholas Lyndhurst joining the cast. Nicholas and I met doing Man Of La Mancha about three years ago at the Coliseum and fell in love basically.

Read more: Brits left baffled as Nicholas Lyndhurst joins new Frasier sequel series

“I adore him, he’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever worked with, and I accuse him of being a bit of a sandbagger, because you don’t see him coming and all of a sudden he’s getting all the laughs.

“He’s a very, very gifted man."

Nicholas Lyndhurst (left), Cassidy Janson, Danielle De Niese, and Kelsey Grammer (right) during the Man of La Mancha Launch Photocall, held at London Coliseum, London. (Photo by Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images)
Nicholas Lyndhurst (left)m and Kelsey Grammer (right) strarred in Man of La Mancha London's Coliseum theatre in 2019. (Getty Images)

Lyndhurst — best known for playing Rodney Trotter in classic British sitcom Only Fools and Horses — will join the revival of the hit US comedy, his first acting role since he cameoed opposite his late son, CBBC star Archie Lyndhurst, in 2019.

Grammer revealed: "We’re going to start rehearses in a couple of weeks.

“He’s playing an old friend. It suddenly occurred to me when we were putting the show together, we’ve never really seen Frasier in a relationship where he has a great friend.”

Kelsey Grammer as Frasier
Kelsey Grammer has revealed who Nicholas Lyndhurst will play in the Frasier reboot. (NBC)

The Frasier reboot has been in the pipeline since 2019 but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was announced in February 2021 by Paramount.

Frasier aired on NBC between 1993 and 2004. It was a spin-off of the comedy series Cheers, in which Grammer starred as psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane.

Grammer said: “What I think they recognised in the character from Cheers was that he could evolve, that they didn’t really tap him yet.

“And so, what became of Frasier once he became the centre of his own show was he got more complex, more interesting, he became the centrepiece of the show and it actually was the other characters became the satellite characters that Frasier was on Cheers.

Kelsey Grammer and the cast of the original series of Frasier.
The cast of the original series of Frasier. (NBC)

“Frasier was not the chief or the focal point of Cheers but he became the sort of centre of a satellite universe, and the satellites revolved around what was going on in his life, but the best thing I did was to get out of the way and stop trying to get a laugh and let everybody else get it.

Lyndhurst rose to fame playing teenager Adam in family sitcom Butterflies alongside Wendy Craig, Geoffrey Palmer and Andrew Hall.

He will forever be remembered for playing Rodney Trotter, brother of wheeler-dealer Del Boy Trotter, played by Sir David Jason in Only Fools And Horses.

Rodney Trotter (Nicholas Lyndhurst) and Del Boy Trotter (David Jason) in Only Fools and Horses (BBC)
Rodney Trotter (Nicholas Lyndhurst) and Del Boy Trotter (David Jason) in Only Fools and Horses. (BBC)

Nicholas is also well known for playing time-travelling bigamist Gary Sparrow in sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart and retired police officer Dan Griffin in New Tricks.

Lyndhurst and wife Lucy Smith were left "grief stricken" by the death of his son, CBBC star Archie Lyndhurst at the age of 19 in 2020.

It was revealed he died from Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma/Leukaemia - a rare form of brain cancer which had gone undiagnosed.

Read more: Nicholas Lyndhurst says Only Fools and Horses revival can't happen

Archie starred as schoolboy Ollie Coulton in CBBC sitcom So Awkward.

Watch: Kelsey Grammer promises lots of old characters will return in Frasier reboot