Only Fools and Horses

Only Fools and Horses legend David Jason’s beautiful bond with daughter who made him dad for first time aged 61

The star waited a long time to become a dad and has described his daughter Sophie Mae as a 'sheer delight'

David Jason is undoubtedly a legend of our TV screens. The actor born in Edmonton is famous for his roles in Only Fools and Horses, Open All Hours and A Touch of Frost.

In Only Fools, Raquel gives birth to Damien, Del’s only son, and this was pretty late in his life too – he was 51 at the time of the episode’s release. For many who didn’t know, David and his wife Gill Hinchcliffe have a daughter in real life.

Sophie Mae Jason was born when David was 61 years old. David revealed at the time of her birth: “We didn’t choose her name until after she was born.

“She’s not named after anyone in either of our families, but we just liked the name and it seemed to suit her perfectly.”

David has had a very good relationship with his daughter, calling her a ‘sheer delight’ in an interview with The Telegraph in 2019. In the same interview, he opened up about what it was like becoming a dad at a much older age than most.

He said: “I suppose the thing that you miss, perhaps, is being able to do all the things a younger father would do with their child. But Sophie is lovely – when she was a baby and a small child, she was so funny.”

Sophie Mae turned 21 less than a month ago but despite this, David still acts very cutely with his daughter.

“I still call her ‘the warf’, because she loved Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , but she couldn’t say the ‘D’. Even now, I’ll say, ‘Where’s the warfling?’, and my wife will say, ‘Oh, she’s gone out.'”

In another interview with The Telegraph in 2008 when Sophie Mae was eight years old, he joked that he had become the typical moody dad he never thought he would’ve been. “My father used to say, ‘What the hell are you listening to? Put that bloody rubbish off’,” she said.

David used to listen to The Beatles but Sophie Mae would watch Hannah Montana on The Disney Channel and David would say ‘What’s that rubbish you’re watching?’. He added that his wife, Gill, persuaded him to take breaks between work to spend more time with his daughter.

“I was told by the female department, ‘You must stop this, you’re not spending enough time at home with your small child.’ So now I have two months at least between projects.”

At the time he was starring in ITV comedy drama Micawber, but also starred in the Only Fools specials. If They Could See Us Now was aired on Christmas Day of 2001, five years after the last episode where the Trotters become millionaires when they find an antique pocket watch.

David and wife Gill, who is 20 years younger than her husband, have lived a private life away from acting, as has his daughter Sophie Mae. Wisely perhaps, Sophie Mae herself doesn’t seem to have any public social media accounts.

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