Now, here’s where it gets really fun. The show didn’t just run for one season. It had a second series in 1981, and then a third in 1985. So how old was he then?
By 1985, David Jason was forty-five years old. Forty-five! And he was still playing Granville, that eternal, gormless apprentice. The man had one foot in a mid-life crisis and the other in a jar of humbugs.
It’s hilarious when you picture it. He’s older than most of the customers he’s serving. He’s probably old enough to be the father of the nurse he’s trying to woo. Yet, we never saw it that way. He sold the dream.
He made us believe that a man approaching fifty could still blush when a pretty girl walked in. That’s not acting. That’s pure sorcery. Or just a really good haircut.
The “Open All Hours” Age Gap
And let’s not forget the other half of the comedy duo. Ronnie Barker was playing Arkwright. Ronnie was born in 1929. He was forty-seven when the show started.
Open All Hours - BBC1 sitcom - British Comedy Guide
So the “young” nephew was only twelve years younger than the “old” uncle. Twelve years! In real life, they could have been brothers. In the show, one is a senile pensioner and the other is a pathetic schoolboy.
It’s a beautiful lie, isn’t it? Television is magic. It’s smoke and mirrors and really good actors who can shrink their age by thirty years just by slouching their shoulders. David Jason was a master of the slouch.
