For over sixty years, Sir David Jason has been part of British television.
Whether you know him as Del Boy, Jack Frost, or Granville outside Arkwright’s shop, he feels like family to several generations.
This profile covers his age, career, family, health updates in his own words, and whether he is retired. The short answer is no — at 86, he has just returned to a most loved role.
David Jason at a Glance
- Full name: David John White, known professionally as David Jason
- Born: 2 February 1940, in Edmonton, London
- Age: 86 (as of October 2026)
- Occupation: Actor, comedian, author and television presenter
- Best known for: Derek “Del Boy” Trotter in Only Fools and Horses, Detective Inspector Jack Frost in A Touch of Frost, Granville in Open All Hours and Still Open All Hours, and Pop Larkin in The Darling Buds of May
- Honours: Appointed OBE in 1993 and knighted in 2005 for services to acting and comedy
- Spouse: Gill Hinchcliffe, married in 2005
- Children: Two daughters, Sophie Mae and Abi Harris
- Home: Buckinghamshire, as widely reported in interviews
Who Is David Jason?
Sir David Jason is an English actor whose career has run, almost without pause, from the mid-1960s to the present day.
Most stars are remembered for one part. Jason has four — a market trader, a detective, a shop assistant and a Kentish farmer — plus a career as a cartoon voice. In a 2006 ITV poll, the public voted him television’s greatest star. His appeal rests not on glamour, but on craft learned as an electrician, in repertory theatre and in supporting roles.
Early Life: From Edmonton to Electrician
David John White was born on 2 February 1940 at North Middlesex Hospital in Edmonton, north London.
His father, Arthur Robert White, worked as a porter at Billingsgate Fish Market. His mother, Olwen Jones, was originally from Merthyr Tydfil in Wales and worked as a charwoman. David was a twin, but his twin brother died at birth — a fact he has spoken about with quiet matter-of-factness in later life.
He grew up in Finchley, attended Northfield Secondary Modern School after not passing the eleven-plus, and followed his older brother Arthur White — also an actor — towards the stage. First, though, he trained as an electrician for six years, doing amateur dramatics whenever he could. When “David White” proved already taken as a stage name, he chose “Jason” after Jason and the Argonauts.
The Long Apprenticeship and Ronnie Barker
Jason began on television in the mid-1960s, appearing in Crossroads in 1966 and in Do Not Adjust Your Set from 1967 alongside Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. He has been candid about near-misses — briefly cast as Lance Corporal Jones in Dad’s Army in 1968 before the role went to Clive Dunn, and later missing out on Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em.
The decisive relationship was with Ronnie Barker: Hark at Barker, The Two Ronnies, and the elderly prisoner Blanco in Porridge, remarkable casting for a man in his thirties.
Granville and Open All Hours
In 1973 Jason played Granville in a one-off Seven of One episode. It became Open All Hours (1976–1985), with Barker as miserly Arkwright and Jason as his nephew dreaming of life beyond the till. He returned as an older Granville running the shop in Still Open All Hours (2013–2019) — and, as below, once more in 2026.
Del Boy: Only Fools and Horses
In 1981, writer John Sullivan cast Jason as Derek Trotter in a new BBC sitcom set in Peckham, Only Fools and Horses.
Del Boy was a market trader with big talk, bad French, a sheepskin coat and an unshakeable belief that “this time next year” the Trotters would be millionaires. Around him were his brother Rodney, played by Nicholas Lyndhurst, Grandad, played by Lennard Pearce, and later Uncle Albert, played by Buster Merryfield.
The show grew into the defining British sitcom of its era. Scenes such as Del falling through a bar, the chandelier, and Batman and Robin are still rewatched every Christmas. Jason made Del more than a chancer — loyal, sentimental and devoted to family.
The main run ended in 2003, with a brief Sport Relief return in 2014. In December 2025, UK coverage reported plans to mark its 45th anniversary in 2026 with cast reunions and unseen material.
For another beloved British television icon, read our profile of Bradley Walsh, his net worth, career and personal life.
Beyond Del Boy: Frost, Pop Larkin and Serious Drama
One of Jason’s greatest achievements is that he escaped Del Boy while Del Boy was still at his peak.
Pop Larkin in The Darling Buds of May
From 1991 to 1993 he played Sidney “Pop” Larkin in ITV’s The Darling Buds of May, adapted from H. E. Bates. Pop was generous, pleasure-loving and allergic to tax forms, and the Kent countryside setting showed a softer, sunlit side of Jason. The series also introduced a young Catherine Zeta-Jones as Mariette.
Jack Frost in A Touch of Frost
In 1992, Jason took an even bigger risk: straight drama. As Detective Inspector Jack Frost in A Touch of Frost, based on R. D. Wingfield’s novels, he played a scruffy, rule-bending, deeply humane detective. The series ran until 2010 and proved conclusively that Jason was not only a comic actor.
He stepped down from the role in 2008, with the final episodes broadcast in 2010, choosing to leave while the character still mattered. His brother Arthur White appeared in the series as police archivist Ernie Trigg — a footnote fans still enjoy spotting.
Other work includes Porterhouse Blue, All the King’s Men (1999) and Sky’s Terry Pratchett adaptations. Television, not film, was his home — and he made it enough.
The Voice You Grew Up With
Through Cosgrove Hall, Jason also voiced Danger Mouse, Count Duckula, Mr Toad in The Wind in the Willows, and the BFG in the 1989 film — work he has said he particularly enjoys in later life, as voice roles are kinder than long scripts and physical stunts.
Awards, Honours and Books
Jason’s recognition reflects both comedy and drama:
- Four BAFTA Television Awards (1988, 1991, 1997 and 2003), including the BAFTA Fellowship in 2003
- Four British Comedy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001
- Seven National Television Awards across the 1990s, 2000s and in 2011
He was appointed OBE in 1993. In 2005 he was knighted for services to acting and comedy, receiving the honour from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on 1 December 2005, and described himself as humbled by it.
His memoirs include David Jason: My Life (2013), Only Fools and Stories (2017), A Del of a Life (2020) and This Time Next Year (2024), which covers his hip operation and a life-changing family discovery.
Family Life: Wife, Daughters and a Remarkable Reunion
Jason has generally kept his private life private, and this profile sticks to what he and his family have chosen to share publicly.
For 18 years, from 1977 until her death in 1995, his partner was the Welsh actress Myfanwy Talog. He nursed her through breast cancer, and her death at 49 affected him deeply, as he has described with great tenderness in his memoirs.
He later met Gill Hinchcliffe, a floor assistant on A Touch of Frost in Leeds. Their daughter Sophie Mae was born on 26 February 2001, when Jason was 61; he has spoken warmly about later fatherhood. They married at the Dorchester Hotel on 30 November 2005, on the eve of his knighthood investiture, and live in Ellesborough, Buckinghamshire.
Discovering His Eldest Daughter
In March 2023, Jason shared, via The Mirror, an extraordinary story. He had learned that he had an elder daughter, Abi Harris, born in 1970 after a brief relationship with actress Jennifer Hill, whom he had appeared with in Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood in London in 1970.
Abi, herself an actress, had begun to suspect the connection, noticed a family resemblance, and eventually wrote to him asking if he would take a paternity test. He agreed. The test confirmed he was her father, and with it came a grandson, Charlie, then aged 10.
In his public statement at the time, Jason said the news was a profound surprise, that he was delighted to be getting to know Abi, and that Gill and Sophie had been supportive and had welcomed Abi and Charlie into the wider family. He also asked for privacy as they got to know each other.
Later Radio Times coverage in 2024 reported the families spending time together, including at Christmas in Buckinghamshire — by his account, a defining late chapter, welcomed rather than hidden.
David Jason Health Updates: What He Has Said Publicly
The updates below come only from his own statements, his memoir, and reputable UK reporting — not rumour.
His Hip Replacement in 2023
In August 2023, Jason postponed an Only Fools and Horses fan convention in Milton Keynes because he needed an operation. In a message to fans, written in good Del Boy humour, he said he needed a new “bionic body part” fitted, that it would be proper “pukka” equipment, and that he hoped to see everyone on rescheduled dates in January 2024.
The part, it later emerged, was his left hip. In This Time Next Year (2024), as reported by the Express, OK! and other outlets covering the memoir, he described having the hip replaced with a titanium joint, admitted the prospect of surgery had frightened him, and described waking up bruised and stitched, having been warned he would be uncomfortable for a while.
In November 2023 a video showed him walking on crutches to the Rocky theme, then tossing them aside and shadow-boxing. On ITV’s Lorraine he said he was on the mend, the hip felt wonderful, and the harder work was rebuilding muscle strength with exercises. In January 2024 he attended the rescheduled convention, wearing Del Boy’s flat cap and jacket again.
Covid in 2022
On BBC Breakfast on 12 October 2022, Jason said he caught Covid seriously badly in July 2022, describing waking in the night, collapsing against a radiator and being unable to get up for about a quarter of an hour. He recovered, with no lasting diagnosis reported by reputable sources.
Memory and Ageing
In interviews around his 2024 memoir, reported in The Sunday Times, Jason acknowledged his memory is not what it once was and that learning lines is harder than when younger. Those are general reflections on ageing — not a medical diagnosis. No reputable outlet has reported a specific condition.
Is David Jason Retired?
No. Sir David Jason has not retired, and he has been unusually blunt about not wanting to.
After Still Open All Hours ended in 2019, he told Radio Times in late 2024, aged 84, that he was trying to persuade producers he still had characters left to play, that senior actors have much to offer, and that he was open to offers. That was not just talk.
David & Jay’s Touring Toolshed (2024)
In early 2024 he co-presented the 15-part BBC Two series David & Jay’s Touring Toolshed with Jay Blades, travelling to air shows, steam rallies, county fairs and vintage festivals to meet makers and help fix treasured projects. It revealed a side of Jason that acting had hidden: a former electrician and lifelong tinkerer, genuinely at home with tools.
Jason later confirmed there would be no second series following charges brought against Blades in an unrelated matter, to which Blades has pleaded not guilty.
Open All Hours: Inside Out (2026)
The clearest answer came from UKTV’s announcement of Open All Hours: Inside Out. For 2026 — the 50th anniversary of Open All Hours as a full series — channel U&Gold commissioned Open All Hours: Inside Out, a 90-minute feature-length retrospective produced by Studio Crook.
UKTV confirms Jason — the only actor in every episode of both series — fronts the programme and plays Granville one final time in a new short scene by original writer Roy Clarke, closing the shop and reflecting on how life has moved on. In UKTV’s release he noted he had played Granville for over half his life and was thrilled to share its memories; in Radio Times interviews in 2026 he said he had no reservations about returning.
A man who has just filmed a farewell for a character first played in 1973 is many things. Retired is not one of them. Away from acting, he does fan conventions when health allows and lives quietly in Buckinghamshire with family, gardening and DIY.
Why David Jason Still Matters
Jason represents a kind of British television that no longer quite exists: long-running series watched by whole families, built on writing and performance — and persistence: a father at 61, a knight at 65, Granville again at 86.
Frequently Asked Questions About David Jason
How old is David Jason?
Sir David Jason was born on 2 February 1940, so he turned 86 in February 2026. He was born in Edmonton, London, as David John White.
Is David Jason retired?
No. He has said publicly that he wants to keep working and is open to offers. He co-presented David & Jay’s Touring Toolshed on BBC Two in 2024 and returned as Granville in the U&Gold special Open All Hours: Inside Out in 2026.
What is David Jason’s health like now?
In his own public updates, Jason had a titanium left hip replacement in 2023 and described a good recovery, rebuilding muscle strength with exercises after initially using crutches. He has also spoken about a serious bout of Covid in July 2022, from which he recovered. He has made general remarks about his memory not being as sharp as in younger years, but no reputable source has reported a specific new diagnosis.
Who is David Jason’s wife and how many children does he have?
He is married to Gill Hinchcliffe, whom he married in 2005. They have a daughter, Sophie Mae, born in 2001. In 2023 he publicly confirmed, after a paternity test, that he is also father to Abi Harris, born in 1970, and grandfather to Abi’s son Charlie.
What is David Jason most famous for?
He is most famous as Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses (1981–2003). He is equally acclaimed as Jack Frost in A Touch of Frost (1992–2010), Granville in Open All Hours and Still Open All Hours, Pop Larkin in The Darling Buds of May, and as the voice of Danger Mouse and Count Duckula.
This profile is based on David Jason’s own memoirs and public interviews, and reporting by reputable UK outlets including the BBC, ITV, Radio Times and UKTV. It will be updated when he gives further public interviews or announces new work.
