Nicholas Lyndhurst’s Frasier role is prompting Only Fools fans to highlight theme tune correction
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Nicholas Lyndhurst’s apearance in the Frasier reboot is prompting TV fans to make an Only Fools and Horses confession.
The actor, who played Rodney Trotter in the long-running BBC sitcom, was announced to appear alongside Kelsey Grammer in the new series, which catches up with Dr Frasier Crane for the first time since 2004.
At the time, people expressed their perplexity over the casting, which Grammer himself addressed during an interview with The Independent in June 2023. He said he became “great, great friends” with Lyndhurst while performing together in a production ofMan of La Mancha on London’s West End in 2019.
On Tuesday (22 August), Paramount released images from the Frasier reboot, one of which shows the actor in character as Frasier’s old college friend turned university professor, Alan Cornwall.
While many are only now discovering that Lyndhurst will be in the new series, others are using his role to explain a long-held belief about his part in Only Fools and Horses, which ran from 1981 through to 2003.
According to fans of the series, it is a popular belief that Lyndhurst didn’t only play Rodney in the series, but performed the show’s opening theme song, too.
“Has he sung the theme, like he did with Only Fools and Horses?” one person wrote.
Meanwhile, @VeryBritishProblems tweeted: “Did anyone else grow up thinking Rodney was singing the Only Fools and Horses theme song?” to which fans replied in their droves to confess that they did.
“This is literally new information to me! My whole existence has been a lie!” one shocked fan wrote, with another adding: “I am absolutely gobsmacked to discover it wasn’t him!”
Some suggested that despite knowing it was series creator John Sullivan who wrote and performed the theme song, all they can hear is Lyndhurst’s voice.
Find reactions below:
I think pretty much everyone I know thought that, it's only a few years ago I discovered that it wasn't. Even now he's all I can picture when I hear it.
— Charlie McGlynn (@cmgartwrite) August 22, 2023
I thought it was Del and Rodney singing it - and it also made sense to me that they would sing it ha ha
— Claire Walton (@Fudge68Walton) August 22, 2023
Yes, I totally thought it was him singing it when I was a kid!
— Daniel Webb (@dj_webb18) August 23, 2023
The new series of Frasier will begin on 13 October on Paramount+.
Also starring in the reboot are Jack Cutmore-Scott, who plays Frasier’s son Freddy, Toks Olagundoye, Jess Salgueiro, and Enders Keith.
Peri Gilpin and Bebe Neuwirth will also reprise their roles of Rox and Lilith, respectively. David Hyde Pierce, however, will not be returning as Niles.
Speaking about the forthcoming 10-episode season, Grammer told The Independent that it “may even be funnier” than the original.
