Sir David Jason has revealed he was upset when he wasn’t asked to join Monty Python’s Flying Circus, believing he wasn’t ‘cerebral’ enough.
The 79-year-old actor worked alongside Monty Python stars Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Eric Idle on 1967 children’s TV show Do Not Adjust Your Set, alongside Denise Coffee.
The trio, alongside Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Terry Gilliam, created Monty Python’s Flying Circus in 1969, going onto achieve worldwide success.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Sir David however admitted he was upset about not being asked to join at the time, saying: ‘Absolutely. At the time my nose was well out of joint.
‘It would have changed the direction of my career – maybe I would have gone to America and been involved in that. But I’ve had such a good time and been very successful here and done such a spread of work.
‘Well, I come from a different background which maybe they didn’t want. They were all a bit cerebral. They’d all been to university. I was an actor, maybe they felt I couldn’t contribute much to the writing… maybe they thought that Denise Coffee and I would be a bit of, perhaps, dead wood.’
From his past work with the trio, Sir David praised Michael Palin as the funniest member of the group.
Speaking about Palin, David added: ‘Not only was he the best, and for me the funniest, but he was the nicest of them all. He used to make me laugh.’
David probably isn’t too upset about the decision now, however, having gone onto star in Only Fools & Horses, Open All Hours, Porridge, A Touch Of Frost, and more.
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