Sir David Jason: The Only Fools and Horses Legend Collapsed After COVID-19 Left Him Too Weak To Stand

Sir David Jason revealed he had “seriously bad” Covid this summer which caused him to collapse when getting out of bed.

The Only Fools and Horses legend, 82, said: “I got [Covid] seriously bad. Because all the muscles weren’t working, I collapsed and I fell against the radiator.” Del Boy, as he was lovingly known as in the long-running comedy series, disclosed he was “so weak” that he “couldn’t get up” after falling down. He told BBC Breakfast’s Jon Kay: “I crawled to the bed. The muscles weren’t working.

“I used the bed to try and stand up so that I could go to where I wanted to get, and also get back into bed, and I couldn’t…

“I tried for about a quarter of an hour, trying all sorts of things to stand up so I could walk about.

Attempting to call out for his wife, Gill Hinchcliffe, while his arms and legs “wouldn’t work”, Sir Jason pondered: “How will I get from here to the door?”

As a self-proclaimed “creative and inventive person”, he thought of what a walrus would do, as if you were watching the marine mammal on land.

“They crawl on land… That’s what I did,” he revealed. “But in order to do that, I had to use my head.”

Animated, Sir Jason described his ordeal: “So now I’m lying face down on the ground.

“And in order to get to the door – and the arms really weren’t working and the legs weren’t working – I was using my head to drag me to the door.

“So just as I got to the door, the door opened… and it was my good lady wife.”

Gill helped him back into bed, but the incident left carpet burns “all down [his] forehead and across the top of [his] nose”.

Sir Jason has now recovered from Covid, but at his age, he’s still vulnerable this winter to the life-threatening disease.