Only Fools and Horses grandad 'could have shot Hitler before WWII'

The man who played grandad in the classic British sitcom Only Fools And Horses regretted not killing Adolf Hitler when he had the chance in the 1930s, a fellow cast member has revealed.

Lennard Pearce, who played grandad in the show, told his colleague Nicholas Lyndhurst, known for his role as Rodney, that while touring Europe in the 1930s as an actor he performed in front of a number of top members of the Nazi party in Germany.

"He was a young actor touring Europe and they were playing some German city and the Nazis walked in," Lyndhurst said, according to the Daily Mail.

"The top honchos of the Nazi party had seen the play and came to congratulate them ­afterwards. Lennard shook hands with Adolf Hitler."

Lyndhurst then revealed that Lennard wished he had killed the murderous dictator had he known what he would later become: "He only ever told me once, but he said, 'Had I known then what I know now, I would have drawn the pistol from one of the bodyguards and I'd have done my best to kill him.'"

Pearce died from a heart attack in 1984, during the show's fourth season. The revelations about his meeting with the Nazi leader were made by Lyndhurst on an episode of Gold's The Story Of Only Fools And Horses set to air on 2 October.

"We're used to hearing Uncle Albert's stories about his rather dubious wartime service in the navy," said Steve Clark, author of Only Fools And Horses – The Official Inside Story "but it's incredible that Lennard Pearce actually met Hitler during his rise to power and could have put a stop to him before he was able to do so much evil."