Only Fools and Horses legend opens up on 'guilt' of iconic show's negative impact: 'Affected people'
Sue Holderness opened up on the guilt she felt for Only Fools fans
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Only Fools and Horses star Sue Holderness recently admitted she felt "guilty" for anyone who was named Rodney or Marlene during the height of the BBC sitcom - adding the show must have had a negative impact.
The 75-year-old is best known for playing Marlene, Boycie's (played by John Challis) wife, from 1985 to 2003 and became one of the most popular characters on the show.
As a result of the success of the show, Holderness explained that she felt sorry for anyone with the same name as her character due to them constantly being targeted by Boycie's bellowing Marlene catchphrase.
The same can be said for those who are named Rodney - played by Nicholas Lyndhurst - who will forever be known as Rodders or Dave, which was Trigger's (Roger Lloyd Pack) nickname for him.
Speaking to the Only Fools and Horses Podcast, Holderness said: "It's surprising how many people do say to me, 'Oh, we've got a Boycie and Marlene in our pub'.
"And people come up and say, 'Look at my husband. He’s Boycie, isn't he? Do the laugh love, do the laugh'. I mean, there are a lot of people who are Boycie and Marlene in their lives.
Sue Holderness played Boycie's wife Marlene in the series
BBC
"Occasionally, you meet Marlenes, you know, the poor devils have been christened Marlene and they spend their whole lives having to hear. 'Marlene, Marlene!' And it's affected them.
"And of course, Rodney, anybody called Rodney is going to be called Dave."
Holderness also revealed that some fans are disappointed when they meet her and realise that she doesn't have a cockney accent as her alter ego does - and is actually quite posh.
Despite this fact, she admitted she is happy to slip into character due to still being immensely proud to play the role of Marlene.
Sue Holderness admitted that people are often disappointed with her real accent
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She added to the podcast: "People are a bit depressed when they find that I don't talk like Marlene.
"I'm very happy to talk like Marlene and do occasionally, but the reaction usually is, 'You're very posh and you're very small'.
"Apparently on television, I look very tall and I'm not.
"I'm quite small. There's nothing I can do about that - I'm posh and I'm small. But it didn't stop me from loving it, embodying this glorious cockney tart that was Marlene.
"I'd like to have gone on playing her until the end of my days."
Holderness recently admitted she felt comedy "isn't as funny as it used to be" and some of the episodes from the series wouldn't be allowed today.
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Sue Holderness admitted that the show wouldn't survive now
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She told the Daily Star that "comedy isn't as funny as it used to be," and said: "I think it must be terribly difficult, because I mean part of the fun, especially with satire, you rely on being filthily rude about everybody and everything, don’t you, which is what makes people laugh.
"And now you say the slightest thing is going to upset people, because this whole online thing is new, isn’t it? When we were making Only Fools And Horses, there was no social media.
"It didn’t exist, did it? So people couldn’t get worked up and wild about tiny little things. So yes, I do think it’s very difficult. And I think already we’re seeing signs that comedy isn’t as funny as it used to be.
"Let’s hope it’s going to change. Let’s hope that somehow we can work out that people don’t actually get offended quite as easily as they think they do."