David Jason hits out at TV bosses for spoiling comedy with trailers

Sir David Jason thinks TV bosses are ruining modern comedy with spoilers.

The 80-year-old veteran has hit out at producers and claimed they give away the funniest moments in trailers and promo clips in a bid to boost ratings.

He\'s quoted by the Daily Star newspaper as saying: "You cannot watch the television without them spoiling the story about what\'s coming up, it annoys me intensely.

"The problem with today\'s values is that the people who promote the shows would reveal that in the trailers, what\'s coming up next week.

"You lose that wonderful explosion of laughter when it comes all at once as a surprise."

The \'Only Fools And Horses\' star also heaped praise on the iconic sitcom\'s writer John Sullivan - who sadly died aged 64 in 2011 - for the way he took viewers and the cast on a "journey".

He explained: "John held [the punchlines] back so none of us knew what was going to happen until that last moment.

"He held that until the last minute and it was a wonderful relief, a realisation and a big laugh.

"Nothing would surprise me that John could twist in his mind and put on paper, he could make it happen.

"The stories that he invented for us to portray, some of them were just so bizarre, there were so many, but it\'s all about the journey that he takes us on."

Previously, David insisted John had to be "more creative" at the time, because TV standards were very different.

He explained: "Censorship made writers more creative. Del Boy calling Rodney a \'plonker\' wouldn\'t have been as funny if creator John Sullivan had just written \'you d**k\' as writers today can do."