A British television comedy legend, who will forever be remembered for directing and producing series such as _"The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin" . His third marriage, in 2000, was to Gail Evans, a BBC drama producer, who survived him with his son and a daughter from another relationship.
Before the start of the sixth series of "Only Fools and Horses...." , David Jason was annoyed about something and went to see John Sullivan. Sullivan was writing terrific scripts that were too long and had to be edited down to 30 minutes. Jason felt they were cutting more funny material than most sitcoms manage in a full episode. One edit that had particularly vexed Jason was during the Series 5 episode Tea For Three. After Del Boy returned from a disastrous hang-gliding session, he originally had a speech Jason described as "beautifully constructed, full of suppressed rage" about all of the places Del had visited. Jason considered it a comic masterpiece, but because the episode had overrun, half the speech got cut. Sullivan agreed with Jason that the episodes needed to be longer. Jason and Sullivan approached Gwenlan while he was producing Series 6 with the plan to extend the episodes from 30 to 50 minutes. Gwenlan didnt think that was possible since sitcoms were traditionally meant to be at 30 minutes and couldnt sustain a longer running time. Jason said that would be true of an average writer, but not one of Sullivans caliber, and yet they keep cutting great material. Gwenlan than okayed the idea.
Gwenlan and John Sullivan approached David Jason in 2011 with Del Boy coming back at 65 and what had become of everyone from "Only Fools and Horses...." . Jason was up for it, because anything was possible in Sullivans hands. But two weeks later, Gwenlan phoned Jason saying Sullivan was in intensive care with viral pneumonia. He seemed on the mend, and got to leave hospital and go home at one point, but he had a relapse and went back to hospital and died not long after.
He started as a temp on "Only Fools and Horses...." before he became the head of comedy at the BBC.
He was considered to direct the pilot episode of "Only Fools and Horses...." when the original director was injured. But since he hadnt read the script, he was replaced as well.
