I can only think of OFAH with the Green, Green Grass and Rock and Chips and Man About The House with George and Mildred and Robin's Nest.
I suppose On The Buses had more if you count the Blakey spin-off (who's name escapes me at the moment) and the two Rag Trades but that's cheating!

Are there any that beat two spin-offs?

Well, it's a matter of taste, I guess... some time ago I opined that people appreciating the late OFAH "specials" would have probably loved "Rock & Chips" exactly because it was much soppier than funny... but apart from that, for a short statement, I do agree, it was awful...

Funny you should mention that, though, I just finished watching a series of TV movies globally titled "The Quest", featuring David Jason as protagonist, director and writer, a bit of a handful, too much perhaps, but since it was based on long "flashbacks", with younger actors playing the main parts, I couldn't avoid making a comparison between the two "young Davids", and again "Rock & Chips" suffers badly, there...

I know the actor's performance as young Del Boy in "Rock & Chips" was actually lauded by most critics, but I personally could find very little of either Del or David himself in that, while the lad playing young David in "The Quest" (Greg Faulkner) was just amazing, both for the physical resemblance and, even more, in delivery, to the point where I'm still asking myself whether he hadn't been actually dubbed by David Jason himself...

Anyone seen that one? Terribly soppy, too, but very watchable, imho.

David Jason once said...

"I've never ever 'felt my age', whatever that means. I think that there are a lot of people who feel 22 when in fact they're 62, and there are a lot of youngsters out there who behave as if they were four times their age. It's an attitude of mind, isn't it?"

Perhaps there's something there to explain how David seldom "played his age", in the early stages of his comedy career, especially with Ronnie Barker, doing much older characters like Dithers and Blanco, as well as much younger Granville, indeed.

Easier to play older than younger, I guess, makeup can help a lot in the first case, not much in the second... I always felt Granville was a bit too old from the beginning, I'm not quite sure if a precise age is ever mentioned for him, if it was I don't remember, but I think of the character as in his mid-twenties, resenting being still treated as a teenager, while David was 33 already at the time of the pilot, in 1973, which puts him at 45 by the time of the last series... a bit too much for an errand boy?

Maybe, but I really don't care... there have been complaints, more recently, about his playing the role, at 68, of thirty-something wizard Rincewind in the TV movies taken from Terry Pratchett's books, and I must admit it felt a bit weird at the beginning, but then you forget all about it and just enjoy him...

As I said before, I'd probably enjoy David Jason if he played Huckleberry Finn...

Pity he had to give up on Frost, indeed, but that's just being realistic with a realistic series, you don't see many 70-year old cops around... and at least they didn't kill him, bless them, you know how I hate that... even though they still HAD to kill someone, the cruel bastards...

BTW, I understand Barnaby's going to retire too, but I see there's still some 6 or 7 episodes to go... now that's a weird thing, lately Midsomer Murders is aired earlier in countries like Australia and Sweden than it is in Britain... I've seen the current episodes months ago, except for the forthcoming one, next week, which seems to be "brand new" for all...

That's as maybe, but although I'd guess he's got quite a bit of "power" there, I wonder if that extends to playing Del Boy or Frost indefinitely, if he wanted, which I doubt he did...


Er... never been much good at maths, me, but still, that makes 14 years difference, surely...

But Del Boy was alright, if David ever played a "same age" character that was it, including the hair-dying, of course Del Boy would have done that, you know it makes sense...

And let's not forget David actually did have a child in his early sixties, why shouldn't Del Boy, indeed?

An opinion which might be easily shared, in truth , as humorous spy stories go his old pal's Rodney's "The Piglet Files" was a masterpiece in comparison, but he also stopped DVD publication of "A Sharp Intake of Breath", which wasn't actually half bad, especially the first series, where he was joined by Richard Wilson and Alun Armstrong, was in fact quite good, imho...

Pity, if anyone should be ashamed of those it's the writers, not David, his own performances, even that of exaggerately slapsticky, bumbling Edgar Briggs, were above reproach, he shouldn't be the one holding them back...