Sir David Jason hits out at the ‘vulgar’ nature of modern television

Oct 29, 2024
Where do you stand? Do you think television is far too "vulgar" these days? Source: Getty Images.

Beloved actor Sir David Jason has enjoyed a career that has spanned several decades

From his breakthrough role as Derek ‘Del Boy’ Trotter in the iconic sitcom Only Fools and Horses to his portrayal of Detective Inspector Jack Frost in the crime drama A Touch of Frost, Jason has been a regular presence on our screens.

With such a long and successful career, Jason is well-placed to share his views on modern television. He believes there is far too much “vulgar” language on television nowadays, claiming that “we’ve gone too far”.

“I found a book of rules in my house, from 1947, and what it was, was a rule book for writers, directors, actors, you name it, from the hierarchy of the BBC telling you what you’re not allowed to say because you might offend people,” he said during a recent appearance on the Plot Twist podcast, as per the Express.

“Blimey, if they were around today! The rationale is we’ve gone the other way. We’ve superseded it. In order to be a working class person in television today you use the expletives constantly, all the time.

“And some of them are pretty vulgar, in my opinion. So everybody is using that, constantly, all the time. That’s filtered through to everyday language, so young people today are using all the language that we were banned from saying in everyday speak.

“The problem with that is, is that you’ve given up manners and you’ve given up respect for your fellow man, for your fellow woman, because the argument was ‘But it’s in common use, it’s been there in Shakespeare’s time’, well that’s not good enough.”

“If you tried to follow the rule book today you wouldn’t have a show at all. I think we’ve gone too far away from that book of rules.”

In addition to his take on the evolving nature of television, Jason recently shared that his approach to acting is evolving. He revealed that he now would like to pursue more voiceover roles in animated projects, citing challenges in memorising lines as he ages.

“One of the great things that I would like to do more of is making characters out of cartoons I think. I really enjoy that,” he told the Full Disclosure podcast.

“It’s characters like that I really would like to play because at my time of life it’s not as easy to learn the lines as it used to be.

“But I can still invent the characters and I enjoy that process.

“So if you’re out there and wanting to employ a senior citizen, I’m with you.”