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A few weeks ago, one of the most curious pieces of entertainment news in living memory broke: it was announced that veteran British comic actor Nicholas Lyndhurst had been cast opposite Kelsey Grammer in Paramount+’s forthcoming—and already slightly ill-advised-sounding—Frasier reboot.
British/English readers, please give me a second to explain to American readers why this is notable: Lyndhurst has long been a fixture of the British small screen, and is most closely associated with his indelible role as the lanky, luckless Rodney Trotter in the long-running, extremely popular BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses (1981-2003), about which I’ll write in more detail in this letter one day.
Tall, skinny Rodney and his squat older brother Derek aka “Del Boy” (David Jason) were South London-based Cockneys perennially knee-deep in ill-fated get-rich-quick schemes. From its setting to its humor and its language, the show is so profoundly reflective of white, working-class British culture that it’s unsurprising a purported US remake, starring John Leguizamo and Dustin Ybarra, never made it past the pilot stage.
Among other TV appearances (including something called The Piglet Files), Lyndhurst went on to star in a second long-running sitcom, the less beloved—by me, at least—Goodnight Sweetheart (1993-99), in which he played Gary Sparrow, an accidental time traveller who leads a double life between the London of the 1990s and the London of the 1940s during the Second World War. I’m convinced that Lyndhurst also served as the model for the main character in Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson’s existential puppet hotel sex nightmare Anomalisa (2015), but that’s beside the point, which is: if you’d asked me to name a less likely person to be cast in a Frasier reboot, I wouldn’t have been able to come up with a better answer than Nicholas Lyndhurst.
When I first saw the Frasier casting announcement flash up on my Twitter feed, I thought it was an April Fool’s joke that had been published early. Maybe Variety’s social media person had got a bit eager. But then I thought to myself: who would make this April Fool’s joke? (Perhaps the same type of person behind the only April Fool’s joke I’ve ever truly fallen for, hook, line and sinker: the inexplicably elaborate hour-long mockumentary Neil Morrissey’s Secret, which was broadcast on BBC3 on April 1, 2006, and purported to unveil the Men Behaving Badly star’s hidden life in the Middle East as a botanist and anti-aging cream inventor.)
Before I even clicked the Variety link, my mind raced. The only bit of news I’d read about the Frasier reboot—beyond that it was happening in the first place—was that the brilliant David Hyde Pierce, who played Frasier’s brother Niles, had declined to be involved: a serious red flag. Did this mean that Lyndhurst would be stepping into Niles’s wispy WASP-y shoes? Would he be doing an accent? The answer, of course, is no. The reality is more prosaic:
Lyndhurst will play Alan Cornwall, described as “Frasier’s old college buddy turned university professor. British, boozy and larger than life, Alan has an intellect on par with Frasier’s—if only he ever felt like using it. Alan’s mischievous streak might be just what Frasier could use to shake up his routine, while Frasier’s thoughtful guidance might help Alan find some of the direction he’s been missing in his own life.
What’s more, it turns out that Grammer and Lyndhurst had previously starred together in a 2019 run of “Man of La Mancha” for the English National Opera at the London Coliseum. They’re probably good buddies. And actors act. Maybe it’s not so curious after all. Time will tell, and I’ll be watching—probably with my fingers over my eyes. Oh baby I hear the blues are calling, tossed salads and Trevor Francis tracksuits from a mush in Shepherd’s Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush…
Before I go, here’s a banger from an Italo Disco-adjacent stable: “Shadows from Nowhere” (1983) by Italian act Blue Gas. This one’s a slow-burn ballad of romantic regret with hints of the Bee Gees in the vocal stylings, and an absolutely titanic, surging instrumental chorus. Massive!
Until next week!
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yeah I'm dreading this Frasier reboot. I love the original show and am surprised at how well it's aged, but that's mainly because it spent a lot of time punching up (usually at Kelsey Grammar) ... and while the show has aged well I don't think the star's persona has. don't really know what more we have to glean from that character