Buster Merryfield(1920-1999)

Used to be a bank manager, in charge of a branch at Natwest. He had limited television experience before Only Fools and Horses.... (1981), and as a result, he was very nervy in his early days on the show. At first, he would crash into the audience (deliver his lines without waiting for the audience laughter to die down first), and had to re-record his scenes. Merryfield would than dry up and lose his words and it would get to him. David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst sat him down for a talk. He was worried he wouldn't last. Whenever they made mistakes in the middle of a recording, they would blame someone and make it into a joke. If you could make the audience think you don't care, they relax and they feel like part of the joke. After that, he cracked his problem, relaxed into the show and the new partnership and became the lovable Uncle Albert.

[from a letter to the producers of Only Fools and Horses] I understand that Lennard Pearce has died and without wishing to be disrespectful to his memory, if you were thinking of replacing him I would like to offer myself as his replacement.