Yahoo Movies Only Fools And Horses The Musical star Vinnie Jones recalls Del Boy-like 'wheeler-dealing' past
Vinnie Jones believes he is the ideal star to appear in 'Only Fools And Horses: The Musical' - because he used to love "wheeler-dealing" in real life.
The 59-year-old former footballer-turned-actor is to appear as gangster Danny Driscoll in 28 shows at London's Hammersmith Eventim Apollo from December 17.
The theatre production is based on the iconic BBC sitcom of the same name, which featured Sir David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst as market trader brothers Del Boy and Rodney Trotter.
Vinnie has told how he used to sell off "knock off" goods to his former Wimbledon teammates, much like Del does down the market in the show.
He told The Sun newspaper: "I love a bit of wheeler-dealing, you don’t forget where you come from.
"Pairs of knocked-off Gucci shoes in different sizes, sheepskin coats, whatever we could get hold of - we were all at it."
Vinnie used to source his dodgy gear from a notorious trader at the time, and he recalled once selling "hooky" tables and toasters to his teammates.
But it ended up costing him "a fortune" when they all wanted a refund upon discovering the tables only had three legs, and the toasters shot the toast out too quickly.
He added: "I took these tables, mahogany-looking things, and white toasters to the training ground and knocked them all out to the lads. Bought them for £3, sold them for a fiver - lovely.
"Anyway, I later found out all the nests of tables had a leg missing, in every box, and the toasters - the spring was so strong they’d shoot out and hit the roof.
"One of the players got one for his mum for Christmas and they’d just decorated the kitchen and the toast comes out, ‘Bang!’ and it’s all black on the ceiling.
"So I had a bill for the decorator and ended up with all the toasters and tables back. It cost me a fortune."
In TV series 'Only Fools', Danny is one half of the notorious Driscoll Brothers.
Danny was portrayed by 6ft 4in Roy Marsden and Tony was played by 5ft 1in Christopher Ryan.
Vinnie, who is 6ft 1in, has likened the little and large duo to him and his fellow Wimbledon teammate, 5ft 6in Dennis Wise.
He said: "There’s a little bit of this with my football, with me and Wisey, don’t forget.
"I was with Wisey all day Saturday - we’re still great mates, very close. When we played at Wimbledon in the Cup Final, we were very much the Driscoll Brothers.
"It would have got mentioned some-where down the line."
