Sam's no fool in lovely-jubbly stage role

It’s not often you apply for one job and come out with another.

But that’s essentially what happened to actor Sam Lupton when he stepped into an audition room some 18 months or so ago.

A fan of Fawlty Towers since childhood, the actor had gone for a role in the stage version on John Cleese and Connie Booth’s 1970s classic comedy – one which would have seen him playing half-a-dozen different characters during the show.

“One of those had a Cockney accent,” he recalls. “I did this Cockney voice, and our director told me a little lightbulb went off in her head and she just thought – maybe we should see him for Del Boy? The rest is sort of history really. And I’ve ended up doing the other fantastic sitcom.”

The director was Caroline Jay Ranger and the 'fantastic sitcom' is, of course, Only Fools and Horses (Ranger is helming both that and Cleese’s adaptation of his own legendary TV hit).

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Lupton has been shrugging on Derek Trotter’s trademark sheepskin coat and donning his flat cap on tour for the past 10 months, with Trotter Independent Traders’ Reliant Regal Supervan rolling into the Liverpool Empire next week.

“We’re coming to the end of a very, very long slog in Peckham,” he laughs when I catch up with him on the phone ahead of his visit.

A good slog though, surely?

“Oh yes, I absolutely love every second of it,” Lupton says. “It’s an absolutely amazing role. I’ve never had a job like it really, just in terms of the way people respond to the show; the love people have for the characters, for the material. It’s unashamedly for the fans.

“What I’m really proud of is bringing new audiences to the theatre. We get a lot of people who maybe don’t go to a lot of theatre shows, and what has attracted them to the show IS Only Fools and Horses. It’s not the fact it’s a musical, they wouldn’t normally go to a musical.

“And, you know, it’s mainly men of a certain age. We get comments like ‘oh, I don’t like musicals but I loved that’. And my response is usually ‘well, I’m afraid to tell you that you do like musicals! Maybe you should go and see a few more?’

“So I’m quite happy to be people’s gateway to musical theatre.”

One of those he’s converted, not to musical theatre, but to Only Fools and Horses is his own dad.

Above: Sam Lupton as Del and Tom Major as Rodney in Only Fools and Horses

Lupton’s love of Fawlty Towers is down to his childhood in County Durham, where his parents were mad about Cleese’s classic comedy but less so about John Sullivan’s tale of Peckham (three)wheeler-dealers.

“My parents didn’t like Only Fools and Horses,” he admits. “Obviously I knew about it, and if it was on a TV channel I’d occasionally sit and watch a bit, but I didn’t know the full story arc. And I wouldn’t have called myself a fan.”

When he got the role of Del, he sat down and watched all seven seasons of the show – several times.

“I started series one, episode one, and worked my way through. A very close friend of mine said ‘I’m so jealous you get to watch Only Fools and Horses for the very first time – that’s amazing’.

“I discovered my love for it and finally got what everyone else was talking about. And I think it differs from other comedies at the time; it has a lot more heart than I think I presumed it did.

“Everyone knows the chandelier moment, everyone knows Del falling through the bar. Everyone has got those classic one liners. But what people don’t talk about is the really emotional bits. And the feeling of family and looking after each other.”

Read more about Only Fools and Horses the Musical

While he is careful not to simply do a straight impersonation of David Jason, Lupton says his job is also “not to reinvent the wheel” or “do something really avant garde” with the character.

After watching every second of every episode several times he has, however, evidently taken on some of Jason’s characteristics by osmosis.

He reveals: “Somebody said to me the other day, ‘oh it’s amazing – you put your coat on exactly the same way as David Jason does’. And I’ve never consciously decided that’s how I’m going to do it, but I think there’s something in just marinating yourself in it that somewhere in my subconscious, I’ve picked up on how he puts his coat on!”

Only Fools and Horses fans will be able to decide for themselves when the musical opens at the Empire on Monday.

Above: The Liverpool Empire

Lupton, who studied at Manchester School of Theatre and often came to Liverpool to watch shows at the city’s theatres, is no stranger to the Lime Street venue having appeared on its stage several times from Avenue Q in 2013 to, most recently, Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

In fact, it turns out Liverpool itself played a key part in his career.

He explains: “Avenue Q was my first ever professional musical theatre job. And I got the call from my agent, telling me I’d got the job, in Liverpool. I was having a drink in the bar at the Adelphi. One of the pinnacle moments of my career!”

Only Fools and Horses is surely another.

But although he’s coming towards the end of the musical’s current touring dates, there’s no time to put up his feet, because as soon as he parks the yellow three-wheeler for a final time Lupton is off to the Edinburgh Fringe.

A member of the prestigious – and secretive – Magic Circle, Lupton is consulting on a new show for magician Ava Beaux.

In the meantime, there’s magic to create on stage at the Empire.

He smiles: “I’m very proud that we’re able to continue the legacy of Only Fools and Horses, and to pay tribute to it.”

Only Fools and Horses is at the Liverpool Empire from June 9-21. Tickets HERE