Idris Elba: Del Boy’s sidekick Denzil inspired me

He made his name as a drug-dealing gangster in The Wire and has since played the detective John Luther and Nelson Mandela. But Idris Elba has revealed the unlikely source that inspired him to become an actor: Denzil from Only Fools And Horses.

He first dreamt of becoming an actor after Paul Barber, who played Del’s gullible sidekick in the BBC series and appeared as Horse in The Full Monty, came to talk at his east London school.

Elba, who grew up in Hackney and East Ham, talked about Barber’s influence on his life in one of a series of videos released today by the Prince of Wales to mark Black History Month. The prince’s social media channels are being devoted to black