Only Fools and Horses star Sue Holderness has revealed that she had to use self defence lessons to fend of a real attacker as a man tried to strangle her on her way home
Only Fools and Horses star, Sue Holderness, has opened up about an incident when she employed lessons from a self defence class after being confronted with a late night attacker.
The 76 year old actress, best known for having starred as Marlene Boyce in the beloved 80s comedy, has spoken about the horrifying incident in a podcast with her Madame Blanc Mysteries co-star on A Night In With Sally Lindsay.
In the interview, Sue revealed that self defence training for screen helped her knock out an attacker in real life. She recalled the incident which took place in the 70s when she was playing Dandini on stage. She revealed she was confronted by a man who tried to strangle her as she walked home in the dark.
“I can tell you about this because I think its quite an important story, I had to learn self defence and karate -particularly karate,” she began, explaining that she had a role at the time that required her to take out the villain in the final episode.
“Well cut to 1974 and I was playing Dandini in Cinderella at Swindon. And I was in the fishnet tights and the high heels and on my way home it was indeed late at night and there was a slight dark bit on my 20 minute walk home.
“And out of the bushes came a chap who put his arms around my neck. I was convinced I was going to be raped or killed, as you would be. And I dropped my bags and, not thinking about it, just the natural thing that I remembered from those lessons, I took the heel of my hand under this bloke’s chin, and I did do it quite hard. And he dropped like a stone. Which was nice.
She revealed her relief quickly turned to panic as she became convinced that she had killed him: “I suddenly remembered that when this chap [the self defence teacher] had said that when you go like that (gestures heel of hand under chin) you knock him out. But if you go like that (gesture on side of the chin) the corner of the skull could go into a nerve and then you could kill him.
“So I was thinking ‘Oh god, he’s going to be death by Dandini! It’s going to be in all the papers!’ So I go to checked if he’s dead but if he’s not dead he might attack me, so I picked up my bags and ran back to my digs and I didn’t even get into my pyjamas, I lay on the bed thinking, I really was convinced I’d killed him! And as soon as the sun was up I got up and tip-toed round to see if the corpse was still there, and there was no corpse.”
She revealed that got to work the next day and a colleague called around the hospitals and police stations to check if anyone had reported an incident. He confirmed that there was no incident reported, so it was likely it was just a drunk man who staggered home.
“I’ve worried about it ever since!” she said, adding “I’ve got away with it so far!”
She also revealed in the interview, that she had a little brother who fell into a coma when he was just a toddler, and never recovered, dying on New Year’s Eve in 1963. “Everybody has tragedies in their life, don’t they? My dad, when he discovered he would have a little boy – late – he was a surprise, 10 years after me, he was so excited to have a little boy,” she began while chatting to her colleague.
“When he was three-and-a-half, it was New Year ’s Eve 1963, and mum had gone up to check on Simon about half past seven and he looked as though he’d gone a slightly funny colour. And then she found she couldn’t wake him up and he was rushed to hospital.”
She then tragically revealed: “And he went into a coma out of which he never recovered.”
She revealed that she learned about the news with her sister on New Year’s Day 1964: “Our memory was on New Year’s Day mum and dad sobbing and coming in and breaking the news to us that Simon had died. He had a blood clot that had gone into the brain. My mum was very stoic about it, and my father was absolutely broken by it. It completely destroyed him. My father didn’t ever really get over it.
“My sister was then 18 and I was 13, and it changed the dynamic in the house. I think losing a child does, doesn’t it? I know that I didn’t cry about anything until I was 16, nothing seemed that sad. But you find a way for getting over it. My father didn’t ever really get over it.”
She concluded: “It’s nice that I have those fun memories of our times together when we did actually. He was a very jolly little boy. I don’t tell many people. It’s probably good for people to know that with these ghastly things, you think you can’t possibly go on living, but you do find a way of going going on living and like and and just relishing and enjoying the times that you did have with that little person.”
Sue played the role of Marlene Boyce in Only Fools and Horses from 1985 to 2003, and its spin-off The Green Green Grass from 2005 to 2009. She also appeared in several beloved series including; The New Avengers, Canned Laughter, Doctors, Still Open All Hours, and EastEnders.
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