Tessa Peake-Jones, best known for her role as Raquel in Only Fools and Horses, was in a relationship with her on-screen son for nearly three decades. Tessa, now 64, first graced our screens as Raquel Turner in the much-loved BBC sitcom back in 1988.
Initially appearing in the ‘Dates’ special as a potential love interest for main character Derek ‘Del Boy’ Trotter (David Jason), she was meant to be a one-off guest star. However, the undeniable spark between the two led to her return as a regular character.
Despite their relationship’s rollercoaster ride, the pair remained a central love story in the series, with Raquel eventually giving birth to Del Boy’s son, Damien. Various actors portrayed Damien as a baby, but actor Ben Smith took on the role during his teenage years.
In a memorable scene from the iconic episode ‘Heroes and Villains’ (the Batman and Robin episode), Damien’s uncle Rodney Trotter (Nicholas Lyndhurst) dreams of a dystopian future where an adult Damien, played by Douglas Hodge, dominates the Western world.
This unforgettable sequence sees Damien coercing president Keanu Reeves into declaring war on China, believing that war is beneficial, while ruling over Trotters Independent Traders with an iron fist.
Hodge, now 61, is renowned for his extensive theatre career, as well as roles in series like ‘The Night Manager’, ‘Black Mirror’, and ‘Penny Dreadful’, reports the Express. He was in a relationship with Tessa Peake-Jones for over 25 years, reports Nottinghamshire Live.
The couple have two children, a son named Charlie and a daughter, Mollie Rose, but they parted ways in 2013. Douglas made a single appearance in the 1996’s Heroes and Villains special, while Tessa remained with the sitcom until its last episode, Time on Our Hands, in 1996.
She then came back for the revival specials from 2001, making her final appearance as Raquel in the 2003 special Sleepless in Peckham. The concluding episode revealed that each of the Trotter siblings had inherited £145,000 from their late Uncle Albert, who had wisely invested the previously discovered Trotter fortune.