David Jason to be a father

David Jason and Gill Hinchcliffe: Expecting

Actor David Jason is to become a father for the first time.

The 60-year-old star of Only Fools And Horses and A Touch of Frost and his partner Gill Hinchcliffe, 41, are said to be "absolutely delighted".

The news was broken in a tabloid newspaper but the couple later confirmed they were expecting a baby in Spring 2001, when Jason will be 61.

A statement on behalf of the couple said: "While they [the couple] would have liked to have been allowed to make the announcement in their own time, they are both absolutely delighted."

'Intolerant'

The couple first met in 1989 when Hinchcliffe became a production assistant with Yorkshire TV.

They began a relationship 18 months after Jason's partner of almost 20 years, actress Myfanwy Talog, died of breast cancer aged 49, in 1995.

The parents-to-be live in a country home in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

In the past, when asked about the possibility of becoming a father, Jason said he was too intolerant and spent too much time away from home.

He once described marriage as like throwing yourself into a river when you only wanted a drink of water.

Jason is currently filming on location in York for the new ITV drama, Micawber, an adaptation of Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, to be screened at Christmas.