Kelsey Grammer finds a friend in Nicholas Lyndhurst during Frasier reboot

The Only Fools and Horses actor, 63, plays his best friend Alan in the reboot of the hugely successful American sitcom.

And Kelsey, 69, who has been playing radio psychiatrist Dr Fraser Crane for the past 30 years, credits Lyndhurst's late son Archie for bringing them together on screen.

Three times wed Kelsey, who is a father-of-seven, said: "In London, we became the closest of friends. He might actually be my closest friend.

"I love him beyond description. The idea of being with him on camera came to us back then.

"It's so funny. His son, Archie, was sitting in the kitchen, reminded us that when I said to him, 'would you be interested being Frasier?' His son said: 'Yes'!"

Lyndhurst's only son Archie died of brain hemorrhage in his sleep, aged just 19, in 2020.

Kelsey had met Lyndhurst the year before when they co-starred in the critically acclaimed play Man of La Mancha at the London Coliseum in 2019.

The original Frasier series ran from 1994 to 2004 and the reboot was launched on Paramount + last October, with a second series now underway in the UK. Lyndhurst plays Alan "Corny" Cornwall.

Fraser and Alan met in Oxford when the two were classmates, and Alan is essentially Fraser's brother Niles' replacement, as David Hyde Pierce did not return for the reboot.

Kesley said: "I always wanted the new series to be fresh and we were going to add a best friend because my wife pointed out years ago, she said Frasier never had a friend.

"He had his brother, which was a wonderful relationship, sort of adversarial in a strange way.

"But a real genuine friend really started to appeal to me.

"And at the same time, I met Nicholas, who is around the world a known commodity, even a national treasure in terms of the UK, but in America, it was like who is he? So he and I pretty much just fell in love.

"He's a magnificent guy and a wonderful friend, and he's just great."