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Comedy legend Paul Whitehouse has opened up on his surprise friendship with Queen drummer Roger Taylor, as he was roped in to help launch the star's new wine. The 68-year-old Gone Fishing star revealed the pair have been friends for a long time, which is how he was talked into donning a tuxedo to host a Q&A with the music legend at the intimate event in London's Covent Garden Hotel ahead of the drink landing in Sainsburys and Waitrose on May 5.

Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk he said: "I know Roger of old, and we've actually had the occasional glass of wine together before or after a gig when I've been to see him." However the star admitted he wasn't sure how the evening would go as he started it in a character but the pair soon slipped into their easy banter. "Obviously, I started playing a drunk. I had some questions - sensible questions - but we just opened ourselves up and kept it a bit more entertaining. I had no idea it was gonna go but it was fun."

Opening up on their friendship he recalled a moment at a football match. "Once, weirdly in Milan, when Spurs lost 4-3 to Inter Milan, the first leg of the UEFA Champions League, and Gareth Bale emerged on the world stage I didn't know that Roger was in the crowd that night, as was I.

"He didn't know I was there. I went, like a real person. He probably was helicoptered in," he quipped. "And he sent me a text and he was around the corner!"

"So we have met up so many times," Paul recalled. "Sarina, his wife, is very close to our producer, on Only Fools and Horses [The Musical]. So our paths have crossed many times, and I've seen Queen live several times.

Asked if his unlikely friend had seen the stage show based on the beloved long running BBC show, Paul responded: "I think he came to one of the rehearsals, actually."

Speaking about the stage adaptation which launched in 2019, Paul admitted he had been nervous at the prospect of revitalising the characters. "It was a little bit nerve wracking," he said. "But because John Sullivan's son, Jim was a co writer with me, it kind of legitimised it.

"And also because John Sullivan had started it - he'd written one song because he wanted to do an Only Fools is musical - it wasn't like we were going, 'I've got a great idea, you know, the arrogance of that.

"It was John's kind of last project, before he was tragically taken away from us. So it kind of gave it that legitimacy."

Only Fools and Horses Creator John Sullivan died at the age of 64 in April 2011.