Only Fools and Horses actress Sue Holderness has shared a harrowing account of using self-defence techniques to thwart a late-night attacker who attempted to strangle her. The 76-year-old star, famous for portraying Marlene Boyce in the beloved 1980s sitcom, recounted the incident on the podcast A Night In With Sally Lindsay, alongside her Madame Blanc Mysteries co-star.
Self-Defence Lessons Turned Real
Holderness revealed that training she had undergone for a role helped her neutralise a real-life threat. The incident occurred in the 1970s when she was performing as Dandini in a stage production of Cinderella in Swindon. Walking home late at night in fishnet tights and high heels, she was ambushed.
“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,” she said. Instinctively, she used a move from her karate 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.”
Fear of Fatal Consequences
After the man collapsed, Holderness panicked, recalling her instructor’s warning that a strike to the side of the chin could be fatal. “I suddenly remembered that when this chap had said that if you go like that, the corner of the skull could go into a nerve and then you could kill him.”
Terrified she had killed him, she fled and spent a sleepless night. “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.”
The next day, a colleague checked hospitals and police stations but found no reports. They concluded the man was likely drunk and had stumbled home. “I’ve worried about it ever since! I’ve got away with it so far!” she joked.
Personal Tragedy Revealed
In the same interview, Holderness opened up about a childhood tragedy: her younger brother Simon fell into a coma at age three and died on New Year’s Eve 1963. “He had a blood clot that had gone into the brain. My mother was very stoic about it, and my father was absolutely broken by it. It completely destroyed him.”
She reflected on coping with loss: “It’s nice that I have those fun memories of our times together. 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.”
Holderness played Marlene Boyce in Only Fools and Horses from 1985 to 2003 and its spin-off The Green Green Grass. She has also appeared in The New Avengers, Doctors, Still Open All Hours, and EastEnders.
