ONLY Fools and Horses star John Challis revealed last night that he had been upset by an audience member's attempts to upstage him.

Mr Challis, better known as Del-Boy's suave rival Boycie, was just minutes into his performance at Darlington Civic Theatre when a man sitting in one of the boxes began his unwelcome performance.

As reported in The Northern Echo yesterday, the man let out a series of long and loud burps during Monday's performance of Neil Simon's comedy, London Suite.

Mr Challis said: "This is a really lovely theatre, a fantastic community theatre which the people have worked really hard to make, so it really upset me that there were some people out to ruin it for everyone else.

"I don't know why they came. They were deliberately trying to ruin it for the rest of the audience, the staff and the actors."

An audience member complained about the disturbance and theatre staff spoke to the group.

Despite the disturbance, Mr Challis soldiered on with the play while staff dealt with the situation.

Alcohol is thought to have been found where the group had been sitting.

The final performances of the London Suite at the theatre takes place today.