Unbeknown to some fans, Ralf Little once saw football as his greatest passion - and he even played for semi-pro team Maidstone United in the early 2000s. The then intensely competitive sportsman previously played in the FA Vase as part of Edgware Town, while he's also been in the Chertsey Town and Stone Dominoes teams.
Over the years, 44-year-old Ralf even tried his hand at charity matches, joining Arsenal's Celebrity XI team in 2010 for Soccer Aid and then Game 4 Grenfell in 2017, to raise funds for those affected by the Grenfell Tower fire. Ralf kept schtum about his sporting achievements when he claimed on a recent episode of his Two Pints podcast with Will Mellor that he had "no skills" besides acting.
However, admittedly, it wasn't all glamorous, with the former Royle Family star once confessing his "worst ever job" was a two-week stint behind the players' bar at Bolton Wanderers Club. His conclusion? "Footballers don't tip".
In the same interview, for The Guardian, he revealed that football had always been his "greatest love" - and that his parents had "raised me with an attitude that I would be good at anything I tried". He added: "If you approach any new task or idea with that assumption, then your chances of succeeding are increased."
That turned out to be true for Ralf, who landed 11 GCSEs - all A* or A grades - during his time at Bolton School. When he returned in 2017 to give a lecture to students, he revealed that he'd also been given a role in Sloggers - a TV show about a cricket team - at the age of just 13.
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The talented student was soon on course to become a doctor, like his brother Ross, and had even begun studying medicine, when acting changed his career path completely.
He needed to take 12 weeks away from school to start filming after landing a part as Antony in the Royle Family - and the rest is history.
Now, many of us can scarcely imagine life without Ralf on our TV screens, having followed him through numerous shows, from Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (Johnny Keogh) all the way up to Death in Paradise (DI Neville Parker).
However, the ever modest actor had his pal and co-star Will in stitches on a recent episode of the Two Pints podcast after he claimed he didn't think he was qualified enough to be anything more than an "Uber driver".
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"I have got no skills. I could go back to medical school but it's five years. I am 44, Will," he exclaimed.
"What am I going to do, qualify when I am 50? ‘Do you wanna specialise, Ralf?’ No, I will be 70!"
Will then cracked a joke back at him, quipping: "I’m no gynecologist but I can help out!"
Ralf clarified on BBC Breakfast that he would have loved to have remained on Death in Paradise for "another 20 years", but that "this last series was always going to be my last".
