Marks & Spencer is all but consigning its much-parodied "this is not just food" advertising campaign to history — and turning to Del Boy to boost sales of its ready meals.

The high street retailer will begin a new chapter from Sunday by using David Jason, the actor who played Del Boy Trotter in the television sitcom Only Fools and Horses, to promote its range of Italian food.

The move represents a marked shift by M&S.

For the past three years its food advertising has featured close-ups of products such as melt-in-the-middle chocolate puddings, with Dervla Kirwan, the actress, saying "This is not just food, this is M&S food".

Steve Sharp, executive director of marketing at M&S, said the change represented the "next step" in the retailer’s advertising. He added that other celebrities would provide voiceovers in the coming months.

In the new 40-second advert airing this weekend, Mr Jason will discuss the ingredients he is using for an Italian risotto, only to reveal that it is an M&S prepared meal.

Mr Sharp said: “The new adverts not only show that M&S prepared meals offer restaurant-quality dining but also highlight the quality of our raw ingredients to viewers, whether they are buying fresh produce to cook from scratch or want us to do the hard work for them.”

Recent industry market figures showed that while supermarkets and discount chains, such as Aldi, are boosting sales by an average of almost 7 per cent a year, M&S sales were lower than a year ago. Steven Esom, M&S's former director of food, left two months ago.

M&S said Mr Jason had been chosen to front the first series of the new advertisements because of his universal appeal with the British public.

The new 40-second advert will run for three weeks. The "this is not just food" words will continue to appear as a strapline but will not be spoken.

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