Only Fools and Horses is a British television sitcom created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series and sixteen Christmas specials were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom from 1981 to 1996, with a final trilogy of specials aired between 2001 and 2003. Set in working-class Peckham in south-east London, it stars David Jason as ambitious market trader "Del Boy" Derek Trotter and Nicholas Lyndhurst as his younger half-brother Rodney Trotter, alongside a supporting cast. The series follows the Trotters' highs and lows in life, in particular their attempts to get rich.
Lennard Pearce starred in the first three series as Del and Rodney's Grandad. After Pearce's death in 1984, a new character was introduced – Uncle Albert, Grandad’s estranged brother, played by Buster Merryfield. From 1988, the show featured regular characters in Del Boy's and Rodney's love interests: Raquel (Tessa Peake-Jones) and Cassandra (Gwyneth Strong), respectively. Other recurring characters included car dealer Boycie (John Challis), road sweeper Trigger (Roger Lloyd-Pack), lorry driver Denzil (Paul Barber), spiv Mickey Pearce (Patrick Murray), Boycie's wife Marlene (Sue Holderness), and pub landlord Mike (Kenneth MacDonald).
The series was not an immediate hit with viewers and received little promotion early on, but later achieved consistently high ratings, and the 1996 episode "Time on Our Hands" (originally billed as the series finale) holds the record for the biggest UK audience for a sitcom episode, attracting 24.3 million viewers. The series influenced British culture, contributing several words and phrases to the English language. It spawned an extensive range of merchandise, including books, videos, DVDs, toys, and board games. The series received numerous awards, including recognition from BAFTA, the National Television Awards, and the Royal Television Society, as well as winning individual accolades for both Sullivan and Jason. It was voted Britain's Best Sitcom in a 2004 BBC poll. Episodes are frequently repeated on UKTV comedy channel U&Gold.
Various further media were produced, including a spin-off, The Green Green Grass (2005–2009); prequel, Rock & Chips (2010–2011); and a special Sport Relief episode in March 2014, guest-starring David Beckham. In February 2019, a musical adaptation, written by John Sullivan's son Jim Sullivan and Paul Whitehouse, launched at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London.
Plot "Del Boy" Derek Trotter (David Jason), a South London "fly" trader, lives in a council flat in Nelson Mandela House, a high-rise tower block in Peckham, South London, with his much younger half-brother, Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst), and their elderly grandfather, Grandad (Lennard Pearce). Their mother, Joan, died when Rodney was young, and their father Reg absconded soon afterwards, so Del Boy became Rodney's surrogate father and the family leader. Despite their differences in age, personality and outlook, the brothers share a constant bond throughout.
The Trotters attempt to become millionaires through questionable get-rich-quick schemes and by buying and selling poor-quality and illegal goods. They have a three-wheeled Reliant Regal van and trade under the name of Trotters Independent Traders, mainly on the black market.
Initially, Del Boy, Rodney and Grandad were the only regulars, alongside the occasional appearances of road sweeper Trigger (Roger Lloyd-Pack) and pretentious used car salesman Boycie (John Challis). Over time, the cast expanded, mostly in the form of regulars at the local pub The Nag's Head. These included pub landlord Mike Fisher (Kenneth MacDonald), lorry driver Denzil (Paul Barber), youthful spiv Mickey Pearce (Patrick Murray) and Boycie's flirtatious wife Marlene (Sue Holderness). After Grandad died following the death of actor Lennard Pearce, his younger brother Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield) was introduced and moved in with Del Boy and Rodney, becoming a main character.
The plots of many early episodes were primarily self-contained, with few plot-lines mentioned again, but the show developed a story arc and an ongoing episodic dimension in later series. Del Boy and Rodney's quest for love is a recurring theme, which eventually resulted in them finding long-term love in the form of Raquel (Tessa Peake-Jones) and Cassandra (Gwyneth Strong), respectively; Del Boy also has a son with Raquel, Damien (played by five actors, most recently Ben Smith), while Rodney has a daughter with Cassandra, Joan (named after his and Del Boy's mother), born in the final episode.
Cast and characters
Main cast and characters "Del Boy" Derek Trotter (David Jason) – Del Boy is a smooth-talking South London market trader, willing to sell anything to anyone to make money. Possessing a quick wit and confidence that his younger brother mostly lacks, Del Boy is devoted to his family, taking care of Rodney and Grandad on his own from the age of 16. He is also known for his penchant for cultural faux pas, in particular his misuse of French phrases. Del Boy never settled down with a woman until he met Raquel, with whom he had a son, Damien. Sullivan recalled that he had always been fascinated by the unlicensed traders who sold goods from suitcases in markets, and he based Del Boy on them. David Jason added other elements to the part, including Del Boy's cheap gold jewellery and his camel coat. The inspiration was taken from a similar man he had known when working as an electrician. Jason was a relatively late candidate for the part: Jim Broadbent (who would later appear in a minor recurring role as DCI Roy Slater) and Enn Reitel were earlier preferences. At that time Broadbent was appearing in Mike Leigh's play Goose-Pimples at the Hampstead Theatre in north London. The play was due to transfer to the West End; consequently Broadbent thought he would be unable to fit in with the filming schedule, and turned down the part. It was only when producer Ray Butt saw a repeat of Open All Hours that Jason was considered and, despite concerns that Jason had not previously had a leading television role and that he and Lyndhurst did not look like brothers, he was cast.
Rodney Charlton Trotter (Nicholas Lyndhurst) – Rodney is Del Boy's idealistic but socially awkward younger brother. Despite being more academically gifted than Del Boy (although only to the extent of two GCEs), Rodney lacks Del Boy's charisma as well as the latter's duplicitous persona, and as such is confined to being Del Boy's dogsbody and sidekick. Orphaned at a young age, Rodney was raised by Del Boy, and much of the friction between the two comes from Rodney's annoyance about his dependency on his brother and his sometimes immoral schemes, usually resulting in unsuccessful attempts to gain greater independence through girlfriends or through setting up his own businesses; he was only partially successful after marrying Cassandra and briefly going to work for her father. In contrast to Del Boy, the part of Rodney was cast early, with Lyndhurst settled on quickly. Sullivan partly based Rodney on his own experiences: he, too, had a much older sibling and, like Rodney, claims to have been a dreamer and an idealist in his youth. Edward Kitchener "Grandad" Trotter (Lennard Pearce) – Sullivan was fascinated by the idea of having a big age gap between Del Boy and his younger brother Rodney; the elderly character of Grandad, and later, Uncle Albert, gave the situation the voice of an "old man who had seen it all". In casting the role of Grandad, Sullivan had in mind an actor similar to Wilfrid Brambell, who had played Albert Steptoe in Steptoe and Son, but chose not to cast Brambell himself, thinking him too closely associated with Steptoe. After seeing Pearce's audition, Sullivan chose him immediately. Unkempt and absent-minded, although sometimes displaying a high intelligence, Grandad rarely left the flat or even moved from his armchair in front of two television sets. He was often assigned the job of cooking meals, despite his notoriously poor cooking skills, which Del Boy describes as his "role in the family circle" to ensure he still "feels needed". Pearce died in 1984 during the filming of the fourth series and Sullivan wrote a new episode, "Strained Relations", to write Grandad's death into the series. Albert Gladstone Trotter (Buster Merryfield) – Shortly after the death of Lennard Pearce, it was decided that a new older family member should be brought in, which eventually led to "Uncle Albert", Grandad's estranged younger brother. Merryfield was an inexperienced amateur actor at the time, but was selected because he appeared to fit the description of an old sailor, especially with his distinctive white "Captain Birdseye" beard. Albert first appeared at Grandad's funeral and soon moved in with Del Boy and Rodney. His wartime experiences with the Royal Navy became one of the show's running gags, usually beginning with the words "During the war...". Merryfield died in 1999, and Albert's death was written into the next episode. Raquel Turner (Tessa Peake-Jones) – Raquel was introduced because Sullivan wanted more female characters and for Del Boy to start meeting more mature women. Her first appearance, in "Dates", was intended to be a one-off, but she was written in again a year later and thereafter became a permanent cast member. A trained singer and actress whose career never took off, she met Del Boy through a dating agency, but they fell out over her part-time job as a stripper, before getting together again. This time she moved in with Del Boy, helping to calm him, and they had a son together, named Damien. As the character developed, it was revealed that she was previously married to Del Boy's nemesis, Roy Slater. Cassandra Trotter (née Parry) (Gwyneth Strong) – Cassandra first met Rodney in "Yuppy Love". Their relationship blossomed, and by the end of series six, the two had married. Cassandra's career-driven lifestyle caused fights with Rodney, and their marriage problems formed one of the main storylines in the seventh series.
Supporting cast and characters Trigger (Roger Lloyd-Pack) – A dopey and slow-witted but good friend of Del Boy, Trigger was initially portrayed as a small-time thief, supplying Del Boy with dubious goods. In later episodes, he came to adopt the "village idiot" role and constantly calls Rodney "Dave", much to Rodney's annoyance. Trigger, apparently so called because he looks like a horse, was the principal supporting character earlier in the show's run, although his importance lessened as the series progressed. Lloyd-Pack was cast by pure chance: Ray Butt, who hired him to portray Trigger after seeing him in a stage play, had only attended that play to observe potential Del Boy actor Billy Murray. Boycie (John Challis) – An untrustworthy used car salesman and a cultural elitist (though he seemingly grew up working class, like Del Boy). Boycie, a freemason, was very selfish and prone to boasting about his wealth. Challis had played a similar character in an episode of Citizen Smith. Sullivan liked him, and promised to cast him in a future series, which led to Boycie. Boycie later featured in a spin-off series, The Green Green Grass, starting in 2005, in which he, his wife Marlene and their son Tyler move to a farm in the country to escape the Driscoll brothers. Denzil Tulser (Paul Barber) – An affable Liverpudlian lorry driver, Denzil was often the victim of Del Boy's scams. His inability to say no to Del Boy's business deals frequently led to arguments with his controlling wife, Corinne (Eva Mottley). Corinne eventually walked out on him, leaving Denzil depressed but with more time to go along with Del Boy's antics.