# List of Only Fools and Horses characters
**Only Fools and Horses** is a [BBC One](https://www.edgepedia.org/bbc-one) sitcom written by John Sullivan, broadcast from 1981 to 2003 in seven series and 64 episodes, about the Peckham market traders [Del Boy](https://www.edgepedia.org/del-boy) and [Rodney Trotter](https://www.edgepedia.org/rodney-trotter); this article lists its principal characters.[1](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/) The cast is built around the Trotter household, the regulars of their local pub, the Nag's Head, and the brothers' romantic partners, with the supporting ensemble returning across the run.[2](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast_crew/full/)
| Character | Actor | Role | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Derek "Del Boy" Trotter | David Jason | Dodgy market trader, head of the Trotter household[3](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/characters/) | 65[2](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast_crew/full/) |
| Rodney Trotter | Nicholas Lyndhurst | Del's younger brother and business partner[3](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/characters/) | 65[2](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast_crew/full/) |
| Grandad (Ted Trotter) | Lennard Pearce | The brothers' grandfather, series 1–3[2](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast_crew/full/) | 23[2](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast_crew/full/) |
| Uncle Albert | Buster Merryfield | Grandad's brother, series 4–7[2](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast_crew/full/) | 36[2](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast_crew/full/) |
| Trigger | Roger Lloyd-Pack | Road sweeper at the Nag's Head[4](https://ell507.cankaya.edu.tr/uploads/files/A_Miscellany_of_Britain__People__Places__History__Culture__Customs__Sport.pdf) | 37[2](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast_crew/full/) |
| Boycie | John Challis | Second-hand car dealer[4](https://ell507.cankaya.edu.tr/uploads/files/A_Miscellany_of_Britain__People__Places__History__Culture__Customs__Sport.pdf) | 31[2](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast_crew/full/) |
| Raquel / Cassandra | Tessa Peake-Jones / Gwyneth Strong | Del's and Rodney's long-term partners[5](https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Only_Fools_and_Horses_characters) | 17 / 19[2](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast_crew/full/) |
## The Trotter household
**Del Boy.** Derek Trotter, known as Del Boy, is a loveable rogue and dodgy market trader who, through the 1980s and early 1990s, worked with his brother to make easy money with the help of their yellow three-wheeled van and a suitcase, though none of their deals amounted to anything.[3](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/characters/) The brothers do business as an unregistered firm, the Trotters Independent Trading Co.[6](https://www.candy-jar.co.uk/books/files/God_Bless_Hooky_Street_Advent_Free.pdf) In 1996, fortune finally favored Del: a valuable old watch stowed away in his garage turned him into a millionaire overnight. For half a decade he enjoyed the wealth, but in 2001 he was wiped out when the stock market collapsed.[3](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/characters/) He thinks of himself as cultured, but his pretentious cocktails and misunderstood French phrases do not make him a connoisseur; his sayings, such as "lovely jubbly", "you plonker" and "cushty", and his Franglais entered everyday British speech.[3](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/characters/) • [7](https://rts.org.uk/article/comfort-classic-only-fools-and-horses) The character has escaped the screen to the point that British economic commentary can ridicule a scheme as "Del Boy economics".[8](https://assets-us-01.kc-usercontent.com/f7ca9afb-82c2-002a-a423-84e111d5b498/edce5602-5d8d-4a29-aebf-4e18dd7e8b85/978-0-8223-6920-2_601.pdf?auto=format&fm=webp&lossless=true)
**Rodney.** Tall and thin Rodney is Del's younger brother, who views his brother's dodgy dealings with usually well-founded pessimism yet always ends up involved.[3](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/characters/) Academically he is much brighter than Del, but he lacks his elder brother's street-smart confidence and self-assurance.[3](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/characters/) His romantic life was unstable, largely thanks to Del, until he married [Cassandra](https://www.edgepedia.org/cassandra); a trial separation, a miscarriage, and her high-stress job caused plenty of arguments between the pair.[3](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/characters/)
**Grandad and Uncle Albert.** The third member of the household in the early series was Grandad, played by [Lennard Pearce](https://www.edgepedia.org/lennard-pearce).[2](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast_crew/full/) After Pearce died in 1984, [Buster Merryfield](https://www.edgepedia.org/buster-merryfield) was cast as Grandad's brother Albert, who moved in with Del and Rodney and became a main character; the few location scenes Pearce had completed were re-filmed with Merryfield, who stayed in the series until his own death in 1999.[9](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/about/) • [5](https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Only_Fools_and_Horses_characters)
## The Nag's Head regulars
The pub provides the show's supporting ensemble. Trigger, played by [Roger Lloyd-Pack](https://www.edgepedia.org/roger-lloyd-pack), is a local road sweeper who always refers to Rodney as "Dave" and is known as Trigger because he looks like a horse.[4](https://ell507.cankaya.edu.tr/uploads/files/A_Miscellany_of_Britain__People__Places__History__Culture__Customs__Sport.pdf) Boycie, played by [John Challis](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-challis), is a second-hand car dealer with a trademark sneer of a voice and a machine-gun laugh, written as the character the audience loves to hate; Sullivan, who grew up in a working-class south London family, knew the world these characters populated.[4](https://ell507.cankaya.edu.tr/uploads/files/A_Miscellany_of_Britain__People__Places__History__Culture__Customs__Sport.pdf) • [7](https://rts.org.uk/article/comfort-classic-only-fools-and-horses) Boycie's wife Marlene, played by [Sue Holderness](https://www.edgepedia.org/sue-holderness), appears in 18 episodes.[2](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast_crew/full/)
The pub's landlord Mike, played by Kenneth MacDonald, appears in 27 episodes; the character guide describes him as loveable and generous but ultimately too easily led for his own good, ending up sent to prison in 2001.[2](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast_crew/full/) • [3](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/characters/) The cafe and pub milieu also includes Sid, played by Roy Heather.[10](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast-and-crew) Among the brothers' friends, Denzil ([Paul Barber](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-barber), 16 episodes) and Mickey Pearce (Patrick Murray, 18 episodes) round out the regular circle from series 3 onward.[2](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast_crew/full/)
## Partners and family
Del and Rodney's quest for love is a recurring theme that eventually produced long-term partners: Raquel for Del, played by [Tessa Peake-Jones](https://www.edgepedia.org/tessa-peake-jones), and Cassandra for Rodney, played by [Gwyneth Strong](https://www.edgepedia.org/gwyneth-strong).[5](https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Only_Fools_and_Horses_characters) Del has a son with Raquel, Damien, who appears from 1991 to 2003 in 10 episodes and was played by several actors across his childhood and adolescence.[5](https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Only_Fools_and_Horses_characters) Cassandra's father Alan Parry, played by Denis Lill, is another recurring figure.[10](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast-and-crew)
Among guest characters, the recurring villain Roy Slater, a corrupt policeman played by [Jim Broadbent](https://www.edgepedia.org/jim-broadbent), appears in three episodes.[2](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast_crew/full/) Jevon returned once more in "The Jolly Boys' Outing"; afterward, Paul J. Woodcock departed the show to play Clyde Tavernier in [EastEnders](https://www.edgepedia.org/eastenders), and Jevon never appeared again.[5](https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Only_Fools_and_Horses_characters) The Trotters' late mother Joan and their father Reg also figure in the family tree, with Reg appearing in later series.[5](https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Only_Fools_and_Horses_characters)
## Reception and afterlife
The series was named Britain's Best Sitcom in a 2004 poll.[9](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/about/) The 1996 special "Time on Our Hands", in which Del and Rodney finally become millionaires, drew a record 24.3 million viewers when it originally aired.[11](https://www.beyondthejoke.co.uk/content/17996/only-fools-new-scenes) The characters travel well: the show became hugely popular throughout what was still [Yugoslavia](https://www.edgepedia.org/yugoslavia) from the 1980s onward, and in Sarajevo the Fatic brothers run a business named after the series and drive a replica of the yellow Reliant Regal van.[12](https://apnews.com/article/956fc1b58e505b994a7d70feea28c965) The character list extends into the spin-off series *The Green Green Grass*, centered on Boycie and Marlene, and the prequel *Rock & Chips*, which covers the Trotters' earlier years.[5](https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Only_Fools_and_Horses_characters)
## References
1. [Only Fools And Horses, British Comedy Guide](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/)
2. [Full Only Fools And Horses cast & crew, British Comedy Guide](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast_crew/full/)
3. [Only Fools And Horses characters, British Comedy Guide](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/characters/)
4. [A Miscellany of Britain: Classic British TV](https://ell507.cankaya.edu.tr/uploads/files/A_Miscellany_of_Britain__People__Places__History__Culture__Customs__Sport.pdf)
5. [List of Only Fools and Horses characters, The Goon Show Depository](https://www.thegoonshow.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Only_Fools_and_Horses_characters)
6. [God Bless Hooky Street (advent extract), Candy Jar Books](https://www.candy-jar.co.uk/books/files/God_Bless_Hooky_Street_Advent_Free.pdf)
7. [Comfort Classic: Only Fools and Horses, Royal Television Society](https://rts.org.uk/article/comfort-classic-only-fools-and-horses)
8. [Charlotte Brunsdon, Television Cities: Paris, London, Baltimore, Duke University Press](https://assets-us-01.kc-usercontent.com/f7ca9afb-82c2-002a-a423-84e111d5b498/edce5602-5d8d-4a29-aebf-4e18dd7e8b85/978-0-8223-6920-2_601.pdf?auto=format&fm=webp&lossless=true)
9. [About Only Fools And Horses, British Comedy Guide](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/about/)
10. [Only Fools and Horses Cast and Crew, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/only_fools_and_horses/cast-and-crew)
11. [Unseen Only Fools and Horses Footage – Over 30 Newly Found Scenes, Beyond the Joke](https://www.beyondthejoke.co.uk/content/17996/only-fools-new-scenes)
12. [Peckham or Sarajevo? Bosnian brothers spark joy with replica van from iconic British sitcom, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/956fc1b58e505b994a7d70feea28c965)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Sitcom and comedy series › Sitcom and comedy-series characters › Per-series character lists*
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