List of Only Fools and Horses characters


This is a list of characters from the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, its spin-off series The Green Green Grass, and its prequel series Rock & Chips.

Overview

Regular characters

Recurring characters

Major

Minor

PC Terry Hoskins

Police Constable Terence "Terry" Hoskins appeared in two episodes – "May the Force Be with You" and "To Hull and Back'". He works alongside [|Roy Slater] but does not like him. Slater often makes him miss lunch and watch suspects whilst Slater is away. He has a conversation with Del Boy, in which it is revealed Del Boy sold Terry's mother a gas fire, advising Del to tell Slater who stole a microwave he was accused of stealing. In "To Hull and Back", Slater's superiors suspect him of diamond smuggling and order Terry to keep an eye on Slater, with Terry driving Slater into a police sting at the end of the episode.

Jevon

Jevon is a friend of Rodney and Mickey Pearce, first seen in "Dates". Unlike Mickey, Jevon is successful with women, though to his chagrin Cassandra Parry rebuffed him when he asked her to dance. He was even more surprised when she agreed to dance with Rodney. Jevon set up a trading partnership with Mickey Pearce, which lasted throughout the sixth series. They apparently gave up on the trading business at the end of that series though, following a run in with the Driscoll brothers which left them both in plaster. Jevon made one further appearance in "The Jolly Boys' Outing", after which Woodcock left the series to take the role of Clyde Tavernier in EastEnders and the character was not seen again. He appeared in "The Jolly Boys' Outing", "Little Problems", "Sickness & Wealth", "Yuppy Love" and "Dates'".

[|Nerys]

"Nervous" Nerys was the Nag's Head barmaid who appeared in two episodes, "Dates'" and "Sickness and Wealth". She briefly dated Rodney, although she was left terrified when a gang of yobs chased them in the van. Nerys was later scared again when she interrupted the séance that the Trotters were attending.

Alan and Pamela Parry

Alan and Pamela Parry made infrequent appearances during series six and seven. They are Cassandra's parents, and subsequently Rodney's in-laws.
Alan is the owner of a successful printing firm, Parry Print Ltd, which employs Rodney from 1989 to 1991, and later becomes a friend of Del Boy. Despite being a successful businessman by the time he met Del, Alan, who used to live on a council estate in the area, often ending up drunk or getting sick after eating too many jellied eels whilst under Del's influence, much to the chagrin of more overtly middle-class Pam. They are both in attendance at Damien's christening in "Miami Twice".

Roy Slater

DCI Roy Slater appeared in three episodes – '"May the Force Be with You", "To Hull and Back" and "The Class of '62". A much-reviled ex-schoolmate of Del, Slater was a corrupt policeman and the ex-husband of Raquel Turner. He was sent to prison for diamond smuggling after the events of "To Hull and Back". Slater also appears in the prequel Rock & Chips, where he is barely tolerated by Del and the others as a member of their gang, as his friendship with them is at this point obviously falling apart. In "Five Gold Rings", he leaves school to become a police cadet, and arrests Del and [|Jumbo] for selling illegal American records. This is the last time Slater is seen, as he does not appear in "The Frog and the Pussycat".

June Snell

June Snell is an ex-girlfriend of Del Boy's from many years previously. They meet up again when Rodney dates June's daughter Debbie in "Happy Returns", which Del scuppers in the false assumption that Debbie is his daughter.
Del and June fall out when June reveals that Debbie's real father is Del's best friend Albie Littlewood, and Del in turn admits that he had been cheating on her with Albie's girlfriend Deidre. They are later reconciled again, however, as Del invited June to the opera in "A Royal Flush" with Rodney and his date [|Lady Victoria]. He and June ruin the evening and embarrass Rodney by noisily eating snacks and arguing with other audience members. The evening then comes to an end after June becomes ill from eating too much and vomits over an audience member sitting in front of her.
Aside from Debbie, June has another child, a son named Jason.

Chris

Chris is a friend of Rodney and Mickey Pearce, first seen in "Dates". He also appears in "Rodney Come Home" and in the dream sequence at the start of"Mother Nature's Son".

Barmaids

Throughout the run of Only Fools and Horses, there were various barmaids employed at the Nag's Head. Aside from Nerys, they only filled relatively minor roles, speaking only the occasional one-liner or flirting with Del.
  • Joyce appeared in two episodes of the first series.
  • Julie appeared in five episodes over the second and third series; however, La Rousse was credited for only her second appearance.
  • Karen appeared in four episodes of the third series. In all her appearances, she was credited as Michèle Winstanley.
  • Vicky appeared in the Christmas special "To Hull and Back".
  • Maureen appeared in five episodes over the fourth and fifth series.

    Trotter relatives

Joan Trotter

Joan Mavis "Joanie" Trotter is Del and Rodney's late beloved mother, and wife of [|Reg]. Though she is never seen in the series, she is often mentioned by Del, especially in his attempts to emotionally blackmail Rodney, who had few memories of her. Del loved his mother deeply, and still mourns her death. Over the series, it became clear to Rodney and the viewers, but not always to Del, that Joan had had a series of affairs with numerous men during her loveless marriage to Del's selfish, workshy father Reg. One such affair was with local "gentleman thief" [|Freddie Robdal] and resulted in the birth of Rodney. She died on 12 March 1964 of an unknown illness while Rodney was still very young.
Her tombstone, a flamboyant fibreglass monument, is also seen occasionally. In "The Yellow Peril", Del paints it yellow, not realising that the paint is luminous. In "Danger UXD", they dress up the blow up dolls in Joan's old clothes in order to get them out of the flat without being noticed. After the Trotters became millionaires, Del returns to their now deserted flat and remembers his mother telling him he could not have the day off school with a hangover because he was due to sit his 11-plus. When Cassandra and Rodney have their baby in "Sleepless in Peckham", they name her Joan.
The character makes her first screen appearance in Rock & Chips. She is portrayed as a hard-working woman in her late 30s, struggling to maintain a home, which included her workshy husband Reg, elderly father-in-law Ted and her teenage son, Del Boy. She has an affair with Freddie Robdal, a friend of Reg recently released from prison, and soon discovers she is pregnant. Joan and Freddie's affair is not one of lust; they seem to love each other genuinely and Joan loves both her sons deeply. She is willing to leave Reg altogether and run away with Freddie to Bournemouth to raise Rodney with him but would only do so once she was sure Del was financially secure. She tries her best to help Del's relationship and hopeful eventual marriage to a rich man's daughter, but the relationship does not work, and Joan ultimately chooses to remain in Peckham for Del's sake. Joan is a huge fan of Hollywood films and actresses, given her job in the Ritz cinema, to the point that she changed her hairstyle multiple times during Rock & Chips to resemble actresses such as Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda and Audrey Hepburn.

Reg Trotter

Reginald "Reg" Trotter is the estranged father of Del Boy, stepfather of Rodney, and son of Grandad.
Reg abandons his family shortly after the death of his wife Joan. He leaves on Del's 16th birthday, taking his cake and Rodney's piggy bank. Eighteen years later he returns, in the episode "Thicker than Water", claiming to have a hereditary blood disorder. When the results reveal Del and Rodney to have different blood groups, he attempts to split the family by questioning Del's paternity. He quickly leaves once it becomes known that he has forged the test results himself and is never heard from again. As with their mother, he is often mentioned by Del in other episodes. It was revealed in the final episode "Sleepless in Peckham" that Rodney is not in fact Reg's biological son, but Freddie Robdal's. It is also shown in Rock & Chips he is an abusive husband to Joan, earning him the hatred of Del and Freddie, and has an affair with Nag's Head barmaid Val.

Vi Trotter

Violet "Vi" Trotter was the estranged, sharp-tongued wife of Ted Trotter, mother of Reg and the paternal grandmother of Del Boy.
Long dead by Only Fools and Horses, Vi first appeared in the second and third episodes of the prequel Rock & Chips, "Five Gold Rings" and "The Frog and the Pussycat", in which she babysat the infant Rodney – much to the fury of her husband, who resented her for throwing him out after she had discovered his affair with Alice Ball, Trigger's grandmother. Despite her contempt for her husband, Vi maintained a friendly relationship with her son, grandson and daughter-in-law, and doted on Rodney. Vi mentioned she worked as the charlady for an art dealer, as Del mentioned in "Yesterday Never Comes"; however, she did not mention that she had stolen a valuable artwork from her employer. According to Del's autobiography, she became ill in 1963 and died the following year, shortly after Joan.

Freddie Robdal

Frederick "Freddie" Robdal, also known by his nickname Freddie the Frog, was an unseen character in the original series. He is first mentioned in "The Frog's Legacy" and later revealed to be Rodney's biological father. Robdal was a career thief who had been a frogman in the Royal Navy, hence the nickname, and had an extramarital affair with Joan Trotter. Robdal died shortly afterwards, when he accidentally sat on his own detonator during a bank robbery. The Trotters' search for his hidden gold legacy was the focal point of the episode "The Frog's Legacy". When an old photograph of Robdal surfaces in the episode "Sleepless in Peckham", his striking resemblance to Rodney finally settled the issue of the latter's paternity after years of speculation.
He has an unnamed wife who he is separated from by the time he has an affair with Joan.
Robdal is one of the main characters in the Only Fools and Horses prequel Rock & Chips, where he is accompanied by explosive expert [|Gerald "Jelly" Kelly] and has a habit of calling people "cocker", among them Del Boy and Boycie. The first episode of Rock & Chips fully reveals the details surrounding Robdal's affair with Joan which resulted in Rodney's birth. He and Jelly, along with Reg, Ted, and Del's gang embark on their first Jolly Boys' Outing to Margate in June 1960, although the trip is merely a ruse so that Robdal and Kelly can rob a nearby jewellery store. It is revealed in the second episode, "Five Gold Rings", that Robdal did in fact love Joan deeply and wanted to see his son grow up, but it was difficult because of Joan's marriage to Reg and his situations with Del Boy and the police. In "The Frog and the Pussycat", Robdal and Kelly are again arrested on suspicion of murdering the sole eyewitness to the Margate robbery, although Robdal discovers it was a fraud by the police. However, Robdal is incarcerated when it is revealed one of the stolen jewels was pawned by Joan in order to fund Del's film, and at this time she is also "working" as Robdal's charlady. While in prison, Robdal implores Joan to leave London with him to his seaside home with Rodney. Joan accepts but only once she is certain of Del's financial state. However, Del's planned film does not work out well, and Joan is forced to stay in Peckham. It is implied that Robdal remains in Peckham as well.