| “ | He who dares, wins! | „ |
| ~ One of Del Boy's catchphrases. |
Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter is the main protagonist of the Only Fools and Horses franchise
He is a market trader and criminal, albeit of the loveable rogue variety. He is the big brother of secondary protagonist Rodney Trotter, son of Reg and Joan Trotter, grandson of Edward Trotter and great-nephew of Albert Trotter. Furthermore, Del is the significant other of Raquel Turner and father of Damien Trotter. During the run of the show, Del's ambition in life is to become a millionaire, which he finally achieves in 1996.
Biography[]
Derek Edward Trotter was born on the 10 December 1945 in Orchard Street, Peckham, South London to Reg Trotter and his wife Joan Mavis Trotter, where Del was led to believe his birth was the most exciting thing since The Blitz. He was named after his two grandfathers, Derek and Edward. In 1947 Reg and Joan got married at Our Lady Of The Divine Rosemary, Peckham, which he was present for. While growing up, Derek would be commonly referred to as Del Boy or simply Del by his friends and family.
As a youngster, Del would attend Dockside Junior School along with his classmates Terence Aubrey 'Boycie' Boyce, Colin 'Trigger' Ball, Denzil Tulser, Jumbo Mills and Albert Flowers. Another of Del's classmates included his enemy, Roy Slater.
In 1960, Joan met Freddie ‘the frog’ Robdal with whom she started an affair with. As a result of this affair, Del’s half brother Rodney was born. Following this, the family moved into Nelson Mandela House, which Joan had secured for them through her pregnancy and giving birth.
Soon after Rodney was born, Del dropped out of school in the early 1960s in order to start business in the market trade. Around this time, he got into a violent fight with his father, Reg, after it was revealed that Del received 8 A’s for his exam grades. Of course, it turned out the A’s stood for absent. Although Reg was badly injured from the fight, Reg was too scared to ever lay a hand on Del or Rodney ever again.
Sadly, the Trotter family suffered two major tragedies in 1964 which greatly affected Del and shaped him into the man he would become. Firstly, Joan died of a long-term illness and soon afterwards, Reg walked out of the house, abandoning Del, Rodney and their grandfather. Del took it on himself to raise Rodney and care for Grandad. Del suffered a further tragedy in 1965 when his best friend Albie Flowers was killed when crossing the rail tracks on his bike and a train ran over him. In 1967, Del’s business partner Jumbo Mills emigrated to Australia, but Del gave him his last £200 for the trip.
In addition to his market trading, Del would continue to raise Rodney, guide him through school and would act as a father figure to Rodney as well as older brother. Out of affection for Grandad, Del reluctantly allowed him to do the cooking, even though Grandad was a terrible cook.
In the years that followed, Del had many romances with women and even became engaged lots of times. The women in his wife were either horrible or they did not have any interest in raising Rodney.
By the time Rodney became an adult, Del took on Rodney as his “business partner” in order to give him a job after Rodney was expelled from art college. Del’s biggest ambition in life was to become a millionaire. Much to Rodney’s displeasure, Del took most of the profits for himself, leaving Rodney with less than half the money. A lot of the time, Rodney would take part in Del’s dodgy schemes, despite often voicing his disapproval. Examples of Del’s schemes often ended in disaster, including chandelier cleaning and painting and decorating.
During the early 1980s, Del continued to take part in business deals with Boycie, Trigger and Denzil as well as other acquaintances including Monkey Harris, Paddy the Greek and Sunglasses Ron. While managing to stay afloat, Del was often confronted with problems such as the police, especially his old school enemy Detective Inspector Roy Slater. In 1983, Roy Slater returned to Peckham and arrested Del, Rodney and Grandad for possession of a stolen microwave. Slater threatened both Del and Rodney with prison time. Fortunately, Del saved the day by tricking Slater into becoming an informant with immunity from prosecution and confessing to the theft. That same year, Reg Trotter returned to the Trotter’s flat. Del was prepared to throw Reg out the house, but discovered Reg had a hereditary blood disease, thus prompting Del and Rodney to have blood tests. The results of the tests alleged that the Trotter brothers had different blood groups, until it became clear that Reg had deliberately modified Del’s blood group. Admitting defeat, Reg left Peckham again, presumably for good.
In 1985, the Trotter family suffered another tragedy when Grandad Trotter died after a long period of ill health. At the funeral, Del and Rodney meet Grandad’s long-lost brother Albert, a former sailor who had spent years travelling the world in the navy. The Trotter boys soon take Albert in to live with them to replace his deceased brother. That same year, Del, Rodney and Albert travel to Amsterdam as part of Boycie and Abdul’s diamond smuggling scheme. It turns out the whole operation was masterminded by Roy Slater, who has now been promoted to Detective Chief Inspector. Luckily, the Trotters manage to avoid jail time as Slater’s assistant Terry turns his loathed superior into the police with the evidence on his person.
In 1986, Del and Rodney were fighting over a girl named Lisa. In order to win Lisa’s affections, Rodney wanted to get a tan on the sun bed, but Del meddled with the controls, causing Rodney’s face to go bright red. In revenge, Rodney tricked Del to take part in hand gliding, so he could make a fool of himself. Unfortunately, Del’s attempt at hand gliding went wrong, and he managed to escape with minor injuries. That same year, Del’s former business partner Jumbo Mills returned from Australia with a major business proposal which would have made Del a millionaire. This would have involved Del moving to Australia. Originally, Del would have planned to have Rodney and Albert come with him, but Albert refused to come, wishing to settle down in his retirement years.
Furthermore, Rodney was refused an immigration visa due to his earlier conviction for drugs possession. Del was all set to go himself, but Rodney went on a massive tirade, guilt-tripping Del and reminding him that the real opportunities lie back home in England. Not wishing to leave his family behind, Del reluctantly turned down Jumbo’s offer. This failed attempt at becoming a millionaire devastated Del greatly. Later that year, Del was still harbouring ill feelings towards Rodney because of his belief that the latter scuppered the former’s chance of going to Australia.
When the chance came for Rodney to meet a pretty young royal woman who was the daughter of a duke, Del saw a chance to make money. At the same time, Del was concerned that Rodney was in danger due to the likelihood that the duke would find out about Rodney’s drug conviction and arrange to have him killed. In order to save Rodney's life, Del gate-crashed a social gathering at Victoria's father's house where Rodney was attending as a guest. Del got drunk and acted mean and nasty in order for the Duke to banish him, Rodney and Albert from his house and Vicky's life. Although Rodney was furious with Del, and Del acted so mean, Del's intentions were good and shows he was protective at heart.
In 1987, Del learned from Trigger's aunt Reenie Turpin that his late mother, Joan, was a friend of Freddie Robdal, a career criminal who died in 1963, leaving behind a bullion of stolen gold. Del, along with Rodney and Albert set out to claim it, only to discover that the gold was buried at sea, and could not be recovered. Del's chances at becoming a millionaire were scuppered yet again.