Grandad (Only Fools and Horses)

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Ted "Grandad" Trotter
Only Fools and Horses character
Grandad Only Fools.jpg
Lennard Pearce as Grandad
First appearance"Big Brother"
Last appearance"Thicker than Water"
Created by John Sullivan
Portrayed by Lennard Pearce (1981–1984)
Phil Daniels (2010–2011)
In-universe information
Occupation Retired
Spouse Violet Trotter
Relatives Damien Trotter
Joan Trotter II

Edward Kitchener "Ted" Trotter, better known as Grandad [1] (1905-1985) is a fictional character who was one of the original leads of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses . He appeared in the show's first three series, played by Lennard Pearce. The character is grandfather to Del Boy and Rodney Trotter. Pearce's death in December 1984 was written into the series with the death of Grandad. His place was taken by Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield).

Contents

The character was portrayed by Phil Daniels in the prequel series Rock & Chips . [2]

Backstory

Grandad was born in 1905 in Bermondsey, to Jack Trotter Snr and Victoria Trotter. He had three brothers, George, Jack, and Albert. Grandad stated that his earliest memories were of watching soldiers marching off to World War I and witnessing their return after the Armistice in 1918. He later spoke of the horror of these experiences with his description of the wartime government policy ("They promised us homes fit for heroes, they gave us heroes fit for homes!"). His brother George served and was at the Battle of Passchendaele.

Grandad got a job as a decorator working for the council but was sacked after just two days for wallpapering over a serving hatch. He then began working as a lamplighter for the London Gas Light and Coke Company, and trained as a chef at the Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital. He also worked as a security officer at a warehouse in Kilburn, which he was sacked from after a janitor stole over three hundred briefcases from under his nose. Around this time, he married his wife Violet, and they had a son, Reg, born around 1924. By 1936, he was unemployed and impoverished. Fed up with this, he and his friend Nobby Clarke ran away to Tangier to join the French Foreign Legion; however, they were unsuccessful and became gun runners during the Spanish Civil War. They were caught by the authorities. Nobby was tortured but Grandad chose to confess everything under interrogation. Both were deported from Spain and all her territories and dominions. Grandad returned to Peckham and joined the dole queues. This incident later came to haunt him during the Trotter's holiday to Spain in 1982.

During World War II, Grandad evidently served some time in the army, as he told Del he was given a double-headed coin by a fellow soldier, and his son Reg checked his blood group on his old army records, as mentioned in "Thicker than Water." However, he must have been demobbed before the end of war, as he temporarily separated from his wife and had an affair with Trigger's grandmother Alice while her husband Arthur was still fighting. During the episode "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Uncle," Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield) shows Del a photograph of Grandad during the war. When Del asks why Grandad is wearing a vest and plimsolls, Albert answers 'Well, he'd just deserted.'

After the war, Grandad had various short-term jobs before he retired. His wife, who apparently worked as a charlady in these later years, died in the early 1960s, when Rodney was still young.

It is revealed in "Tea For Three" by Grandad's younger brother Albert, that he and Albert fell out over Albert's later wife, Ada. Albert tells Rodney that while walking home from a nightclub together, he and Grandad had a fight, and never spoke to each other again after that. Despite this, in the episode "Miami Twice", Albert mentions that he married Ada before enlisting to fight in World War II, and after the war, as revealed in "Hole in One", he and Grandad would often pull schemes on local pubs by having Albert fall down cellar stairs without hurting himself and claiming compensation whenever they were short of money. Albert also mentions that during their youth, Grandad often looked after him, and it was for this reason that Albert regretted their falling out, attended Grandad's funeral, and even tried to swindle the Nag's Head Brewery in order to raise money to pay for Grandad's gravestone.

In the programme

The character of Grandad was written out of the original show following the death of the actor Lennard Pearce but is a main character (frequently addressed as "Ted") in the 2010-2011 prequel series Rock & Chips . Set in 1960, Grandad has separated from his wife Vi, and is unemployed and subsequently homeless after she finds out about his affair with Alice Ball. Grandad then moves in with his son Reg. The Trotters are at that time squeezed into a two-up two-down terraced house and Grandad is forced to share a bedroom with his grandson Del. He appears to enjoy a close relationship with his family and remains with them when they move to their new council flat in Nelson Mandela House (which was then known as the "Sir Walter Raleigh House").

Grandad is seen in the first series of Only Fools and Horses. Grandad is by this point in his mid-seventies, largely infirm, and still living at Nelson Mandela House with his grandsons. He is often seen watching two television sets at once, one in black and white and one in colour. In The Second Time Around it is revealed that he would normally watch three sets, but one was being mended. Grandad's favourite television shows are Crossroads and The Dukes of Hazzard , as revealed in "Homesick" and "May The Force Be With You," and the former episode reveals that he also enjoys listening to The Archers on the radio. In "Yesterday Never Comes," Del suggests that he watches The Chinese Detective in his bedroom in order to remove him from the sitting room.

Grandad is always seen wearing a hat, even in bed.

Because of their sense of family loyalty, the Trotters ensure that he will always have a home, with Del dismissing his fiancée Pauline's suggestion of putting Grandad into a residential home because "he's family" ("The Second Time Around"). Grandad is a poor cook; his final line in the series is "Del Boy, I've burnt yer pizza!", and in the first Christmas special, he left the giblets in their plastic wrapping inside the turkey. In the first episode, when Rodney came home after a week's absence, he declined a meal cooked by Grandad despite being ravenously hungry. Del also played an April Fool's joke on Grandad, telling him that the pools had called to say that he had won £500,000. Grandad went to Soho and celebrated before remembering that he did not participate in the pools.

None of the main characters addresses Grandad by his name. Trigger addresses him as 'Mr. Trotter' in Ashes to Ashes, and in "Who's a Pretty Boy?", even pet shop owner Louis greets him as 'Grandad.' This is further seen in The Russians Are Coming, when the Trotters are stopped for speeding by police sergeant Eric, who refers to Grandad as 'Grandad,' while Grandad calls him 'Eric Boy.' His name is not revealed until Rock & Chips .

When Lennard Pearce died in 1984, writer John Sullivan chose not to recast him but to write the character's death into the series. [3] A funeral was held for Grandad in "Strained Relations", which saw the Trotter brothers trying to come to terms with the loss of a man who had been such an integral part of their lives. This episode also introduced Grandad's younger brother Uncle Albert. It is also known that apart from Albert he had two other brothers, Jack, who was mentioned by Albert in "A Royal Flush", and George, whom he mentioned had served in World War 1 in the episode "The Russians Are Coming". George’s wife Pat/Patsy was also mentioned by Albert, as well as Del in his biography, "He Who Dares".

Family tree

Trotter family tree
Jack Trotter Snr. Victoria Trotter Vi's and Rose's parents Irene and her husband
Elsie Partridge [n 1] Uncle Albert Gladstone Trotter Aunt Ada George Trotter Jack Trotter Jr. Patsy Trotter Edward Kitchener "Ted"/"Grandad" Trotter [n 2] Violet "Vi" Trotter Aunt Rose
Jean Trotter Stan Trotter Cousin Audrey Trotter Kevin Gillian Reginald "Reg" Trotter [n 2] Joan Mavis Trotter Freddie "The Frog" Robdal [n 3] Rose
Harry Slater Ruby Slater James Turner Audrey Turner Alan Parry Pamela Parry
Roy Slater [n 4] Raquel Turner Derek Edward "Del Boy" Trotter Rodney Charlton Trotter Cassandra Louise Trotter (née Parry)
Damien Derek Trotter [n 5] Joan Trotter
Notes:
  1. ↑ Established in "Sickness and Wealth" (1989).
  2. 1 2 Established in "Thicker than Water" (1983).
  3. ↑ Established in "The Frog's Legacy" (1987) and "Sleepless in Peckham...!" (2003).
  4. ↑ Established in "The Class of '62" (1991).
  5. ↑ Established in "Three Men, a Woman and a Baby" (1991).

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"Thicker than Water" is the third Christmas special episode of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, broadcast on 25 December 1983, and is the first to be screened on Christmas Day.

"Tea for Three" is an episode of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. It was the fourth episode of series 5, and was first broadcast on 21 September 1986. In the episode, Del and Rodney find themselves battling for the affections of Trigger's niece Lisa.

"The Frog's Legacy" is the sixth Christmas special episode of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. It was first broadcast on 25 December 1987. In the episode, the Trotters search for the hidden gold legacy of Freddie "The Frog" Robdal, an old friend of their mother's.

"Strained Relations" is an episode of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. It was the second episode of series 4, and was first screened on 28 February 1985.

"Hole in One" is an episode of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. It was the third episode of series 4 and was first broadcast on 7 March 1985. In the episode, Del decides to sue the brewery after Uncle Albert falls down the Nag's Head cellar.

"If They Could See Us Now.....!" is an episode of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, first screened on 25 December 2001 as the first part of the early 2000s Christmas trilogy and the sixteenth Christmas special. In the episode, the Trotters lose their fortune and Del goes on a game show to try to regain some of it.

"Sleepless in Peckham...!" is the final episode of BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. It was first screened on 25 December 2003 as the third and final part of the early 2000s Christmas trilogy, and as the eighteenth and final Christmas special. It was the last Only Fools and Horses-related episode until the Sport Relief special in March 2014.

"It Never Rains..." is an episode of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. It was the sixth episode of series 2, and was first screened on 25 November 1982. In the episode, Del, Rodney and Grandad go on holiday to Spain. All is going well until Grandad gets arrested.

"From Prussia with Love" is an episode of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. It was the first episode of Series 5, and was first broadcast on 31 August 1986. In the episode, the Trotters meet a pregnant German girl and invite her to stay at the flat.

"Happy Returns" is an episode of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. It was the first episode of series 4, and was first broadcast on 21 February 1985. In the episode, when Del discovers that Rodney's latest girlfriend is the daughter of an old flame, he suspects she might be his daughter.

"Danger UXD" is an episode of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. It was the second episode of series 6 and first broadcast on 15 January 1989. In the episode, Del acquires a batch of faulty sex dolls, which have inadvertently been filled with an explosive gas.

"Five Gold Rings" is the second episode of the Rock & Chips trilogy and the series' only Christmas Special. It was first aired on 29 December 2010.

References

  1. ↑ "Comedy - Only Fools and Horses - Grandad".
  2. ↑ "BBC - Press Office - Shooting starts on Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n' Chips".
  3. ↑ Clark, Steve (August 2011). Only Fools and Horses: The Official Inside Story. Splendid Books Limited. ISBN   978-0-9558916-9-4.
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