Grandad (Only Fools and Horses)

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Edward "Grandad" Trotter
Grandad Only Fools.jpg
Only Fools and Horses character
Portrayed byLennard Pearce (1981–1984)
Phil Daniels (2010–2011)
Duration1981–1984 (OFAH)
2010–2011 (Rock & Chips)
First appearance"Big Brother"
Last appearance"Thicker than Water"
Created byJohn Sullivan
Spin-off
appearances		Rock & Chips (2010–2011)
ClassificationFormer; regular
Profile
OccupationRetired
Home39 Orchard Street (formerly)
368 Nelson Mandela House, Nyere Estate, Peckham

Edward Kitchener "Ted" Trotter, better known simply as Grandad (9 July 1909 – 1985),[1] 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. After Pearce's death in December 1984, Grandad was written out of the series. His place was taken by Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield).

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

Backstory[]

Born in Peckham Rye, London in 1909, Grandad stated that his earliest memories were of watching the 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, we got heroes fit for homes!").

In 1924, after leaving school, 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, but by the 1930s, he was unemployed and living with his parents and his brothers, George, Albert, and Jack, in Peabody Buildings, Peckham Rye. In 1936, he and his friend Nobby Clarke ran away to Tangier to join the French Foreign Legion; however, they were unsuccessful and ended up becoming 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. He returned to Peckham and joined the dole queues, marrying his wife Violet sometime before the war, and fathering a son, Reg.

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 seen 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, including working 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. 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, they both 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 (called frequently by his real name "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. 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 black-and-white TV and one colour TV. 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.

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, not knowing what it meant by 'ready cleaned'.[citation needed] 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 Fools joke on Grandad, telling him that the pools had called to say that he had won £500,000. Grandad went to Soho and celebrated then realised that he did not do 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'. His name is not revealed until Rock & Chips.

When Lennard Pearce died in 1984, writer John Sullivan chose not to replace 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, Grandad had two more brothers: George, whom he mentioned in the episode "The Russians Are Coming"; and Jack, who was mentioned by Albert in "A Royal Flush".

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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