Darth Vader finds your lack of faith in this page's infobox disturbing, as many, if not all sections in this infobox have been left empty. Help improve this article by updating and expanding the infobox. NOOOOOOO! |
“ | Who dares, wins. | „ |
~ One Del Boy's most common catchphrases. |
Derek "Del Boy" Trotter is the main protagonist of the popular long running British TV show Only Fools and Horses and the deuteragonist of its prequel Rock and Chips.
He is a market trader and petty criminal, who is often dealing in knock off or faulty goods. In one instance he sells a very dodgy car without any working brakes to an unsuspecting buyer.
He can be seen as a protagonist villain, as not only does he sell these stolen and faulty goods, but is quite manipulative and abusive to his younger brother Rodney, who he merely sees as a pawn in his schemes. Del has made Rodney do embarrassing and nasty jobs, such as advertise a particular hideous ski jacket and sell sunhats in freezing cold and rain, while Del sits and drinks in the pub. Whenever Rodney questions these tasks, Del always retorts with "Do you want to be paid?", or a statement about all the things he does for him and nothing in return.
He is portrayed by the legendary actor Sir David Jason, who also played Don Ochetti in Only Fools episode Miami Twice.
Personality[]
Del is an unrepentant and incompetent social climber, who has no problem scamming to get what he wants and has an inflated opinion of his own intelligence. Del is also quite snarky as shown by his interactions with Grandad and Rodney as he delights in insulting them.
Del does have his good points, however. As much as he teases his family, he loves them deeply and has proven so on numerous occasions. At one point he takes a beating from a violent criminal in order to protect Rodney, who was dating the criminal's wife. Later on, he decides to honour a promise to Rodney instead of paying off a debt he owes to the mob and again takes a beating for it. Del is also devoted to his mother's memory and blind to any of her faults.
Another aspect to Del's character is his greed. When Rodney briefly left the business and asked for what he was owed, Del gave him some money but it was clearly less than half. He also sabotaged Rodney's relationship with Victoria just to get a payout from her father. Del is very good at manipulating people. At one point, he uses reverse psychology to trick Rodney into buying some worthless broken lawnmower engines that belonged to him in the first place.
Despite his criminal tendency, Del does have his own set of principles. He refuses to sell things he actually considers dangerous, like drugs and guns; he hates rats, and has no respect for those who walk out on their children due to his own father, Reg, abandoning him when he was sixteen. He's also unfailingly optimistic, no matter how badly things are going for him always remaining sure things will work out in the end. Overall, Del generally means well and can be counted on to come through for his family in times of need.
Villainous acts[]
Del has done many questionable things throughout his life including:
- Selling a barely-functioning car without shock absorbents or brakes for £199. When questioned about how many owners the car has had, Del claims it had only one, a vicar, which he 'proves' when he pulls a Bible out from the glove box. This could be considered one of his most devious acts, as the lack of brakes could have killed someone. Del got his comeuppance in the end when he reverses back into the car at the end of the episode, in which the buyer recognised Del and chased after him. It is unknown what happens afterwards.
- Forcing a Cheeseburger into Grandad's mouth after claiming he doesn't like cheese.
- Ruining Rodney's relationship with a upper class woman, after turning up to her father's estate uninvited and getting heavily drunk during dinner. When her father pulled him into his office about making an offensive joke about his wife's death, Del claims that Rodney and her are very attached, and one thing would be the only thing that would break them apart: money. At the end of the episode, when Del questions whether he took the money or not, he denies it. This could be considered his moral event Horizon due to how obnoxious he was.
- Entering a painting done by Rodney when he was 14 to win a competition to Spain. Only when Rodney, his girlfriend Cassandra and Del arrived in Spain, did Del tell him it was a competition intended for youngsters and he had to act as though he was 14, much to Rodney's dismay. Del also doctored Rodney's passport and student card to say that he was 14, meaning that Rodney couldn't claim the winnings of a lottery ticket that Del had bought in his name.
- In the episode "Mother Nature's Son", Del creates his own brand of bottled water, "Peckham Spring", by essentially using public tap water unknown to everyone else. The reason he got approval is because he tricked a wealthy gardening enthusiast named Miles into discreetly using his own (Miles') own brand of bottled water for the testing phase; after getting approval with the testers thinking it is the real deal, Del set up a production run in his own flat, using his own tap water. Peckham Spring became very popular and essentially caused a drought in Peckham, as Del was using so much tap water. The Council thought they had sprung a massive underground leak because of Del's actions. It is also questionable whether the water had been contaminated by a yellow liquid that Del, along with Trigger and Denzil, had dumped in the reservoir earlier.
- Del and his friends bullied Roy Slater when they were growing up.
- Del stole redundancy money from his friend Denzil.
- Attempting to sell a baby to Boycie for £3000.
- When trying to get Raquel to take a singing job Del told her she'd be paid £300 when he had been offered £600. He also scammed another singer into signing a contractual agreement to be her partner in the act by making him think he was signing an autograph.
- He booked a holiday for Rodney and Cassandra but did so for a week he knew she wouldn't be able to make as he knew Rodney wouldn't be able to go alone and would allow him to tag along. He also used Rodney's money to pay for the holiday.