Main cast and characters
"Del Boy" Derek Trotter (David Jason) – Del Boy is a smooth-talking South London market trader, willing to sell anything to anyone to make money. Possessing a quick wit and confidence that his younger brother mostly lacks, Del Boy is devoted to his family, taking care of Rodney and Grandad on his own from the age of 16. He is also known for his penchant for cultural faux pas, in particular his misuse of French phrases. Del Boy never settled down with a woman until he met Raquel, with whom he had a son, Damien.
Sullivan recalled that he had always been fascinated by the unlicensed traders who sold goods from suitcases in markets, and he based Del Boy on them. David Jason added other elements to the part, including Del Boy's cheap gold jewellery and his camel coat. The inspiration was taken from a similar man he had known when working as an electrician. Jason was a relatively late candidate for the part: Jim Broadbent (who would later appear in a minor recurring role as DCI Roy Slater) and Enn Reitel were earlier preferences. At that time Broadbent was appearing in Mike Leigh's play Goose-Pimples at the Hampstead Theatre in north London. The play was due to transfer to the West End; consequently Broadbent thought he would be unable to fit in with the filming schedule, and turned down the part. It was only when producer Ray Butt saw a repeat of Open All Hours that Jason was considered and, despite concerns that Jason had not previously had a leading television role and that he and Lyndhurst did not look like brothers, he was cast.
Rodney Charlton Trotter (Nicholas Lyndhurst) – Rodney is Del Boy's idealistic but socially awkward younger brother. Despite being more academically gifted than Del Boy (although only to the extent of two GCEs), Rodney lacks Del Boy's charisma as well as the latter's duplicitous persona, and as such is confined to being Del Boy's dogsbody and sidekick. Orphaned at a young age, Rodney was raised by Del Boy, and much of the friction between the two comes from Rodney's annoyance about his dependency on his brother and his sometimes immoral schemes, usually resulting in unsuccessful attempts to gain greater independence through girlfriends or through setting up his own businesses; he was only partially successful after marrying Cassandra and briefly going to work for her father. In contrast to Del Boy, the part of Rodney was cast early, with Lyndhurst settled on quickly. Sullivan partly based Rodney on his own experiences: he, too, had a much older sibling and, like Rodney, claims to have been a dreamer and an idealist in his youth.
Edward Kitchener "Grandad" Trotter (Lennard Pearce) – Sullivan was fascinated by the idea of having a big age gap between Del Boy and his younger brother Rodney; the elderly character of Grandad, and later, Uncle Albert, gave the situation the voice of an "old man who had seen it all". In casting the role of Grandad, Sullivan had in mind an actor similar to Wilfrid Brambell, who had played Albert Steptoe in Steptoe and Son, but chose not to cast Brambell himself, thinking him too closely associated with Steptoe. After seeing Pearce's audition, Sullivan chose him immediately. Unkempt and absent-minded, although sometimes displaying a high intelligence, Grandad rarely left the flat or even moved from his armchair in front of two television sets. He was often assigned the job of cooking meals, despite his notoriously poor cooking skills, which Del Boy describes as his "role in the family circle" to ensure he still "feels needed". Pearce died in 1984 during the filming of the fourth series and Sullivan wrote a new episode, "Strained Relations", to write Grandad's death into the series.
Albert Gladstone Trotter (Buster Merryfield) – Shortly after the death of Lennard Pearce, it was decided that a new older family member should be brought in, which eventually led to "Uncle Albert", Grandad's estranged younger brother. Merryfield was an inexperienced amateur actor at the time, but was selected because he appeared to fit the description of an old sailor, especially with his distinctive white "Captain Birdseye" beard. Albert first appeared at Grandad's funeral and soon moved in with Del Boy and Rodney. His wartime experiences with the Royal Navy became one of the show's running gags, usually beginning with the words "During the war...". Merryfield died in 1999, and Albert's death was written into the next episode.
Raquel Turner (Tessa Peake-Jones) – Raquel was introduced because Sullivan wanted more female characters and for Del Boy to start meeting more mature women. Her first appearance, in "Dates", was intended to be a one-off, but she was written in again a year later and thereafter became a permanent cast member. A trained singer and actress whose career never took off, she met Del Boy through a dating agency, but they fell out over her part-time job as a stripper, before getting together again. This time she moved in with Del Boy, helping to calm him, and they had a son together, named Damien. As the character developed, it was revealed that she was previously married to Del Boy's nemesis, Roy Slater.
Cassandra Trotter (née Parry) (Gwyneth Strong) – Cassandra first met Rodney in "Yuppy Love". Their relationship blossomed, and by the end of series six, the two had married. Cassandra's career-driven lifestyle caused fights with Rodney, and their marriage problems formed one of the main storylines in the seventh series.
