Did you know that classic Only Fools and Horses character Del Boy was actually based on a real person? It's true!
More then 35 years on from writer John Sullivan's classic sitcom making its telly debut, Sir David Jason has been reflecting on Del Boy and many of his other classic characters for the memoir Only Fools and Stories: From Del Boy to Granville, Pop Larkin to Frost.
Sir David popped by The One Show on Monday (October 23) to promote the book, and ended up chatting about how a real-life encounter with an East-End builder ultimately helped him create Del Boy.
"When I was working as an electrician, my partner and I were desperate for work," he explained to presenters Alex Jones and Ore Oduba. "We went around all through London, the West End, the East End, to knock at all the builders' doors and see if they could give us some work.
"We knocked at one door down at the East End… We were shown into this office to meet this Derek Hockley. This guy came out to meet us. I'll never, ever forget it. He was dressed absolutely immaculately. Everything about him was perfect. Except you could cut his accent with a knife!"
He continued: "East-Enders [who talked like Derek Hockley] were always in rough clothes and flat hats. Here was Derek Hockley looking like a lord, and he talked like a costermonger!"
That encounter came back to Sir David years later when he and writer John Sullivan were working on making the first series of Only Fools and Horses.
"It so fascinated me that many, many years later when I was constructing the character of Derek Trotter, I asked [writer] John Sullivan how he saw the character," he recalled. "He said that he saw [Del Boy] with a flat cap and a beer belly, and rough trousers and scruffy!
"And I said, 'No, I don't see him like that!' I said I'd met this character years ago, and he stuck in my mind. And why can't he be an immaculate dresser, but still be a Cockney? Still be a Londoner? So, that's how it went."
The rest was history! It's certainly has been an eventful few months for Only Fools and Horses, following the recent screening of a never-before-seen 1984 episode called 'Licensed to Drill'.
There has also recently been talk from creator John Sullivan's son that Only Fools and Horses may even make a telly comeback in the near future.
