Only Fools and Horses

Only Fools and Horses: The reason why Trigger always called Rodney Trotter ‘Dave’

Read the story behind the long-running gag

As Only Fools and Horses characters go, Trigger was never exactly the brightest spark. But it was the street sweep’s doziness which made for almost all of his best comedy moments on the BBC sitcom – including perhaps the mostly subtly hilarious gag of them all, his inability to get Rodney Trotter’s name right.

Throughout the show, from the very first season onwards, Trigger (Roger Lloyd Pack) constantly misnames Rodney – referring to him as “Dave.” The bizarre and mysterious joke seemed to come from nowhere, and was never explained in the show – even after Rodney confronted Trigger about it in “Homesick” – and many fans are in the dark about it to this day.

But David Jason actually revealed the origin of the gag in his 2017 memoir Only Fools and Stories. The joke was introduced in the first ever episode of the show, when Del Boy (David Jason) introduced Trigger to his brother Rodney (Nick Lyndhurst), asking him: “You know my brother don’t you?”

The biggest payoff of the ‘Dave’ gag came a decade after the show started, in Three Men, a Woman, and a Baby (Image: BBC)

“Yeah course I do, how you going Dave?” went the iconic response from Trigger, which warranted an expression of justified confusion from Rodney. However, the initial slip-up soon became a regular occurrence, as Trigger continued to greet Rodney with the now-familiar, “alright Dave?” until the line became immortalised.

Although it was Roger Lloyd Pack’s impeccable comedy timing which made the joke so funny, it was actually David Jason who came up with the idea on a total whim. In his memoir, the TV star said he mentioned it in passing to creator John Sullivan while filming – who in turn took it and “ran with it utterly brilliantly,” dropping it into episodes just enough that it became a running joke without being tiresome.

The biggest payoff came a decade after the show had started – by which time it was a roaring success, with an audience of millions. It was in the final episode of season seven, Three Men, a Woman, and a Baby, immediately after the birth of Del Boy’s first child, that the “Dave” joke scored a real home run.

Taking bets on the name of the baby, Trigger declared: “If it’s a girl they’re going to name it Sigourney, after an actress. And if it’s a boy, they’re going to name him Rodney. After Dave.”

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