Wednesday 15 September 2010

Rodney 'Charlton' Trotter


There have been a few posts in the last week noting the recent appearance on TV of anything Charlton related. It started with the gorgeous Gemma Arteron’s very public show of allegiance on daytime tele, to the appearance of a CAFC flag on ‘Albert’s Memorial’ starring David Jason. It kind of reminds me of when I first started to follow the Addicks (long before the glorious Premiership years) when there was a real novelty factor to seeing Charlton appearing on TV. Similarly, if I happened to be wearing my colours around my home town, it would prompt comment as if I’d just dropped in from a spacecraft (I ignored the looks of pity!!).

But the David Jason connection interests me, as I find it coincidental that his most notable piece of TV, Only Fools & Horses, also featured a tenuous link to the Addicks in the character of Rodney. I’m not sure on his influence with the writers, but is David Jason a secret Addick?

According to the sometimes-questionable Wikipedia…

“Rodney's middle name, "Charlton", was revealed to the world during his wedding in 1989. The registrar officiating wisely decided to leave it out and refer to him as simply "Rodney Trotter" when the guests from the Nag's Head could not contain their laughter. According to Del, Rodney's mother gave him the name because she was a fan of Charlton Athletic F.C”.

Up the Addicks!!!

5 comments:

  1. i remember the episode well

    "was he named after charlton heston?"

    "naa charlton athletic"

    was the reply...

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  2. scooter babbington16 September 2010 at 03:58

    Interestingly Charlton were managed by Jimmy Trotter from 1956-1961.

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  3. Thanks for the comment, Scooter! How's Ape Adrian these days?

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  4. Thanks for adding some clarity.
    Being an old cadger I had never even heard of Gemma Arterton so I checked her out on Wikipedia where it confirms her CAFC allegiance.
    She has an interesting and difficult backgound so it seesm that 'the girl done well'. I shall follow her career with interest.
    Great Blog, I like your main photo: I remember it from the old fanzine cover years ago and the headline banner, was it "Hales Back in Training"?

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  5. scooter babbington17 September 2010 at 12:01

    Ape Adrian is hanging in there!

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