Only Fools and Horses

Only Fools and Horses: The cool story behind Del Boy’s classic phrase ‘lovely jubbly’

Many fans of the show will still regularly crack out some of these

One of the idiosyncrasies that made the character of Del Boy Trotter such an icon were his hilarious phrases and expressions he would invent and adapt. Whether he was showing off his tenuous grasp of the French language or creating a new saying altogether, many fans of the show will still use a few of his catchphrases.

As well as the funny sayings themselves there are actually some excellent stories behind a couple of the most common phrases too, John Sullivan using the best of his imagination to produce the rest.

Anyone who’s watched Only Fools will recognise the catchphrase ‘lovely jubbly’ Del uses when he’s happy about something, and may even have used it themselves a few times. Well this particular turn of phrase actually traces back to an advert for ice lollies.

Bonnet de douche Rodders… (Image: Diana Taliun/Getty Images)

Jubbly ice lollies, which you can still find in the freezers at supermarkets today in their distinctive pyramid shaped packaging, ran an ad campaign in the 1950s which coined the unusual slogan ‘lubberly jubbly’. Del Boy putting his own twist on this as a child of the 50s and creating the phrase you hear in the show.

Elsewhere, among Del’s many French faux-pas, from saying ‘mange tout’ when he means no problem, to ‘au revoir’ when he means to say hello, one classic actually came after creator John Sullivan spent a night in a Ramsgate hotel.

While holidaying in the south coast resort, the writer spotted the words ‘bonnet de douche’ written in his bathroom, meaning shower cap. He knew immediately this would be perfect as one of Del’s sayings, deploying it when the character wanted to describe something as excellent.

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