Jim Broadbent didn’t just turn up for one episode. He popped up in five different roles across the series. That’s like your mate who keeps turning up to the same barbecue wearing a different hat, and somehow, you love him more each time.
First, he was Roy Slater, Del Boy’s old schoolmate who became a bent copper. You remember him, right? The one who tried to stitch the Trotters up? Broadbent played him with this cocksure, smarmy energy that made you want to shout at the telly. You hated him, but you couldn’t look away.
Then he came back as the memorably dim-witted Detective Inspector Roy Slater in a later episode—just to be arrested himself. It was a perfect little circle of comeuppance. It felt like watching the universe give a bloke a wedgie.
The Shop Snob and the Dizzy Dandy
Remember Mr. Alistair Campbell? That was Broadbent too. The snooty antique dealer who looked down his nose at Del Boy’s dodgy chandeliers. He was the bloke in the queue at the coffee shop who sighs loudly when you take too long choosing a pastry. You know him. You are him on a bad day.
And let’s not forget the episode where he played the dizzy, wealthy ‘Speed’—a posh bloke absolutely off his face on speed pills at the bar. He’s talking a mile a minute, flailing his arms, and Del Boy thinks he’s having a medical emergency. It’s pure, chaotic joy. It’s the bloke you saw at the office Christmas party who had one too many sherries and tried to dance on the photocopier.
Only Fools and Horses star Jim Broadbent reveals why David Jason landed
