Derek "Del Boy" Trotter (David Jason) enjoys life as an enterprising entrepreneur selling various goods of dubious origin from the back of his van. His younger brother Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst), whom their friend Trigger for unfathomable reasons calls Dave, is his sidekick and often ends up having to face the "little problems" Del Boy's deals usually entail. They live together with their grandfather who's role was replaced, after the actor Lennard Pearce died in 1984, with their uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield). Their home is flat 127 in Nelson Mandela House, a high-rise tower block in Peckham, South London.
A key comic element of the programme is the language. There are a number of recurring catchphrases that viewers easily recognise: "This time next year, we'll be millionaires!", "He who dares, wins!", "You know it makes sense", "During the war...", etc.
Del Boy also often uses foreign, especially French phrases, to demonstrate his erudition. However, he usually gets them wrong, mistaking for example "au revoir" for "hello" and "Pot Pourri" for "I don't believe it". Also a mixture of Cockney Rhyming slang and idiosyncratic phrases is a constant source of amusement and also underlines the social realism present in the programme.
Apart from seven seasons and more than a dozen Christmas Specials the programme has spawned two spin-offs The Green Green Grass and Rock & Chips.