Boycie - Profile

Profile

Boycie is a local second-hand car dealer from Lewisham and for a long time was the richest and most successful regular at the Nag's Head pub. Boycie, although materially successful and ostentatious in his spending, remains competitive with Del and other friends, enjoying their company, although he does enjoy reveling in his superiority. Despite this, it appears that he dearly loves his friends throughout the series. He generally wears clothes and carries accessories synonymous with 1980s yuppie success, such as trench coats and very early mobile telephones. In the episode Sickness and Wealth, in which the series regulars took part in a seance, the medium asked for "an Aubrey". When Boycie replied that it was his middle name, Trigger said "You never told us your name is Aubrey." Boycie replied "Nor would you if your name was Aubrey." Whenever Boycie has a drink in the pub, it's always a large cognac.

Boycie and Del share a loose friendship, but prefer to play a long standing game of one upmanship. Boycie is at pains to maintain the upper hand over Del in that he is a mason, a successful businessman and wealthier than the Trotters. One of the his trademarks is his deep, mocking laugh, usually following a sarcastic, biting remark at the expense of Del or other characters, as well as his distinctive South London nasal twang. Boycie has appeared since the second episode of the first series; he made sporadic appearances from series 2 - 5 and appeared more in series 6 and 7.

It is, however, usually Del (a character more street smart and popular with the Nag's Head social group) that wins the upper hand, often trading on the fact that he has a long-standing, flirtatious friendship with Boycie's wife, Marlene. Del has alluded to past sexual encounters with Marlene, and to her reputation amongst Nag's Head regulars as 'The Peckham Bicycle'. He has also claimed to have inside knowledge, through Marlene, of Boycie's marital secrets, and has alleged that Boycie has at times suffered from impotence; these rumours were not fully quashed even after the eventual birth - following many attempts - of Boycie and Marlene's son, Tyler.

Boycie enjoys overt displays of wealth, formerly living in (the fictional) Kings Avenue, the most expensive street in south east London. Kings Avenue is a parody on one of London's real richest streets, the Bishops Avenue in Hampstead. As well as owning a holiday cottage in Cornwall.

In The Green Green Grass Boycie is portrayed with the same personality as in Only Fools and Horses but he seems to be more respected by women in The Green Green Grass. In one episode, "Sex and the Country" he is seduced by Tyler's English teacher who admits she likes more mature men, and in another episode, "Life Swap", Boycie's swapped wife tries to seduce him.

In the episode "Go West Young Man", he reveals he has a 'bit on the side', whom he buys a E type Jaguar for, but Del-boy later crashes it.

It is revealed in the episode 'From Prussia With Love' that Boycie spent some time in prison while younger - for unspecified reasons he was convicted of perjury, embezzlement, conspiring to pervert the course of justice, the fraudulent conversion of traveler’s cheques and attempting to bribe the Mayor of Lambeth.

In Rock & Chips, Boycie is portrayed as a young man and a member of Del's gang at school. From the start, it is obvious that he is still the tight person seen in the original stories, although he is much more amiable and humorous as a young man. Later in the series, after leaving school, he gets a job as a car cleaner for Alberto Balsam, a Spanish second-hand car dealer. Although the series would end following John Sullivan's passing, it is possible that Boycie inherited the showroom from Balsam and turned it into his own business. Though Boycie is clean shaven throughout the prequel, Sullivan had reportedly intended for Boycie to grow his trademark moustache in later episodes.