about this project
there are dozens of "del boy drinks" lists online, but most of them are wrong. they mix up episodes, include drinks that were never actually ordered, and repeat fan myths as fact.
this project started as a simple question: what did del actually drink? to answer it properly, we searched 69 scripts, 31 DVD subtitle files, and broadcast footage from all 64 episodes of only fools and horses (1981-2003), cross-referencing every drink mention against the official episode list. we focused on the ridiculous, the exotic, and the downright wrong — not every pint of lager or gin and tonic ordered in the background.
the result is 45 confirmed drinks — the most complete verified list of Del Boy drinks on the internet.
every confirmed drink was found using this priority system:
we searched every script for drink-related keywords, read the surrounding context to confirm it was an actual order (not just a passing mention), and matched each drink to its correct episode using the official episode masterlist.
the broadcast dialogue doesn't always match the written script. david jason occasionally ad-libbed drink orders — for example, the script for heroes and villains says "manhattan" but on screen del orders a "baileys and cherryade". similarly, the script for modern men says "singapore sling" but the DVD subtitles confirm del actually says "harvey wallbanger".
where we found a difference, the broadcast version takes priority. we note the script variant in our data.
several drinks that i believed to be fan myths turned out to be real once we checked the scripts — including baileys and cherryade (ad-libbed), irish coffee (strangers on the shore), and brandy and andrews (sickness and wealth).
the full dataset is available as machine-readable json:
if you spot an error or know of a drink we've missed, get in touch: delboy@dnyo.co.uk