Colin Ball, more commonly known as Trigger (born 22 April 1948), is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses and its prequel Rock & Chips. He was played by Roger Lloyd-Pack in Only Fools and Horses and Lewis Osbourne in Rock & Chips. Characteristics A regular at the Nag's Head pub, and old friend of Del Boy, Trigger is a road sweeper, and also engages in trading and petty thefts (though this status as a small-time thief is soon phased out of the character's development). Trigger speaks in a slow, monotone voice, and is very simple-minded, although affable and warm-hearted. Trigger did not know his father, saying "he died a couple of years before I was born", when Rodney asks of his whereabouts in the episode "Ashes to Ashes". He was brought up by his grandparents, with his grandfather having also been a roadsweeper. When Trigger is pushed by Boycie to say who his mother had written down on the birth certificate as Trigger's father Trigger says, reluctantly, "Some soldiers". The 2015 official 'autobiography' of Del Boy, He Who Dares, states of Trigger: "It was generally agreed though that his dad was Donald Turpin (brother of Mum's best mate, Reenie)... when Elsie started showing, she claimed she'd been 'visited by an angel!', leading the rest of the Ball clan to start making plans for the arrival of a new messiah. But Donald had been heard bragging about how he'd lost his virginity... giving full details of the time and place, and was therefore fingered as a much more likely suspect than the Archangel Gabriel." Trigger is not married, but he occasionally mentions past relationships during the series and is seen on a blind date with a woman in the 1988 Christmas special, Dates. Trigger always calls Rodney Trotter "Dave". Rodney corrects him in "Homesick", and he agrees to stop, but a few seconds later he calls him "Dave" again. When Cassandra Trotter, Rodney's wife, announced she was pregnant in "Modern Men", everybody raised a toast and said "To Cassandra and Rodney", but Trigger can be heard saying "Dave" after everyone else has spoken. At another point, while discussing Del and Raquel's son, Trigger reports that "if it's a boy, they're naming him Rodney, after Dave". Appearances Trigger first appeared on Only Fools and Horses in the first episode and appeared regularly throughout the entire show's run.