Buster Merryfield and Horses" in January 1985, as the former seafaring Albert Gladstone Trotter, known as Uncle Albert, who was Grandad Trotter's globetrotting long-lost younger brother, and who was known for Uncle Albert's catchphrase of "During the war..." The character took over the role of senior citizen member of the Trotter family from Lennard Pearce, who played Grandad, after Pearce died unexpectedly in December 1984. Coincidentally, nine months earlier, in March 1984, Merryfield appeared in two episodes of a "Shroud for a Nightingale" alongside Lennard Pearce. He did much work for various charities, notably the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. He wrote his
Grandad (Only Fools and Horses) photograph of Grandad during the war. When Del asks why Grandad is wearing a vest and plimsolls, Albert answers 'Well, he'd just deserted.' After the war, Grandad had various short-term jobs before he retired, including working as a security officer at a warehouse in Chingford which he was sacked from after a janitor stole over three hundred briefcases from under his nose. His wife, who apparently worked as a char-lady in these later years died when Rodney was still young. It is revealed in "Tea For Three", by Grandad's younger brother Uncle Albert (played by Buster Merryfield), that he and