Sid

**Sidney "Sid" Robertson** was a recurring character in Only Fools And Horses. He was the owner of the grubby Sid's Cafe in Peckham, London SE15. Sid was played by Roy Heather. According to The Peckham Archives (BBC Books) Published 2016 Sid was nicknamed "The Peckham Poisoner" due to his unhygienic cafe, and had put more people in hospital than The Kray Twins.

## Biography

Sid Robertson was born in about 1925. He joined the Navy as a youngster in about 1941 during WWII. He was a sailor and one time was being chased by the Germans and as he almost made it to the open sea, a fishing trawler cut right across the path, being steered by his future friend Albert Trotter (*although Albert never said he was driving the trawler and it was by chance that Sid and Albert met years later as they did not know each other during the war*). After the ship incident, Sid and the rest of the sailors spent the rest of the war in the Stalags.

As referenced in "The Jolly Boys' Outing", Sid fought in the Second World War. In 1945 when the war ended, Sid returned to Peckham, London, SE15 and set up a cafe called Sid's Cafe. In 1950 he met a girl and married her. She was Spanish. They later split up and Sid used a photo of his ex wife as a dartboard. Sid gained a reputation as running an unhygienic cafe which was only frequented by a handful of people who did not worry too much about hygiene. In 1960, Sid attended the first Jolly Boys Outing to Margate in Kent. The lads posed for a photo, one of the lads was Freddie "The Frog" - Freddie Robdal.

By 1982, Sid had been running the cafe for many decades. His cafe was nicknamed "The Fatty Thumb". Sid even became known as "The Peckham Poisoner" due to his food swimming in grease and bacteria. Peckham General Hospital had many food poisoning cases to deal with due to this.

## 1982-2003

Sid made sporadic appearances throughout the show's run, mainly as the proprietor of the run-down and unhygienic local cafe, which was shot in different locations, depending on the episode. In 1982, Sid was a 57 year old man who had run his cafe for around 35 years. His regular customers were the Trotter family, Denzel and Trigger. Even Boycie went there a few times. Due to running an unhygienic cafe with greasy food, the aforementioned regulars were his only regulars. Most of the other customers were truckers passing by. Sid always wore a dirty fat stained apron and the little bit of hair he had left was always scruffy. Sid would often smoke cigarettes while serving and cooking food.

In 1985, Roy Slater, the most corrupt copper in the area "dined" with the Trotters in Sid's cafe.

In 1986, Rodney Trotter took a noble girl Lady Victoria for a dinner there, as she was living in London for a while and selling expensive paintings. Rodney nicknamed it The Fatty Thumb due to Sid always putting his thumbs in the fatty food when serving it up.

In 1991, Sid was still at the same premises he was at in 1982. Rodney kept doing lectures in Sid's cafe about the environment. This did annoy Sid but Del said Rodney is just worried about our world and shows Sid a dirty cup and suggests Sid take a bit more care as well.

Inbetween September 1991 and November/Dec 1993, Sid moved to a much bigger premises near a main road in Peckham. The new premises had posters, one was a copy of a newspaper item saying "What Happened To Trucker Paul?".

One time in late 1993, Denzel, one of his few regular customers complained of finding 2 hairs in his porridge. Rodney later joked that Denzil eats porridge with wigs in them. In 1996, Sid was still at the same premises.

In 2001, when The Nags Head landlord Mike Fisher was sent to prison for fraud, he asked Sid to run the pub for him until he is released. Sid took over as the pub landlord. He adopted a much tidier and cleaner image than he ever did when he ran the cafe. At 76 years old he still was quite fit and able enough to run a pub full time. He irritated many regulars by barring Marlene for arguing with Raquel Turner, even saying to take her fostere tits with her, as she just had a boob job.

## The Green Green Grass

Sid appears in a cameo in the *The Green Green Grass,* where it's shown that Sid was still running The Nags Head in 2005 aged 80. Boycie rings up The Nag's Head to offer Rocky the "Gay" Bull to Trigger as a joke, Sid answers the phone on the Nag's Head set.

Rodney Trotter ·
Grandad ·
Uncle Albert ·
Trigger ·
Boycie ·
Marlene ·
Mike ·
Raquel ·
Cassandra ·
Damien ·
Denzil ·
Mickey Pearce ·