One of Woodthorpe's best remembered roles was the guest role of Reg Trotter, father of Del Boy, in the 1983 Christmas special, "Thicker than Water", an episode of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. In 1984, he and Lennard Pearce (who starred on the programme as Grandad Trotter, Reg's father, and appeared alongside him in that episode) were seen together again in the Minder episode "The Balance of Power".