One Foot in the Grave
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One Foot in the Grave is both a television situation comedy (see below) and a 1994 album by Beck (see One Foot in the Grave (album)).
One Foot in the Grave was a popular BBC television situation comedy series written by David Renwick. The show ran for six series, plus specials, over a ten year period, from 1990 to 2000. Four episodes were remade for BBC Radio 4.
One Foot in the Grave came tenth in a recent BBC poll to find 'Britain's Best Sitcom'.
The series featured the exploits of Victor Meldrew, an irascible pensioner with attitude, played by Scottish actor Richard Wilson. His catchphrase was, "I don't believe it!" (occasionally rendered as "I do not believe it!") His long-suffering wife Margaret was played by Annette Crosbie. The other most consistent supporting character was a family friend, Jean Warboys, played by Doreen Mantle. Other regular characters were next door neighbour Patrick Trench, played by Angus Deayton, (who invariably discovered Victor in an inexplicably bizarre or compromising situation) his wife Pippa played by Janine Duvitski and overly cheery charity worker Nick Swainey, played by Owen Brenman.
Although there is no explicit reference that Victor and Margaret have had children, the episode "Timeless Time" contained a melancholy, ambiguous reference to someone called Stuart. The suggestion is that he was their dead son.
The setting of the show is as a traditional cosy suburban sitcom but it subverts this genre with a strong overtone of black comedy. The series featured highly innovative writing and outrageous comedy situations. If anything could go wrong, it not only went wrong but pulled half of the universe down with it (at least in a metaphorical sense). In a manner reminiscent of Alan Bennett, Renwick's scripts effectively combined farce with elements of tragedy. Indeed, in the final episode, Victor is killed by hit-and-run. Margaret discovers the culprit, but the ending is ambiguous as to what she does about it. Controversy surrounded this episode when it was originally broadcast on 20 November 2000 as it coincided with the broadcast of the first jackpot winner in the UK version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. ITV were accused of engineering this in order to damage the final episode's expected high ratings.
There was a short postscript to the series in the form of a sketch for Comic Relief. Victor and Margaret are visiting a friend in hospital, but he is barely conscious. Victor keeps complaining about the situation, but Margaret doesn't reply. Finally Victor is reminded of the film The Sixth Sense and a sudden realisation strikes him... he discovers that he is in fact a ghost whom Margaret can neither see nor hear.
The theme song was written and sung by Eric Idle, who also appeared in one episode.
Bill Cosby starred in the American version of the show, simply titled Cosby which ran from 1996 - 2000. David Renwick was listed as an executive producer on the series.
In the Father Ted episode "The Mainland" Ted and Dougal encounter Richard Wilson (out of character) and drive him mad by constantly repeating his One Foot in the Grave catchphrase.
Due to the series' popularity, people who constantly complain and are irritated by minor things are often compared to Victor Meldrew by the British media. Renwick disputes this usage however, claiming that Victor's reactions are entirely in proportion to the things that happen to him.
A novel based on some of the storylines was written by Renwick and published in 1992 (ISBN 0563364289).
External link
- List of episodes (http://www.tvheaven.ca/victor.htm)