A classic 90's BBC sitcom based around the unfortunate life of Victor Meldrew, a recently retired man who the world
at large seems to wish to aggravate. Or at least that is how he sees the unpleasant, humiliating, and occasionally
bizarre events that occur in his life.

It is an unusual sitcom, not just because it can boast more deaths than any
other sitcom or because it focuses on members of the older generation (Although these are major points). It is unusual because its storylines seem
totally unbelievable if described outside the context of the show, but within Victor's life it somehow makes total sense and so it is hilarious.

The Characters

Victor Meldrew [Richard Wilson]

Having been forced to take early retirement after 26 years, when his job as front desk security at Watson-Mycroft¹was taken over by small box², Victor considers himself cast onto the scrap heap of life.

He is definately not thrilled by his retirement, despite what people keep telling him about how great it is to have all this spare time and how lucky he must feel. This could be because Victor has never felt lucky and his spare time seems to fill itself with a wide variety of hideous disasters and mortifying embarrassments.

Some of these problems however are somewhat self inflicted as he is unable to leave things be. If something goes wrong or he feels people are causing problems he will complain, loudly and with dangerous disregard for other peoples reactions. He is also a terror for looking up diseases in his medical dictionary then suddenly developing the symptoms to fit it, for
letting little inconsequential things annoy him, and cultivating little hobbies that drive himself and Margaret batty.

An outside observer might consider him to be a morose moaner or an irritable complainer, whereas he sees himself reacting to the insanity of the
world around him, hence his well known battle cry "I Don't believe it!".

Margaret Meldrew [Annette Crosbie]

The long suffering wife of Victor, who unfortunately seems to be caught up in the insanity he generates.
She is constantly frustrated by Victor's overreactions and unwillingness to be reasonable if he feels he has
a grievance with people, which unfortunately he usually does.

But she always tries to meet every crisis that surrounds Victor with patient exasperation, followed by
exasperated annoyance, even though deep down she is sure Victor is causing it all somehow.

Mrs Warboys [Doreen Mantle]

A friend of Margaret's who keeps her abreast of all the gossip about everybody, and keeps the rest of the world up to date
on the gossip with the Meldrew's. However, aside from that she can be very tedious company, especially when she is going
on about her latest holiday or some other nonsense.

Patrick Trench [Angus Deayton]

Patrick considers himself particularly unlucky to be stuck next door to a person he considers to be
either a certified loon or some sort of life destroying missile that has been targeted at him. This is
an opinion initially formed after a misunderstanding when they first called on the Meldrews. And over the years, due to many subsequent misunderstanding, oddities, and humiliations Patrick has seen or experienced, his opinion of Mr Meldrew has decended to a point bordering on paranoid mania. This in later
stages of their association lead to a childish feud, the senseless slaughter of 200 garden gnomes, before finally culminating in desperate bids to sell his house (despite
the Victor generated problems, which included a naked man dangling outside the window while they where showing around potential buyers).

Pippa Trench [Janine Duvitski]

Pippa is the more tolerant and forgiving wife of Patrick, who watches his childish little feud against Victor with weariness and a bit of sarcasm.
However every now and again she can see Patrick's point, after all who living next to Victor Meldrew could fail to miss all of the insanity.

Nick Swainey [Owen Brenman]

Local charity organiser and home help to an invalid mother, Nick Swainey is the nice, cheery (to a slightly worrying degree), and slightly batty
person who is possibly the one person in the world Victor doesn't annoy. However he does tend to annoy Victor.
He is often seen as an overgrown boy scout who never seems to win with anything in his personal life.

The Writer : David Renwick

Having worked as a contributing writer and co-writer (mainly with Andrew Marshall writer of 2 point 4 children),
on many well known comedy programs for both radio and television, One Foot in the Grave was David Renwicks first entirely solo effort.

After a cautious reception to the first series One Foot in the Grave became the major success it is today, even
prompting David Renwick to write a book version. His later work includes the highly successful Jonathan Creek.

The Theme Tune

Written and composed by Eric Idle, an extended version was actually released as a single as well as being used for the end of the TV film One Foot in the Algarve.

Start Tune

They say I might as well face the truth

That I am just too long in the tooth

So I'm an OAP³ and we mean

But I have not yet quite gone to seed

I may be over the hill now that I have retired

Fading away but I've not yet expired

Clapped out, run down, too old to save

One Foot in the Grave

End Tune

They say I might as well face the truth

That I am just too long in the tooth

I've started to deteriorate

And now I've passed my own sell by date.


Oh I am no spring chicken it's true

I have to pop my teeth in to chew

And my old knees have started to knock

I've just got too many miles on the clock.


So I'm a wrinkly, crinkly, set in my ways

It's true that my body has seen better days

But give me half a chance and I can still misbehave

One Foot in the Grave, One Foot in the Grave, One Foot in the Grave

The Series

Series 1

The darkly comic humour that One Foot started with before mellowing was down to it's lighter, more
bizarre shade of Dark was initially rather controversial. At this stage there is no Patrick and Pippa, and
Nick Swainey sees and irritates Victor through his charity work.

• Alive and Buried [4th January 1990]
• The Big Sleep [11th January 1990]
• The Valley of Fear [18th January 1990]
• I'll Retire to Bedlam [25th January 1990]
• The Eternal Quadrangle [1st February 1990]
• The Return of the Speckled Band [8th February 1990]

Series 2

After a disastrous holiday in Athens the Meldrews return to find a disaster has befallen them, requiring
them to move to their new permanent address of 19 Riverbank. Nick Swainey is now their neighbour, as is Patrick and Pippa (Although they don't meet the Meldrew's straight away).

• In Luton Airport, No-one can hear you scream [4th October 1990]
• We have put her living in the tomb [11th October 1990]
• Dramatic Fever [18th October 1990]
• Who will buy [25th October 1990]
• Love and Death [1st November 1990]
• Timeless Time [8th November 1990]

Specials 1990 - 1991

• Christmas Special : Who's Listening [27th December 1990]
• Christmas Special : The Man in the long black coat [30th December 1991] (featuring Eric Idle)

Series 3

• Monday Morning will be fine [2nd February 1992]
• Dreamland [9th February 1992]
• The Broken Reflection [16th February 1992]
• The Beast in the Cage [23rd February 1992] (featuring the voice of Eric Idle)
• Beware the Trickster on the Roof [1st March 1992]
• The Worst Horror of All [8th March 1992]

Series 4

• The Pit and the Pendulum [31st January 1993]
• Descent into the Maelstrom [7th February 1993]
• Hearts of Darkness [14th February 1993]
• Warm Champagne [21st February 1993]
• The Trial [28th February 1993]
• Secrets of the Seven Sorcerers [7th March 1993]

Specials 1993 - 1994

• Christmas Special : One Foot in the Algarve [26th December 1993] (featuring Peter Cook)
• Christmas Special : The Man who Blew Away [25th December 1994](featuring Brian Murphy)

Series 5

• Only a Story [1st January 1995]
• The Affair of the Hollow Lady [8th January 1995] (featuring Barbara Windsor)
• Rearranging the Dust [15th January 1995]
• Hole in the Sky [22nd January 1995]
• The Exterminating Angel [29th January 1995](featuring John Bird)

Specials 1995 - 2000

• Christmas Special : The Wisdom of the Witch [25th December 1995]
• Christmas Special : Starbound [26th December 1996](featuring Rula Lenska)
• Christmas Special : Endgame⁴ [25th December 1997](featuring Tim Brooke-Taylor)

Series 6

This is the last series and definitely the last as this is where Victors other foot goes in the grave at the end.

• The Executioner's Song [16th October 2000]
• Tales of Terror [23rd October 2000]
• The Futility of the Fly [30th October 2000]
• Threatening Weather [6th November 2000]
• The Dawn of Man [13th November 2000]
• Things aren't simple anymore [20th November 2000] (featuring Paul Merton⁵)

Comic Relief Specials

• An short monologue with Victor in the Bath.
• A conversation between Victor and Margaret in a hospital room while they are visiting someone.

The Book

Written by David Renwick, Published in 1992 by Penguin Books for the BBC, ISBN 0-14-023498-5

The book takes you deeper into some of the strange events that happen to Victor [Both original and expanded from the series]and even into the mind of the man himself as he fights his uphill battle against the world in general.

Repeats

One Foot in the Grave is regularly repeated on UK Gold in the UK.