One Foot In The Grave: The Complete Series 1

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Over the show's history, it featured a number of notable comic actors in one-off roles. These include Susie Blake, John Bird, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Peter Cook, Diana Coupland, Phil Daniels, Edward de Souza, Hannah Gordon, Georgina Hale, Roy Hudd, Jimmy Jewel, Rula Lenska, Stephen Lewis, Paul Merton, Brian Murphy, Christopher Ryan, Jim Sweeney, Barbara Windsor, Joan Sims and Ray Winstone. Two of Angus Deayton's former Radio Active and KYTV co-stars, Geoffrey Perkins and Michael Fenton Stevens were cast, in separate episodes, as respectively the brother and brother-in-law of Deayton's character. A few actors little-known at the time also appeared in one-off roles before going on to greater fame, including Lucy Davis, Joanna Scanlan, Eamonn Walker and Arabella Weir. Margaret Meldrew (née Pellow) ( Annette Crosbie) – Victor's long-suffering, tolerant and kind-hearted wife. Margaret tries to maintain a degree of calmness and to rise above her husband's antics. However, she is often engulfed in these follies, mishaps and confusion and often vents her anger at Victor. In early episodes, her character acts more as a comic foil to Victor's misfortunes. Examples include fearfully asking if a cat found frozen in their freezer is definitely dead and mentioning a friend who died of a terminal illness. When Victor reminds her that the woman actually fell from a cliff, Margaret retorts she only did so because "she went to the seaside to convalesce". Jean Warboys ( Doreen Mantle) – Mrs Warboys is a friend of Margaret's (and a rather annoying one in Victor's eyes) who has attached herself to the Meldrews, accompanying them on many of their exploits. Until the fourth series she is married to ( unseen) Chris until he leaves her for a private detective she had hired, believing he was having an affair, and they divorce. One Foot in the Grave: The Complete Series". dvdtalk.com. Archived from the original on 19 October 2021 . Retrieved 3 July 2023.

a b c d Lewisohn, Mark. "One Foot in the Grave". The former BBC Guide to Comedy . Retrieved 2 May 2019. The Complete One Foot In The Grave, Box Set) [12 Discs][Region 4]". fishpond.com.au . Retrieved 3 July 2023. Aaronovitch, David (28 August 2002). "The real Victor Meldrew would have had no time for this new social group". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 7 May 2008 . Retrieved 2 May 2019.Graham Linehan; Arthur Mathews (2000). Father Ted: The Complete Scripts. London: Boxtree. p.298. ISBN 0-7522-7235-7. In 2004, One Foot in the Grave came tenth in a BBC poll to find " Britain's Best Sitcom" with 31,410 votes. [23] The programme also came 80th in the British Film Institute's 100 Greatest British Television Programmes. [4] Award list Victor's fans say it with flowers". Northern Echo. 23 November 2000 . Retrieved 28 January 2009. [ dead link]

Patterson, Johno (13 December 2013). "10 Dark British Comedy TV Shows That Must Be Seen". WhatCulture.com . Retrieved 30 April 2020. A Swedish version, En fot i graven ( A Foot in the Grave) was made in 2001. Produced by commercial television channel TV4 and aired on SVT, it starred Gösta Ekman as "Victor Melldrov" and Lena Söderblom as his wife. A total of 12 episodes were broadcast. [77]

The series also won the Best Television Sitcom in 1992 from the Royal Television Society and the British Comedy Award for Best Sitcom in 1992, 1995 and 2001. Ronnie and Mildred ( Gordon Peters and Barbara Ashcroft) – Ronnie and Mildred were a constantly cheerful, but incredibly boring, couple who provided yet another annoyance to the Meldrews, who dreaded any upcoming visits to them; Victor once said that he had hoped they were both dead. In "The Worst Horror of All", when the couple attempted a surprise visit, the Meldrews hid in their house to give the impression they were away on holiday and then took the phone off the hook for several days afterwards, though these efforts to avoid them were in vain. They are referenced a number of times in the series for giving the Meldrews bizarre and always unwanted presents that are seldom opened, usually involving a garish photograph of themselves. In the final series, however it was clear that their cheerfulness was a façade and, in a particularly dark scene, Mildred hanged herself "during a game of Happy Families". The shot of Mildred's feet dangling outside the window is usually cut from pre-watershed screenings. The series was occasionally the subject of controversy for some of its darker story elements, but nevertheless received a number of awards, including the 1992 BAFTA for Best Comedy. The programme came 80th in the British Film Institute's 100 Greatest British Television Programmes. [4] Four episodes were remade for BBC Radio 2. [5] The series inspired a novel, published in 1992, featuring the most memorable moments from the first two series and the first Christmas special. One Foot in the Grave: Season 5". dvdtalk.com. Archived from the original on 3 July 2023 . Retrieved 3 July 2023. a b "DVD Releases for March 11, 2008". the-numbers.com. Archived from the original on 3 July 2023 . Retrieved 3 July 2023.

In April 2023, Channel 5 aired a 67-minute special retrospective for their "Comedy Classics" series. Cast, crew and celebrities discuss and pay tribute to the show. The documentary features an interview with Wilson, sharing his memories of the show, along with other cast members Doreen Mantle, who was 96 at the time, Angus Deayton, as well as director Christine Gernon. [49] VHS and DVD releases [ edit ] The show used Bournemouth to film some exterior sequences because of its favourable climate, easy access to London and economical benefits relative to filming in the capital. After the first series was filmed, the house—near Pokesdown, Bournemouth—which had been used for the Meldrews' house in location sequences, changed hands and the new owners demanded nearly triple the usage fees that the previous owners had asked for. Rather than agree to this, the production team decided to find a new house and the first episode of the second series was rewritten to have the Meldrews' house destroyed in a fire (this was filmed on waste ground in Northcote Road, Springbourne). This also gave the opportunity for a new interior set to be designed, as Belbin had been unhappy with the original set designed for the series, which she felt was too restrictive to shoot in. [15] The title music on the TV series is accompanied at the beginning and end of each episode by footage of Galápagos tortoises. Arnold van Oostrum (22 November 2006). "Met één been in het graf" (in Dutch). Alles Over Film . Retrieved 2 May 2019. a b Series Producer Graham Mitchell; Director Julie Newing (12 January 2007). "One Foot in the Grave". Comedy Connections. BBC.One Foot in the Grave: Season 6". dvdtalk.com. Archived from the original on 3 July 2023 . Retrieved 3 July 2023. Wilson dislikes saying his character's catchphrase ("I don't believe it!") and only performs the line for charity events for a small fee. [47] This became a joke in the actor's guest appearance as himself in the Father Ted episode " The Mainland", where Ted annoys him by constantly repeating his catchphrase. The situation was conceived when Father Ted writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews sat behind Wilson at a performance of Le Cirque du Soleil at the Royal Albert Hall. They considered how "tasteless and wrong" it would be to lean forward to him every time that an acrobat did a stunt and yell the catchphrase and then they realised that that's exactly what their fictional priests would do. [48] This was also played upon when Wilson made a guest appearance on the comedy TV quiz show Shooting Stars, in which Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer purposefully misquoted his catchphrase by referring to him as "Richard 'I don't believe you' Wilson". Två bittra seniorer - 30 år efter Mumlan"[Two bitter seniors - 30 years after Mumlan]. Aftonbladet (in Swedish). 2 January 2001 . Retrieved 2 May 2019. Plunkett, John (26 July 2016). "I don't believe it! Victor Meldrew role almost went to Les Dawson". The Guardian . Retrieved 30 April 2020.

Margaret could be said to have a catchphrase, typically a long, exasperated use of the word "God", usually when coming to a realisation about the reason behind one of Victor's mishaps. These mishaps are occasionally inadvertently aided by herself in some way, such as leaving the phone off the hook or giving permission to someone to enter the Meldrews' house when she is not there. Margaret works at a florist's until series five, when the shop closes. In a later series she has found a new job as a caregiver for the elderly, where she inadvertently discovers on a TV documentary that she has actually been unwittingly used as a sex worker by a man who did not need personal care but just enjoyed being bathed and dressed anyway. It is presumed that she left the job after making this discovery, as it is never mentioned again. The Museum of Broadcast Communications - Encyclopedia of Television - One Foot in the Grave". Archived from the original on 16 November 2018. BBC Drama Faces: Richard Wilson". bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 16 March 2008 . Retrieved 27 May 2008. Alfred Meldrew ( Richard Pearson) - Victor's absent-minded brother, who lives in New Zealand. During the episode "The Broken Reflection", he comes to visit after 25 years, to the disdain of Victor. Alfred is an eccentric character, often walking around with his hat on fire and bringing over his and Victor's great-grandfather's skull. He is a clumsy character too, mistaking the table cloth for a napkin and dropping the entire contents of the table all over the floor when he stands up and breaking a mirror in the middle of the night after mistaking his own reflection for a burglar. Victor starts to warm to Alfred towards the end of his visit, but Alfred leaves early the next day after finding an unpleasant message about him that Victor had accidentally recorded on a dictaphone. He is not seen again, but keeps in touch with the Meldrews, as Victor is seen looking at some photographs Alfred had sent over in "The Trial". The production of the show was in a conventional sitcom format, with episodes taped live in front of a studio audience, interposed with pre-filmed location material. [6]

Cousin Wilfred (John Rutland) – Mrs. Warboys' cousin Wilfred, first appeared in an episode in the third series. In the final series the character returned, but the effects of a stroke had rendered him mute and forced him to "speak" with the aid of an electronic voice generator. His poor typing on the generator led to several misunderstandings, such as asking Victor for a "bra of soup" (as opposed to a "bar of soap") and describing a visit to his "brothel" (as opposed to "brother"). One Foot in the Grave: Series 1-6 (hmv Exclusive)". hmv.com. Archived from the original on 3 July 2023 . Retrieved 3 July 2023. One Foot in the Grave - Season 2 (2-DVD)". oldies.com. Archived from the original on 3 July 2023 . Retrieved 3 July 2023. Despite Margaret's frequent exasperation with her husband's antics, the series shows the couple have a deep affection for one another. The One Foot in the Grave theme song was written, composed and sung by Eric Idle. A longer version was produced for the special "One Foot in the Algarve", released as a single with five remixes and a karaoke version in November 1994. [20] Idle included a live version of the song on his album Eric Idle Sings Monty Python. [21] It is preluded by a similar adaptation of " Bread of Heaven" to that used in the episode "The Beast in the Cage" by disgruntled car mechanics. [9] [22]