Who would have thought retirement could be so chaotic?
Original title
One Foot in the Grave
Released
1/4/1990
Origin country
GB
Genre
Comedy
Production companies
BBC
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
6
Number of episodes
36
One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series The series features the exploits of Victor Meldrew and his long-suffering wife, Margaret. The programmes invariably deal with Meldrew's battle against the problems he creates for himself. Living in a typical household in an unnamed English suburb, Victor takes involuntary early retirement. His various efforts to keep himself busy, while encountering various misfortunes and misunderstandings are the themes of the sitcom. The series was largely filmed on location in Walkford, near New Milton in Hampshire, although several clues show that the series may have been set in Hampshire – possibly Winchester. Despite its traditional production, the series supplants its domestic sitcom setting with elements of black humour and surrealism.
"All the miseries in the world seem a hundred times worse at Christmas." Victor isn't in a seasonal mood thanks to Mrs Warboys's nativity play, a hostage crisis and 263 garden gnomes. However, Victor's troubles are tiny compared with those of the small boy who wants his dead father home.
Victor and Patrick's feud has continued and they now communicate via post-it notes. Pippa is expecting a baby, while Victor is keeping an allotment and buys some radioactive horse manure.
For UK Comic relief 1993, Victor spends 'just one more minute' in the bath contemplating the mysteries of life, from wrinkled fingers to microscopic insects
The Meldrews are going on holiday to Portugal with Mrs Warboys. While Margaret is concerned about her approaching 60th birthday, Mrs Warboys is looking forward to meeting her pen friend, with thoughts of romance. Meanwhile, a journalist is attempting to retrieve a vitally important camera film which just happens to be in Margaret's handbag.
When Cousin Ursula dies the Meldrews have to clear out her house in the country, although a witch has predicted that Victor is about to come to an untimely end. Patrick and Pippa have finally sold their house and are preparing to move. Patrick has a new job with his own secretary - something which puts his life in danger.
The Meldrews return from a long weekend away to find a man living in their shed. Victor is suffering from a hernia but this hasn't stopped him getting a job as a gardener working for Patrick's new boss. Meanwhile, Mr Swainey's mother claims that she is abducted by aliens from Neptune every night.
Victor and Margaret have new neighbours, the McVities, who they are actually getting on well with. But for how much longer will it last, especially when Victor buys a haunted caravan, and then inadvertently kidnaps the mother of a millionaire?
Short post-finale outing for the Meldrews in aid of Comic Relief (2001). Margaret is visiting a relative in hospital. Victor is his usual self; complaining about everything, and Margaret is her usual self; pretending not to hear him...
Documentary celebrating 10 years of the popular BBC sitcom 'One Foot in the Grave', which ran from 1990 to 2000. Cast members and writer David Renwick discuss the series and a selection of memorable clips illustrate the show's huge appeal.
Rowland Rivron pays tribute to Victor Meldrew , the irascible pensioner whose catchphrase "I don't believe it!" struck a chord with world-weary viewers everywhere. Contributors include Richard Wilson , Annette Crosbie , Angus Deayton and Eric Idle.
Victor Meldrew, 60 years old, is at last retiring from the rigors of his security guard job at Watson-Mycroft. Replaced by a talking machine, Victor soon discovers that retirement will give him just as many reasons to be grumpy.
As retirement throws more problems for Victor Meldrew's retirement, including a next-door neighbour's noisy party, a disturbing and puzzling rash and an atheist funeral, has Victor bitten the bullett?
After being mugged whilst photographing badgers, and having his house sprayed with the phrase 'The Man Who Lives Here Is A Turd', Victor decides to hold a crime prevention meeting.
After being stuck in the shed for over three hours, then forced to spend an entire day with his eyes closed after a visit to the optometrist, Victor cannot bear the trials of babysitting.
Although Margaret is glad that Victor finally has a hobby to occupy his time, she is less pleased to discover that it involves painting nudes.
Following a food poisoning incident, problems with the electricity man, the Meldrews embark on a well deserved holiday, however this is only the start of their problems?
When Victor and Margaret return from their holiday, they discover that their luggage has been sent to the other side of the world, and that their house has been burned down.
The Meldrews are given the responsability of looking after their god-daughter's tortoise.
Victor discovers a new talent - writing comedy. However, his views of comedy are somewhat different from everyone elses, and he finds himself without support.
While Pippa believes that Victor may have murdered an elderly blind man, Victor uses a benefit concert to re-introduce his ventriloquist act.
When the Meldrews visit some friends on the South Coast, Victor is given a surprise.
A variety of bizarre factors, including a dead hedgehog, keep Victor awake. And if Victor's awake, Margaret isn't going to get much sleep either.
After a burglary Victor decides not to replace his television set in order to give him and Margaret more opportunity to get out of the house. However, a trip to the pub results in a disconcerting experience with an old friend.
Margaret is having a recurring dream about murdering someone who looks like Victor. However, it's Margaret who is starting to irritate Victor. That is, until she disappears.
Alfred, Victor's accident prone brother, is making his first visit from New Zealand for 25 years. Victor is not looking forward to his stay, preferring to act as a neighbourhood vigilante.
The Meldrews and Mrs Warboys get stuck in Bank Holiday traffic.
Mr Swainey has brought Victor a present back from his holiday - an unlucky charm. Victor thinks that Mrs Stebbings's tv aerial is laughing at him and his resulting misfortune. Meanwhile, Patrick and Pippa are having problems trying to sell their house.
Even a shed falling on him cannot upset Victor when he finally gets a new job. However, before starting work he must first contend with some unwanted visitors and a trip to the BBC organised by Mrs Warboys.
Victor is employing a workman in the garden, although he never seems to do any work. On the other side of the fence, Patrick has acquired a pet daschund called Denzil.
Margaret falls ills to nervous exhaustion that has been building up over the last 34 years. She has little chance for peace and quiet in which to recuperate, especially with Victor's problems with gorilla suits and the waste disposal system. She is however cheered by a visit from an old friend.
During a trip to the countryside with Mrs Warboys and Mr Swainey, the Meldrews manage to get lost. Victor leaves the others to try to find help.
Victor returns from holiday with sunburnt feet. His mood doesn't improve, thanks to rows with the neighbours and the addition of a streetlamp to his bedroom furniture. This gives Margaret a dilemma when she is contacted by Ben, a pleasant man who she met on holiday.
Victor has been selected for jury service. He hasn't been required in court yet, but he is on call so he is stuck in the house all day and must somehow beat his boredom.
Victor is preparing for a meeting of his magician's club. He now has a job as a lollipop man, but is being bothered by hoax calls from the fire brigade. Patrick and Pippa are due to visit the Meldrews' for a reconciliation meal, but Patrick isn't looking forward to the experience.
Patrick is preparing for an important meeting with some Japanese businessmen. Next door, Victor's stolen car has been recovered, but he isn't very happy about it. Then the Meldrews are visited by Mr Foskett - a man who they met on holiday 17 years previously.
Mrs Warboys is staying with the Meldrews following the flooding of her house and is starting to irritate Margaret. However, Victor is a lot calmer than usual thanks to the reflexology treatment that he has started receiving.
Victor thinks that the woman in the greengrocers fancies him. Meanwhile, Mrs Warboys has won a wax model of herself and the Meldrews are having problems with their door locks.
When Victor and Margaret visit their solicitors in order to make a will they discover precisely why a waiting room is so-called.
Patrick is looking forward to his trip to stay with Pippa's brother after an embarrassing visit to an Armenian restaurant in order to attempt to make up with Victor. Meanwhile, the Meldrews are employing a pair of very strange workmen and Margaret is getting jealous of a marionette.
Romance is in the air for Mr. Swainey when he finally invites Tania the nurse out for a date. Victor takes a new job as a chauffeur but rapidly wipes out his employer's beloved fleet.
Victor has a new job as a window-cleaner. Meanwhile, Patrick's plans for a quiet birthday are ruined after an unfortunate misunderstanding involving a modern art painting and Pippa finds herself in an adulterous affair.
In Mr. Swainey's production of 'Nosferatu The vampire', the actor who was supposed to play the vampire doesn't show up so Nick asks Victor to take the part. He did. Later, blood was found in Victor's digestive system during a test - after fearing the worst, the doctors discover that the blood was from an undercooked black pudding that was earlier given to Victor by Mrs. Warboys! later that week, whie on their way to visit the dreaded Ronnie and Mildred once more, Victor and Margaret are shocked to discover that Mildred has killed herself while playing a game of 'Happy Families' - they are even more shocked to discover that her body is still hanging outside the house!
Margaret regrets hiring an attractive cleaner to help around the house. Meanwhile, Mrs Warboys has a couple of nasty frights.
During a power cut, Victor realises that he had been right through the middle of an area affected by a siege as it happened. Making the power cut worse, it occurs on a hot Summer night. Victor had the misfortune to have a light fitting drop right on to his privates, a cigarette stubbed out on his cap and a mysterious pain that leads him to think that he had been shot as he passed the siege that morning. Things were made worse by the arrival of the incontinent, fat and irritating elderly neighbour, Mr. Smedley.
Victor's new fishing hobby leads to an unfortunate encounter with a fly-tipper. Meanwhile, a visit from Patrick's gay twin brother leaves Pippa feeling mentally and physically exhausted, especially when Patrick sits on a cork.
In the very last episode of 'One Foot in the Grave', Victor's decision to attend a school reunion unwittingly delivers him into the hands of fate. Margaret deals with the aftermath with the help of her new friend, Glynis.
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