One Foot in the Grave 1990
Created by David Renwick
- Comedy
- 30 min episodes
- 6 seasons
- 36 episodes
- Ended
Who would have thought retirement could be so chaotic?
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. Despite its traditional production, the series supplants its domestic sitcom setting with elements of black humour and surrealism.
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Character
Comic, spare, contemporary and intimate.
- gravecomic
- sparerichly built
- contemporarynostalgic
- intimateepic
- cooloverwhelming
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Reviews on TMDB
Written by TMDB members; each links to the original. Not part of Tastebuds's numbers.
- Peter McGinnon TMDB · Sep 202010/10
If you are reading this and thinking about watching One Foot in the Grave, stop reading and go watch it immediately! You can always read this later. This is one of a handful of shows that I think of as nearly perfect Brit sitcoms. In fact, thinking about it, I want to create a list on my profile to share them. A person who was around when this show ran but who didn’t watch it can be forgiven if all they remember is fans yelling out character Victor Musgrove’s signature line, “I do not believe it!” Because people did go nuts over that. But there is a lot more to the show. There is black humor here and the plots are rather layered, often building up to an explosive and unexpected crescendo at the end. It is quite a feat for a half-hour show. There are laugh out loud jokes, brilliant sight gags, and comments on society and human nature. This is an ensemble cast, to be sure. One thing I really like is that they make fun of most of the characters (though not Victor’s wife, brilliantly played mostly straight by Annette Crosbie) but they are not turned into two dimensional caricatures. They have some depth and sympathetic moments. It is one of very few series that I have purchased on DVD
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Cast
- Richard WilsonVictor Meldrew
- Annette CrosbieMargaret Meldrew
Crew
- David RenwickCreator
- Christine GernonDirector
- Susan BelbinProducer
Where to watch
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Seasons
- Series 16 eps · 1990
- Series 26 eps · 1990
- Series 36 eps · 1992
- Series 46 eps · 1993
- Series 56 eps · 1994
- Series 66 eps · 2000
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Closest on the same fourteen dimensions, from everything scored on Tastebuds Other media included when they land close.
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Both comic, contemporary.
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