

One Foot in the Grave
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.
Cast

Richard Wilson
Victor Meldrew

Annette Crosbie
Margaret Meldrew
Seasons

E1Alive and Buried
Jan 4, 1990
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.

E2The Big Sleep
Jan 11, 1990
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 bullet?

E3The Valley of Fear
Jan 18, 1990
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.

E4I'll Retire to Bedlam
Jan 25, 1990
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.

E5The Eternal Quadrangle
Feb 1, 1990
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.

E6The Return of the Speckled Band
Feb 8, 1990
Following a food poisoning incident and problems with the electricity man, the Meldrews embark on a well-deserved holiday, however this is only the start of their problems.

E1In Luton Airport No-One Can Hear You Scream
Oct 4, 1990
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.

E2We Have Put Her Living in the Tomb
Oct 11, 1990
The Meldrews are given the responsibility of looking after their goddaughter's tortoise.

E3Dramatic Fever
Oct 18, 1990
Victor discovers a new talent - writing comedy. However, his views of comedy are somewhat different from everyone else's, and he finds himself without support.

E4Who Will Buy?
Oct 25, 1990
While Pippa believes that Victor may have murdered an elderly blind man, Victor uses a benefit concert to re-introduce his ventriloquist act.

E5Love and Death
Nov 11, 1990
When the Meldrews visit some friends on the South Coast, Victor is given a surprise.

E6Timeless Time
Nov 15, 1990
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.

E1Monday Morning Will Be Fine
Feb 2, 1992
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.

E2Dreamland
Feb 9, 1992
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.

E3The Broken Reflection
Feb 16, 1992
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.

E4The Beast in the Cage
Feb 23, 1992
The Meldrews and Mrs Warboys get stuck in Bank Holiday traffic.

E5Beware the Trickster on the Roof
Mar 1, 1992
Mr Swainey has brought Victor a present back from his holiday - an unlucky charm. Victor thinks that Mrs Stebbings' TV aerial is laughing at him and his resulting misfortune. Meanwhile, Patrick and Pippa are having problems trying to sell their house.

E6The Worst Horror of All
Mar 8, 1992
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.

E1The Pit and the Pendulum
Jan 31, 1993
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.

E2Descent into the Maelstrom
Jan 31, 1993
Margaret falls ill to nervous exhaustion that has been building up over the past 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.

E3Hearts of Darkness
Feb 14, 1993
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.

E4Warm Champagne
Feb 21, 1993
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.

E5The Trial
Feb 28, 1993
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.

E6Secret of the Seven Sorcerers
Mar 7, 1993
Victor is preparing for a meeting of his magicians' club. He now has a job as a lollipop man, but is being bothered by the fire brigade due to hoax calls. Patrick and Pippa are due to visit the Meldrews' for a reconciliation meal, but Patrick isn't looking forward to the experience.

E1The Man Who Blew Away
Dec 25, 1994
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.

E2Only a Story
Jan 1, 1995
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.

E3The Affair of the Hollow Lady
Jan 8, 1995
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.

E4Rearranging the Dust
Jan 15, 1995
When Victor and Margaret visit their solicitors in order to make a will they discover precisely why a waiting room is so-called.

E5Hole in the Sky
Jan 22, 1995
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.

E6The Exterminating Angel
Jan 29, 1995
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.

E1The Executioner's Song
Oct 16, 2000
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.

E2Tales of Terror
Oct 23, 2000
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 does. Later, blood is found in Victor's digestive system during a test. After fearing the worst, the doctors discover that the blood was from an under-cooked black pudding that was earlier given to Victor by Mrs Warboys! While on their way to visit the dreaded Ronnie and Mildred, the Meldrews 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!

E3The Futility of the Fly
Oct 30, 2000
Margaret regrets hiring an attractive cleaner to help around the house. Meanwhile, Mrs Warboys has a couple of nasty frights.

E4Threatening Weather
Nov 6, 2000
During a power cut, Victor realises that he had been right through the middle of an area affected by a siege as it happened. He has the misfortune to have a light fitting drop right onto his privates, a cigarette stubbed out on his cap and a mysterious pain that leads him to think that he had been shot during the siege. Things are made worse by the arrival of the incontinent, fat and irritating elderly neighbour, Mr. Smedley.

E5The Dawn of Man
Nov 13, 2000
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.

E6Things Aren't Simple Any More
Nov 20, 2000
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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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.






















