One Foot In The Grave - Series 4 (DVD)

One Foot in the Grave is a well-known and well-loved British sitcom written by David Renwick that ran for six series’ between the years of 1990 and 2000. In 2004 it was voted as the 10th best British sitcom in a BBC pole, a position I think it well deserves. The series as a whole follows lead character Victor Meldrew as he struggles to find things to fill up his days after he is forced to take early retirement when he is ‘replaced by a box’. Victor ...
...often than not conveyed is one that all be it slightly exaggerated is a situation that a lot of people find themselves in and in that way everything about the storyline and the characters is brought to life.

== The DVD’s ==
The fourth series of One Foot in the Grave was broadcast between 31/03/1993 and the 26/12/1993 Being only three at the time of first transmission I never saw any of these episodes first time out and have ... more

One Foot in the Grave is a well-known and well-loved British sitcom written by David Renwick that ran for six series’ between the years of 1990 and 2000. In 2004 it was voted as the 10th best British sitcom in a BBC pole, a position I think it well deserves. The series as a whole follows lead character Victor Meldrew as he struggles to find things to fill up his days after he is forced to take early retirement when he is ‘replaced by a box’. Victor is a moaner plain and simple. He loves to complain about everything and anything from salesmen, to local yobs and will do quite frequently.

Despite it’s rather elementary premise the series did cause a bit of controversy due to its subversion and its strong black comedy elements. Farce and tragedy are expertly blended however in my opinion and in this way portray a situation that seems more realistic than I think it would otherwise be. More importantly the situation that is more often than not conveyed is one that all be it slightly exaggerated is a situation that a lot of people find themselves in and in that way everything about the storyline and the characters is brought to life.

The DVD’s

The fourth series of One Foot in the Grave was broadcast between 31/03/1993 and the 26/12/1993 Being only three at the time of first transmission I never saw any of these episodes first time out and have only ever caught the odd one on re-runs. The watching of this DVD was therefore something I was looking forward to. The series DVD comes complete with all six episodes form the third series plus the ‘classic’ Christmas Special: One Foot in The Algarve Unfortunately however the discs contain no other special features, which personally I thought was a bit of a shame but nothing to worry about too much, as the episodes are what we really buy the DVD for anyway.

The Episodes

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Episode 1 – The Pit and the Pendulum
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The pit and the pendulum sees Victor come to the conclusion that it is next door neighbour Patrick’s cherry tree that is causing his garden to be eternally dry and so enlists the assistance of a somewhat Neanderthal gardener to rid him of the trees stray roots.

Opinion – This episode is a wonderful one to open the series with and gives us one of the most iconic One Foot In The Grave images of the series’ so far.

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Episode 2 – Descent into the Maelstrom
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This episode sees Margaret collapse from nervous exhaustion, which in turn results in her spending a few days at home in bed. A few days however is longer than it seems when Victor is the one looking after you.

Opinion – This episode is packed full of humour and I’m sure most women will be able to relate to Margaret throughout the entire episode. Victor’s reactions to her are brilliant to watch and Margaret’s ultimate response really had me laughing.

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Episode 3 – Hearts of Darkness

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In Heart of Darkness Victor in an attempt to find a way out of the countryside stumbles across a home for the elderly. The residents of the home are being abused by the staff and Victor hatches a plan for their liberation.

Opinion – This episode is probably my favourite from the series and is full of humorous moments. There are also a couple of quite poignant ones too, which always makes an episode for me. Victor’s ultimate plan is brilliant and the initial situation sure to make anyone laugh.

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Episode 4 – Warm Champagne
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Warm Champagne sees Margaret arrange to meet up with Ben, an acquaintance made on holiday. But when she returns home she is shocked to find another women in her bed, more than anything though so is Victor.

Opinion – This episode is wonderful is so many respects and the ultimate end is being built towards from the very beginning of the episode yet extremely subtly. The situation is as usual rather bizarre an obscure but like any Meldrew event superbly humorous.

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Episode 5 – The Trial
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Waiting to be called up for Jury service Victor must spend the day at home and with Margaret at work he must spend it alone contemplating his various ailments in the medical dictionary and listening to Mrs Warboys’ blow-by-blow account of her holiday.

Opinion – This episode is another firm favourite of mine simply because of the situation that Victor is in and the fact that we as an audience know he cannot leave the house and so the humour must stay contained within a domain he is familiar with but does not wish to be in.

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Episode 6 – Secret of the Seven Sorcerers
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In this episode the Meldrew’s invite Pippa and Patrick around for a friendly evening meal but as usual Patrick is more concerned about what horrors may befall them once they enter the Meldrew domain.

Opinion – Secret of the Seven Sorcerers is an interesting episode in many ways because it highlights the relationship between the neighbours yet also shows us as an audience how the smallest thing can be misinterpreted and expresses how most of Victor and Patrick’s arguments are based up misinterpretations.

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The Christmas Special – One Foot in the Algarve
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This special is double the length of a normal episode and sees the Meldrew’s along with Mrs Warboys jet off for a holiday in the Algarve. As usual however nothing goes to plan and what follows is a series of misfortunate events to rival even the most nightmarish of holidays.

Opinion – What on earth happened when they created this? In my opinion this episode is absolute rubbish from the very beginning and I cannot see why is would be classified as ‘classic’ at all. It truly is car-crash viewing from my point of view and is the only One Foot In The Grave episode that I have ever wanted to hurry and finish.

The Humour

I have already mentioned that the series blends farce and tragedy in a superb way and the reason that this works so well is because of the different humorous elements within each episode. Parts of the episode are clearly slapstick, other based around word puns and other around facial expressions and finally those that work with associations rather than what is actually seen or said.

Generally however like in previous series’ the humour works simply because a lot of what Victor expresses in his facial expressions and of course his frequent rants and complaints is actually what we ourselves would like to express. In this way we can associate with him and therefore with the humour that his situations pour upon us. The situations that are often the most humorous are those where we don’t see what is happening and hear Victor’s ‘I don’t believe it’ exclamation and his telephone rant before we see what it is he’s complaining about.

The Characters and the Actors

Richard Wilson and Annette Crosbie who play Victor and Margaret respectively are both aptly suited to their roles and therefore comfortable within them. This comfort transcends to the audience and makes you really believe in the characters that they are portraying. Both have a very unique style that allows them to come across so naturally in their roles. Furthermore though they both contrast with each well because of the nature of their characters yet in the same way compliment the work of each other expertly.

The series’ other recurring characters of Mrs Warboys, Patrick and Pippa (the next-door neighbours) and Nick Swainey (the other neighbour) are also very well played. Pippa and Margaret are well suited together and therefore their ‘friendship’ is easily believed. The same in many respects goes for Mrs Warboys and because of her long-term friendship with Margaret her reactions to and quips at Victor are taken much more lightly, and so more humorously, than they would be otherwise.

Patrick and Nick are also wonderful antithesis’s to Victor and are perfectly suited to their roles of annoying next-door neighbours – who Victor believes are simply their to antagonise him. The small things that they do reappear in future episodes and in this way build upon humour and ideas that have already developed.

The Theme Tune

The theme tune in my opinion is as much a part of the show as a whole as the episode scripting, the humour and the actors. The tune, which is played over both the opening and closing credits, is brilliant. It simply sums up what the entire show is about in a light-hearted and humorous manner but also makes a couple of points in a dry sort of way, rather like Victor himself.
“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.”

Closing Comment

This series is a superb one that is tremendously spoilt by the One Foot in The Algarve special, which I would not in any way shape or form class as a classic episode. Apart from this episode however the series is a pleasure to watch and because the Algarve episode adds nothing to the series as a whole if I watched this series again, which I am likely to do I would simply miss the special out.  

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