A documentary special looking back and celebrating the much loved British comedy series One Foot in the Grave.
"I don't believe it" join us as we celebrate "One Foot in the Grave" you know the one about moaning old codger, Victor Meldrew.
featuring interviews with Richard Wilson, Angus Deayton and Doreen Mantle, plus stars who made guest appearances such as Paul Merton, Jan Ravens and Arabella Weir, and also find out how Richard Wilson feels about the curse of being saddled with one of comedy's most iconic catchphrases (I don't believe it).
"I don't believe it" join us as we celebrate "One Foot in the Grave" you know the one about moaning old codger, Victor Meldrew.
featuring interviews with Richard Wilson, Angus Deayton and Doreen Mantle, plus stars who made guest appearances such as Paul Merton, Jan Ravens and Arabella Weir, and also find out how Richard Wilson feels about the curse of being saddled with one of comedy's most iconic catchphrases (I don't believe it).
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FunTranscript
00:00:00I'd like to speak to the manager, please, and quick about it.
00:00:03Mildred.
00:00:05No, he doesn't, but he bloody will, will shortly.
00:00:07One Foot in the Grave is a uniquely unconventional sitcom.
00:00:11Perfect working order.
00:00:13It was a remarkable series.
00:00:15Try and get some rest, or you'll be irritable all day long.
00:00:19I'm always irritable all day long.
00:00:21I know you are.
00:00:22One Foot in the Grave makes me laugh out loud in a way that I don't...
00:00:25I'm not one for laughing out loud.
00:00:27Good morning.
00:00:28Goodbye.
00:00:29For so many episodes, David Renwick doesn't write one false note.
00:00:34I'll see what bloody attitude I like, and you can just shut up!
00:00:38Look!
00:00:39Back in the 90s, up to 18 million of us tuned in every week
00:00:43to enjoy another Meldrew mega-meltdown.
00:00:46Get a move on, old friend, for God's sake!
00:00:49What the bloody hell's going on out there?
00:00:51I'm drunk!
00:00:52Tonight, we salute one of our best-loved comedies
00:00:55in the company of a genuine sitcom legend.
00:00:58Victor Meldrew himself, Richard Wilson.
00:01:01Afternoon.
00:01:02There's no-one could do it like me.
00:01:05No, no, no.
00:01:07Richard was great at going into the audience and chatting to them.
00:01:11I'd just like to say hello to you,
00:01:13so you get used to me and I get used to you.
00:01:16Whilst I just, you know, sulked round the back.
00:01:19You bastards!
00:01:21You come back here again and I'll kill the lot of you!
00:01:24There'll be backstage gossip from the crew.
00:01:27You'll be driving round with boots full of whisky
00:01:30to drop off disgruntled people who couldn't get into their houses.
00:01:35You'll be treated to exclusive behind-the-scenes photos.
00:01:39And, of course, we're celebrating a certain catchphrase.
00:01:42I do not believe that!
00:01:45I got the catchphrase shouted at me everywhere.
00:01:51I don't believe it!
00:01:53So tether your tortoise.
00:01:574-2-9-1.
00:01:58And put down that puppy.
00:02:02Because for one night only...
00:02:04The bottom of the freezer cabinet, there's a cat in it.
00:02:07One foot in the grave is back.
00:02:09What? A dead one?
00:02:11Well, there's not play with that bloody ball of wool.
00:02:13You'd better believe it.
00:02:14Yes, this is going to be fun.
00:02:21They say our minds turn so well face the truth...
00:02:24One Foot in the Grave first appeared on our screens in January 1990,
00:02:28going on to become one of this country's best-loved sitcoms.
00:02:32Of course it is.
00:02:34Because I'm in it.
00:02:36And introducing us to a certain Victor Meldrew,
00:02:40one of comedy's most iconic characters.
00:02:46What terrible news.
00:02:47She didn't say.
00:02:48She just said it wasn't worth shoving your head in a gas oven over
00:02:51and you should think of it as a brand-new chapter in your life.
00:02:54She must have gone completely loopy.
00:02:56The first episode, he was made redundant.
00:02:59A lot of people thought he was a pensioner.
00:03:01He wasn't. He was made redundant.
00:03:03Of course, the biggest problem of all was
00:03:05how do you ever replace a man like Victor Meldrew?
00:03:08Well, basically, with this box.
00:03:11Right from the very beginning, where he's replaced by a box,
00:03:15you know, a man who's suddenly...
00:03:17What's his place in the world now?
00:03:19You know, it's a fascinating way to start and see what unravels.
00:03:25The first episode sets up the whole premise.
00:03:28He's being replaced at a young age by a machine.
00:03:32It does everything you used to do
00:03:34except complain about the air-conditioning.
00:03:37He's put out to pasture and there seems to be a sort of callousness.
00:03:41Lucky old you, Victor, a man of leisure at last.
00:03:45Having been unceremoniously dumped on the scrap heap,
00:03:49the 60-year-old Victor retreats to the safety of his suburban living room
00:03:54and his long-suffering wife, Margaret.
00:03:57What is it? What's the matter?
00:04:00I've been replaced by a box.
00:04:04What are you talking about?
00:04:06A standard procedure, apparently, for a man of my age.
00:04:09The next stage is to stick you inside one.
00:04:13Now, the writer, Dave Rannock,
00:04:15knows that he's about to unleash a monster on us all,
00:04:18but we must make sure that we fall in love with the monster
00:04:21as much as we can in the early part.
00:04:23What did they say?
00:04:25Buzzer off, I think, was a fair gist of it.
00:04:29The man loses his livelihood and is at home and thinks,
00:04:32what the hell do I do now?
00:04:34Nine o'clock.
00:04:3614 more hours before it's time to go to bed.
00:04:40It's a very clever device to make sure that, don't worry,
00:04:44the audience will be on your side after this first bit
00:04:48and then we can play around a bit more, we can make you more horrible.
00:04:51You thought, now, what's this going to be about?
00:04:54Why is it when life's at its lowest ebb,
00:04:56when you really need some good news to cheer you up,
00:05:00the only thing that comes through your letterbox
00:05:02is a bloody Wicks catalogue?
00:05:05One Foot In The Grave was not about death, it was about life.
00:05:10And the fact that he had one foot out of the grave
00:05:13was much more important.
00:05:15I think that's what was so clever about it,
00:05:17that you could go into that thinking,
00:05:19oh, here's another comedy about a couple
00:05:23that could be a cosy sitcom but actually completely wasn't,
00:05:28and it was a man railing against the injustices of the world.
00:05:33It's not the average sitcom, it sort of breaks the boundaries
00:05:36of what a sitcom should be, or could be, or used to be.
00:05:40It's very relatable, but it's also, I mean, like Fawlty Towers in a way,
00:05:45it's an incredibly well-written farce.
00:05:48If you watch it, you scratch the surface.
00:05:50It's actually quite bleak and often macabre, almost,
00:05:55and I think that's part of its enduring appeal,
00:05:58that it sort of works on both levels.
00:06:01I never felt so fit and healthy.
00:06:03I'm in better shape now than I've ever been, he says.
00:06:06When did he write that letter?
00:06:08Thursday. Why?
00:06:10This one's from Alice.
00:06:12She says on the way back from posting that letter,
00:06:15he had a heart attack and dropped dead on the pavement.
00:06:20He'd only just turned 60 as well.
00:06:22Had he really?
00:06:25It was clear from the get-go that this utterly unorthodox sitcom
00:06:29wasn't about to play by the rules.
00:06:32One of the moulds that was broken with One Foot
00:06:34is that the two central characters were of an age.
00:06:37They were middle-aged.
00:06:39He was forced into retirement to be replaced by a box,
00:06:42which then, of course, puts him at home with his wife 24-7.
00:06:47Oh! Ah!
00:06:49I've got a pain in my chest now.
00:06:51What sort of pain? What?
00:06:53Does it feel as though there's an elephant standing on your ribcage?
00:06:56Yes, that's exactly the feeling.
00:06:58How do you know? What?
00:07:00Have you ever had an elephant standing on your ribcage?
00:07:03You start with two fantastic actors,
00:07:06Richard Wilson and Nick Crosby,
00:07:08and you then give them a wonderful script,
00:07:11and the key thing is there are so many jokes that make you laugh.
00:07:16My pulse has stopped now. I'm clinically dead.
00:07:20It's the surprise of them, the innovation,
00:07:23and the fact that, as in any good sitcom,
00:07:26the situation is under pressure.
00:07:28They're together in this house,
00:07:30and that gives them a kind of energy to sort of spark out of it.
00:07:36What time is your eye clinic appointment tomorrow?
00:07:39Nine o'clock.
00:07:40Well, try and get some rest, or you'll be irritable all day long.
00:07:44I'm always irritable all day long.
00:07:46I know you are.
00:07:48The natural friction that results from that
00:07:50was part of the joy of the scripts that David created.
00:07:53What's that buzzing noise?
00:07:55Look!
00:07:56Will you go to sleep?
00:07:58How can I go to sleep?
00:08:00Every time I nod off, I have this hideous dream
00:08:03that I'm imprisoned in a lunatic asylum
00:08:05with Arthur Askey singing outside the window.
00:08:07I think it's funny because of David Rennick's ability
00:08:11to combine the very sort of well-observed domestic
00:08:16with the completely observed.
00:08:18Coming up...
00:08:19That's just the sort of remark I expected.
00:08:21I don't know why I bother.
00:08:22..there's a crisis with the casting.
00:08:24I turned it down at first because I thought I was too young.
00:08:28And the curse of a certain catchphrase.
00:08:31I don't believe it!
00:08:34It was lovely.
00:08:35Well, it wasn't. It was...
00:08:37It got a bit much at times.
00:08:46One Foot in the Grave was conceived in the late 1980s
00:08:49when Thatcher was in power.
00:08:51And it's all happened as dear old Tommy Cooper used to say.
00:08:55Just like that.
00:08:56Greed was good and wine bars heaved with yuppies.
00:09:00With the elderly feeling increasingly marginalised,
00:09:04it was time to give them a voice
00:09:06and comedy was the ideal way to do it.
00:09:09It was a very socially conscious show.
00:09:12It talked about loneliness, illness, the treatment of the elderly,
00:09:16the ignored, how ignored they are, how invisible they are,
00:09:20how dispensable they are.
00:09:22In Thatcher's time, to be honest,
00:09:24a lot of people felt that they were ignored and left behind
00:09:27and the elderly certainly were in that bracket.
00:09:30So having someone who had a voice and spoke for them,
00:09:33the timing of the sitcom couldn't have been better.
00:09:36David Renwick, the writer and creator of One Foot in the Grave,
00:09:40started out as a journalist
00:09:42but switched to writing comedy in the mid-1970s.
00:09:45Working for many of the biggest names in television entertainment.
00:09:50He's written for the two Ronniers sketches.
00:09:52I think he did the Mastermind sketch.
00:09:55And so do our first contender. Good evening, your name, please.
00:09:58Good evening.
00:09:59Your chosen subject was answering questions before they were asked.
00:10:02This time you have chosen to answer the question before last each time.
00:10:06Is that correct?
00:10:07Charlie Smithers.
00:10:11Then he's written for Les Dawson.
00:10:14The only trouble I find with taking the wife to the zoo
00:10:17is I have to buy two tickets.
00:10:19One to get her in and one to get her out.
00:10:21Having worked with those greats, you learn your craft
00:10:24and you learn what makes people laugh out loud.
00:10:28Tired of cosy suburban sitcoms from Terry and June to George and Mildred,
00:10:33David Renwick wanted to create one that subtly subverted the genre,
00:10:38didn't shy away from life's less savoury subjects
00:10:41and had a crotchety curmudgeon at his core.
00:10:44There's just the sort of remark I expected. I don't know why I bother.
00:10:48I've never made any secret of the fact that Victor Mildred is me, totally.
00:10:53I mean, which is not to say that I behave in the same way that he does,
00:10:57but the attitudes are... universally are my attitudes.
00:11:01David Renwick was probably one of the cleverest writers I've ever worked with.
00:11:08He's a very particular writer.
00:11:10He likes perfection.
00:11:12He's so clever.
00:11:14His rhythms are so good too.
00:11:16I think that he had the courage and the ingenuity to come up with...
00:11:23and the foresight to go,
00:11:25I'm just going to do a guy who's sort of in many ways
00:11:28miserable about everything, doesn't want to do anything, everything's wrong.
00:11:32And he sort of distilled that into that character.
00:11:38But David Renwick's definitely a genius.
00:11:41What is it with kids these days?
00:11:43They're not cracking your skull open with a tyre lever for pleasure and profit,
00:11:47they're vandalising your back wall
00:11:49and shoving bottles of urine through your letterbox.
00:11:52Shoving what?
00:11:53Well, you saw that in the doormat this morning.
00:11:56That was a free sample of Leucocene.
00:12:02The part of Victor Mildred was written specially for the actor Richard Wilson,
00:12:06who'd featured in many sitcoms but never played the leading role.
00:12:10I'd seen Richard in such things as Only When I Laugh,
00:12:13I think it was a hospital comedy that was quite bizarre.
00:12:16You had the same three patients in hospital for about three years
00:12:19who didn't seem to get any better or worse
00:12:21or have anything wrong with them at all.
00:12:24But, you know, that's the world of sitcom,
00:12:26where you can stretch things like that.
00:12:28I had small parts in Only When I Laugh.
00:12:31I used to say, could you just write me a bit more?
00:12:34You don't have to broadcast it.
00:12:36I was getting fed up with the hospital series.
00:12:42Having hoped that Richard would jump at the chance of a starring role,
00:12:45David Renwick was surprised to meet some initial resistance,
00:12:49due to Victor Mildred being 60 years old,
00:12:52whilst Richard himself was a mere 54.
00:12:56He wrote this with me in mind, apparently.
00:13:00I turned it down at first because I thought I was too young.
00:13:04I was thinking, well, you know,
00:13:06I've written some scripts I'm quite pleased with here
00:13:09and it's all going to go down the toilet
00:13:13because, you know, we'll get some competent actor to play the part,
00:13:18or a very good actor, but not a funny actor,
00:13:21and it will be, you know, nothing, really.
00:13:26And then they sent me more scripts
00:13:28and I began to see how good they were
00:13:31and I went and saw them and, of course,
00:13:34I knew if I went to see them I'd end up doing it.
00:13:38He was persuaded to doing it, which was...
00:13:41I mean, now you can't sort of imagine anybody else doing that at all.
00:13:45When you get an actor as good as he is and a writer as good as David
00:13:49and they combine, then it's sort of kismet.
00:13:52Richard's absolutely sublime.
00:13:55I mean, the top of his game.
00:13:57It was much tougher being in the leading role.
00:14:01I remember the first episode, I wasn't too nervous,
00:14:05but when I did it, it was a bit nerve-wracking.
00:14:10Every now and then, a sitcom introduces us to a truly original character
00:14:15destined to enter into popular culture,
00:14:18and in January 1990, Victor Meldrew was added to that list.
00:14:24Victor was remarkable, cos he was...
00:14:28I mean, he was a very brave Victor.
00:14:30He said what he thought and if he didn't like something, he would tell them.
00:14:36I'll take what bloody attitude I like and you can just shut up!
00:14:40Hello! Hello!
00:14:42And that's how well David wrote it. Very believable.
00:14:45What's interesting to me about Victor Meldrew
00:14:48is that he has qualities of people like Basil Fawlty
00:14:52and Alf Garnet and anyone else who can get
00:14:55that kind of angry, grumpy energy out of them.
00:14:59Good morning! Goodbye!
00:15:01LAUGHTER
00:15:03He's got that Basil Fawlty quality of,
00:15:05right, I'm just going to, you know, just have it now.
00:15:08Whenever he gets angry, which is, of course, all the time,
00:15:11there is very good reason for him to get angry all the time.
00:15:14Victor was a man who spoke his mind.
00:15:18He probably criticised things that everyone wants to criticise,
00:15:22but they don't necessarily do it vocally or quite as wittily as he does.
00:15:29David has written in the things that really annoy the older,
00:15:33not just the older generation, I think people in general.
00:15:37In a way, he became a spokesperson for his age.
00:15:41He highlighted the things that we would love to, you know,
00:15:46slag off, but we're too polite to do so because we're British.
00:15:50I'd like to speak to the manager, please, and quick about it.
00:15:53Meldrew.
00:15:55No, he doesn't, but he bloody well will shortly!
00:15:58Most of the things that he railed on about
00:16:00are things which we feel the same things about,
00:16:03but nothing like is exaggerated,
00:16:05and we don't take it to that extreme, but secretly we'd like to.
00:16:09Everybody recognises someone in the family
00:16:13that they know who's just a grumpy old man,
00:16:16and Richard is so wonderful at being a grumpy old man.
00:16:43Victor fired against people who had upset him,
00:16:46leaving litter on the streets and things like that.
00:16:49Litter. That's one of my pet hates. I hate that.
00:16:53I do shout out at the car window, pick it up.
00:16:55He's always railing against people's, other people's,
00:16:59inability to consider other people.
00:17:01I was in my early 20s when I worked on it.
00:17:04I'm now the age of Richard when he was in it, you know,
00:17:07and I can totally relate to some of the things he complains and moans about.
00:17:11I think that's why I think there's a bit of Victor in all of us
00:17:16as we get to a certain age.
00:17:18Every classic sitcom character has their calling card,
00:17:21but in the case of Victor Meldrew, it happened by accident.
00:17:25I do not believe it!
00:17:30It became a catchphrase because everyone says,
00:17:32you know, your train is late. Oh, God, I don't believe it.
00:17:35It's sort of saying, what, again? Really, God? Really?
00:17:38Again, you're doing this to me?
00:17:40I don't believe it was not written as a catchphrase.
00:17:46I don't believe it!
00:17:49It's so expressive, it's such a nugget of your frustration
00:17:54with a world that seems to constantly be against you.
00:17:57He said it a lot, and then it caught on.
00:18:01I don't believe it!
00:18:04Was that it? Or was it, I don't believe it!
00:18:09If anyone says the words, you know, I don't believe it,
00:18:12you wouldn't pay any attention.
00:18:14It's the way he says it that it just has...
00:18:17Every word has a frustration in you. I don't believe it!
00:18:21Well, he's got that sort of posh, oh, hasn't he?
00:18:24I don't, I don't believe it!
00:18:28It's also a catchphrase that is applicable to any situation.
00:18:31We've all sort of thought those words or said those words at one point or other.
00:18:35It's not so easy to make a catchphrase out of, that's my horse.
00:18:39There's very few days of the week you can use that.
00:18:42Catchphrases, I think, are initially really helpful
00:18:45and then they become, for the actor, something of an albatross.
00:18:50I got the catchphrase shouted at me everywhere.
00:18:55It was the bane of Richard's life, I think, absolutely.
00:18:58And then he got to the point where he would only say it
00:19:01if people gave money to charity.
00:19:03I met a cab driver the other day who said to me,
00:19:05oh, I picked up that Richard Wilson the other day, you know, Victor Mildred.
00:19:08I said, yeah, yeah. I said to him, I said, I don't believe it.
00:19:11You know, and he looks at me rather angrily.
00:19:14He's been listening to people say that to him for 35 years,
00:19:17thinking it's the first time he's ever heard it.
00:19:19In foreign countries, even.
00:19:22I thought, oh, my gosh, it's got here as well.
00:19:26It was this idea that led to a classic comedy cross-pollination
00:19:30when One Foot In The Grave met Father Ted,
00:19:33with an inspired and unforgettable take
00:19:35on the burden of a celebrity being lumbered with a catchphrase.
00:19:40I don't believe it!
00:19:50You can almost believe for a second
00:19:52that Richard Wilson was dying to do this somewhere,
00:19:55because I'm sure it happened to him regularly.
00:19:59It was lovely. Well, it wasn't, it was...
00:20:02It got a bit much at times.
00:20:04Coming up, we'll bring you some rare behind-the-scenes moments.
00:20:08Richard was great at going into the audience and chatting to them.
00:20:13I'd just like to say hello to you, so you get used to me and I get used to you.
00:20:17Whilst I just, you know, sulked round the back, looking at my watch.
00:20:22And things don't always go all right on the night.
00:20:25Laughing and...
00:20:36What in the name of bloody hell?!
00:20:41At its height, over 17 million of us tuned in
00:20:45to revel in the exasperations and frustrations
00:20:48of Victor Meldrew in One Foot In The Grave.
00:20:52Unbelievable! Yes, it is.
00:20:54Was I just one of those crackers you bought?
00:20:57No, but do please tell me.
00:20:59Question, what's the difference between Victor Meldrew
00:21:03and a chef who keeps dropping his pancakes?
00:21:06Answer, they're both useless tossers.
00:21:11As with all the most popular BBC sitcoms of the 80s and 90s,
00:21:15the interiors for One Foot In The Grave
00:21:17were filmed in front of a live studio audience
00:21:20at Television Centre in West London.
00:21:25The actors take a week to rehearse the lines in rehearsal rooms,
00:21:30not in the set itself, but in a dummy set,
00:21:33so that they then become word perfect by the end of the week.
00:21:37When we did our read-throughs, that was always the best laugh you got,
00:21:41when we were all just had a good time.
00:21:44Then you got used to saying the funny lines.
00:21:47Once you've read the script initially, you've seen, you've told the jokes.
00:21:52They're not really funny when you retell them in rehearsal
00:21:56sort of nine times, and so that bit becomes sort of like an acting exercise.
00:22:01David would come to the read-through rehearsal
00:22:05and then he'd come to the studio on the Sunday.
00:22:08The studio recording would be a mixture of the scenes
00:22:12that you would be doing in front of the audience
00:22:14and the stuff that you'd filmed.
00:22:16We used to put the filming in roughly where it would be used
00:22:20so that the audience understood the storyline.
00:22:23And do that however many times it took
00:22:26until you got the audience to react
00:22:29and the cast to say the words in the right order.
00:22:32For director Susie Belbin, it was imperative for the studio floor plan
00:22:36to be set out exactly like Victor and Margaret's home.
00:22:40The set was one of the first that tried to reflect
00:22:44the actual layout of the ground floor of a set of terraced houses.
00:22:49You could have them going through to the living room
00:22:52because you'd have some more cameras and then you'd start there
00:22:55and then the cameras would move out.
00:22:57So it wasn't quite as disjointed as they somehow can be
00:23:00if you're four cameras and then you're in a set over there.
00:23:03We could run things on a little more, and that was established by Susie.
00:23:07Susie loved this shot of up the stairs.
00:23:10Why? You can never go where you want to.
00:23:13To give this shot of the front door and the downstairs loo
00:23:16and the living room door to the left.
00:23:19LAUGHTER
00:23:21There was a back and a side, but you could go round the back
00:23:24and the kitchen was set back from the living room,
00:23:27all set on an angle so that cameras could get in
00:23:30and the audience could get the best view that they were able to get.
00:23:34Beautifully choreographed piece of joy.
00:23:38As the show's popularity grew, so did the demand for studio tickets,
00:23:43and the lucky few that attended
00:23:45were treated to an up-close and personal live performance.
00:23:49It's a very long process, recording a half-hour show.
00:23:52It'll take two-and-a-half, three hours.
00:23:54Let's play a bit of Mr Richard Wilson!
00:23:58I would always have a little chat with the audience
00:24:01just to relax me and things like that.
00:24:05Richard was great at going into the audience and chatting to them.
00:24:09I'd just like to say hello to you, so you get used to me and I get used to you.
00:24:14Whilst I just, you know, sulked round the back, looking at my watch.
00:24:19It got terribly popular. People wanted to come to the live shows.
00:24:24How was your day?
00:24:26Oh, did that woman ring you at your mother's?
00:24:29Give me...
00:24:33I've forgotten her name.
00:24:36Richard brings this brilliant sort of truthfulness to everything he does,
00:24:41but at the same time, he's proper funny.
00:24:45She said her name was...
00:24:52I've forgotten her...
00:24:54He's got funny bones, so when you're doing a sitcom,
00:24:57when you play a show where you've got an audience,
00:25:00having someone that understands laughter and rhythm and all of that
00:25:05and plays the audience is great.
00:25:08Someone up there's laughing at us, that's what that is.
00:25:11Laughing and...
00:25:14While Richard Wilson came to embrace the audience,
00:25:17not all the cast felt the same.
00:25:19Is that a beetle down there? Where?
00:25:21I don't know, by the door. It's a bug of some sort or other.
00:25:24Even for seasoned actors, the pressures of performing
00:25:27in front of a live studio audience were still felt.
00:25:33I'm waiting for the front doorbell.
00:25:35There should be a doorbell.
00:25:38It's very difficult to work under those circumstances.
00:25:42Just try eating the chips.
00:25:44Yes, I might be able to manage.
00:25:48You didn't know whether you were playing to the audience
00:25:51or you were playing to the camera or what.
00:25:53We were very, very nervous.
00:25:55Someone's finger!
00:25:57If you'd come close to us,
00:25:59you would have seen the shaking of your hands and everything.
00:26:02The audience are there, so it's this theatre in that element,
00:26:06but you've got a camera here, so you can't be playing to the audience.
00:26:10You're kind of using them for the comedy.
00:26:14Oh, tell me it's not. Surely!
00:26:20It's been deep fried.
00:26:22It's a lot more difficult to do stuff in front of an audience
00:26:25than it is to do stuff on film,
00:26:27because on film you just retake as many times as you like
00:26:30until you get it right.
00:26:32Some actors are just brilliant.
00:26:34They get it straight away, which all the one-foot cast did.
00:26:38One Foot In The Grave may have revolved
00:26:41around the misfortunes of Victor Meldrew,
00:26:44but equally agonising were the trials and tribulations
00:26:47he inflicted on his wife Margaret,
00:26:50by Annette Crosby.
00:26:52Well, you give over and stop!
00:26:54Moan, moan, moan, moan, moan!
00:26:58You know, Margaret, you want to try and relax a bit more.
00:27:01You're getting very irritable these days.
00:27:04I'd met her a couple of times, but I'd never worked with her.
00:27:08She had never done a sitcom,
00:27:10but she was a very good comedian.
00:27:14She was quite straight in many ways,
00:27:17but her comedy was very well done.
00:27:20She was 50% of what made it work.
00:27:23I mean, Annette's character was absolutely crucial
00:27:26for the whole Victor and Margaret battle,
00:27:31because, you know, she gave as good as she got.
00:27:34Tomorrow morning, I'm going back to work.
00:27:37I'm going back to work for a bloody rest!
00:27:41Doctor says it's nervous exhaustion mainly.
00:27:44It's been building up over the last 35 years.
00:27:48There was a strange smell downstairs when I came in.
00:27:51I wonder what that could be.
00:27:53I wonder.
00:27:57When things go wrong, you'll notice that she may be exasperated,
00:28:02but she rather likes the fact that he's messed it up again.
00:28:06So the hierarchy, the sort of the who is the more powerful,
00:28:10who is the more dependent,
00:28:13is played out because, of course, he's ballsed it up again.
00:28:16When you've been with someone for that many years,
00:28:19you can't imagine your life without them,
00:28:22even though they frustrate the life out of you.
00:28:25And you felt that.
00:28:27She was put up on.
00:28:29Very down-to-earth woman.
00:28:31Did her best and kept him on the straight and narrow as far as she could.
00:28:36She absolutely stood her ground,
00:28:40and she was, you know, a major part of the relationship.
00:28:43And a lot of the gags and the set-ups would never have worked
00:28:47without her reactions to them or how she was, you know...
00:28:50Oh, God, he's at it again.
00:28:52It's the two of you in a house together,
00:28:55trying to live your life and being assailed by the system
00:29:00and other people's stupidity.
00:29:03That's what it's about, really, and that's what, you know, you so relate to.
00:29:08A house is always an element in which nobody can be taken for granted,
00:29:12even though you've been married a very long time.
00:29:15Don't start up, all right, because I am not in the mood.
00:29:18Although the Meldrews sometimes appeared to be a breaking point,
00:29:21there was much more to their marriage than met the eye.
00:29:26You felt that, cos you'd say, well, why is she still with him?
00:29:29Why doesn't she just leave him and go somewhere?
00:29:32But, no, she doesn't, because there is,
00:29:34whatever that love is that holds them together, it is still there.
00:29:37She's the one who's calm, she's the one who's keeping the show on the road,
00:29:41but the key thing is she knows that he loves her.
00:29:44And there is clearly a love between the two of them.
00:29:47She would, and does, miss him terribly when he's not there.
00:29:51Sometimes she has to get away and then she comes back,
00:29:54because there is a sort of very strong bond between the two of them.
00:29:57I do think they loved each other very, very dearly,
00:30:01and the fact that they were always having rows, etc,
00:30:06seemed to me like most marriages.
00:30:09We all make mistakes from time to time.
00:30:12Oh, yes!
00:30:14I certainly made one 35 years ago.
00:30:17In the show, Richard is obviously the sort of serious one
00:30:22and Annette is the slightly lighter, jollier one.
00:30:26And in real life, it was possibly the other way round,
00:30:29that Annette was actually the more serious of the two
00:30:32and Richard was always playing jokes and, you know,
00:30:35making the audience laugh and keeping everything light and jolly,
00:30:38so it was a funny reversal, in a way.
00:30:41Ha-ha-ha!
00:30:43I can't answer that, can I?
00:30:49Margaret did her best to be a steadying influence,
00:30:52but there was one surefire way to raise Victor's blood pressure.
00:30:56Evening, Mr Meldrum. I can't stay long...
00:30:59Rachel, I'm back!
00:31:01And it came in the form of her best friend,
00:31:04the unintentioned but exasperating Mrs Warboys.
00:31:08How is Victor, then?
00:31:10Oh, you know, genie's usual self.
00:31:13Oh, dear.
00:31:15Mrs Warboys was one of the best characters
00:31:18and one of the most popular, I think.
00:31:20I'll just set him down here.
00:31:22Oh, hang on, I think I left the back door open,
00:31:25just in case he makes a boat for it.
00:31:27As much as you've obviously got the two leads and Victor there
00:31:32as a hugely comic character,
00:31:34I personally think Mrs Warboys is a funnier character.
00:31:37There we are.
00:31:41Where would you like me to put him?
00:31:43She's of an age again, a third older person in the show,
00:31:48who clearly is in a complete world of her own,
00:31:52and Dorian Mantle played her so beautifully.
00:31:55What the bloody hell's this?
00:31:58It's Mr Burkitt's dog, Nippy.
00:32:01Nippy?!
00:32:03Doesn't look very nippy from where I'm standing.
00:32:07And turns out to be an even greater victim than Victor himself.
00:32:12I don't feel very safe with it.
00:32:14Maybe the blade's gone a bit rusted.
00:32:16Oh, bugger that.
00:32:18Jean Warboys is very kind, wanting to help,
00:32:22wanting to be there for them
00:32:24and getting herself or them in a mess
00:32:27and forgetting things and sometimes being stupid.
00:32:31Don't rock the frame like that, it won't do it any good.
00:32:37Perfect. Perfect working order.
00:32:40The thing about Mrs Warboys is that she is a foil,
00:32:43she's a classic foil,
00:32:45and it's just that old thing that you can't really define
00:32:48why is it funny for certain things to be happening to Mrs Warboys,
00:32:51that if they were happening to Margaret would not be funny at all.
00:32:54She's wonderful, I mean, the character is so dotty
00:32:58but well-meaning and sincere.
00:33:00You know, when she picks up Victor's suit from the dry cleaners
00:33:04and puts it across the back of the sofa, and it's a gorilla suit.
00:33:07Took a bit of a while to find Margaret.
00:33:10Maybe she won't be needing it now.
00:33:12Don't think they're all that well organised in that place,
00:33:15if you ask me.
00:33:17She doesn't question it, she's just gone to get the suit and here it is.
00:33:20Victor just stood there and looked at it.
00:33:23He said, what on earth is this?
00:33:25I said, your suit.
00:33:27He said, my suit?
00:33:29It's a gorilla's outfit.
00:33:31Don't tell me they mixed up the tickets again.
00:33:33Mixed up the...
00:33:35You must have seen it as a mistake when you got it out.
00:33:40Well, I don't know what your suit looks like, do I?
00:33:43It doesn't bloody well look like this.
00:33:47I mean, where do you think I shop? King Cogger T&Es?
00:33:50I met her once at a party about 25 years ago or something.
00:33:53I said, Doreen Mandel. I said, you're fantastic.
00:33:55And she sort of beamed, as any of us would do, you know.
00:33:58She's not always in it, but when she is, I do, yes.
00:34:03And Mrs Warboys is a key player
00:34:05in one of the most acclaimed episodes of the entire six series,
00:34:09and one that broke new ground back in 1992.
00:34:13Oh, God almighty!
00:34:18People have done it since, Peter Kaye particularly,
00:34:22but that episode where it's entirely in a car, in a traffic jam,
00:34:27I mean, that's genius.
00:34:29When I read it, I just thought that was a brilliant, brilliant idea.
00:34:37What are you looking at?
00:34:39Oh, yes, here we are. Hell on us.
00:34:42I've got to admit, we've taken a wrong turning.
00:34:45It's a perfect situation for comedy,
00:34:48and that's when your, you know,
00:34:50the really good writing about character comes out,
00:34:54because, you know, you've got to have somewhere to go,
00:34:57and then, you know, we're in a traffic jam and we're really bored
00:35:00and, you know, we're really fed up.
00:35:02Want a sucky sweet?
00:35:04A sucky sweet?
00:35:06We'll be sucking in that exhaust pipe in a minute, much more than this.
00:35:10You know how things become a catchphrase in your family?
00:35:13Whenever we were on a car journey, we'd always have a sucky sweet.
00:35:16I always say that for a really super blank holiday treat,
00:35:20you've got to go a long way to beat four and a half hours
00:35:23tearing up a horse's bottom.
00:35:28They spent the first ten minutes
00:35:31talking about, you know, looking up a horse's bottom,
00:35:35and then Mrs Warboys gets into the back of the car, you see.
00:35:40Hang on, I thought they were in a traffic jam driving somewhere.
00:35:46That feels a bit questionable.
00:35:48Find one all right, though?
00:35:50Oh, yes.
00:35:51There's a pub on the other side of that slope,
00:35:53they were very friendly.
00:35:55Mrs Warboys gets back in and she's been to the toilet.
00:35:58Do you want to go?
00:36:00No, I'm fine, thanks.
00:36:02It wasn't comfortable,
00:36:04but somehow we got used to being in this car and things happening.
00:36:09There were some wonderful lines in it.
00:36:11I thought you'd at least be down by the remains of that rotting badger.
00:36:15We're not likely to be either at this rate.
00:36:18Did you get my crisps?
00:36:20Oh, no, sorry, they didn't have any salt and vinegar,
00:36:23they only had smoky bacon.
00:36:25I asked her to get smoky bacon.
00:36:27He wanted smoky bacon and she said he didn't want smoky bacon.
00:36:31I mean, it's just sort of like...
00:36:33It's almost sort of Victoria Wood-esque,
00:36:35you know, this kind of observation of the domestic.
00:36:38Brilliant.
00:36:39Oh, they had plenty of smoky bacon.
00:36:41But you didn't get any?
00:36:42Three huge boxes chock full of them.
00:36:44But you didn't get any?
00:36:46No.
00:36:48We filmed it in the Vauxhall Trainee Motorway.
00:36:52A whole lot of cars and horses and things.
00:36:56We also were filming it in midwinter.
00:37:01So it was freezing.
00:37:03It took three weeks to do that episode, I think, because of the weather.
00:37:08It was supposed to be summer and we were shivering.
00:37:12We had lots of underwear on.
00:37:15I believe that they took the windscreen out of the front of the car
00:37:18so you wouldn't get reflections for the camera and lights and all that sort of stuff.
00:37:22So it was quite cold when they were doing it.
00:37:25There's a bloke we can't stand any longer
00:37:30Always on the bleeding moan
00:37:35Every time we mend his bloody honder
00:37:39He's back grousing on the phone
00:37:44You know, nobody kind of moved or anything or came in or anything.
00:37:47That was it. You were three characters stuck in there.
00:37:49Well, that was one of the best episodes ever.
00:37:52He's a male true
00:37:54He's a male true
00:37:56He can stick it up his bum
00:38:00He can fuck her off to kingdom come
00:38:05Well, that was one of my favourites. It was my favourite.
00:38:09Coming up, we meet the neighbours.
00:38:12I think I said no initially.
00:38:15Pompous twit.
00:38:17And Victor picks up the dog and pig.
00:38:20And Victor picks up the dog and bone.
00:38:26You might think it's only one dachshund, but there were a few to choose from.
00:38:37Like all the best sitcoms, One Foot in the Grave is firmly rooted in suburbia,
00:38:42where it pays to be on good terms with the neighbours,
00:38:46however peculiar they may be.
00:38:49I'm guessing that David Renwick will have worked very hard
00:38:53at imagining how the neighbours would be,
00:38:56because of what they'll do to Victor
00:38:59or because of what you can get out of Victor's reaction to them.
00:39:03Meet the neighbours on the Meldrews' right, Pippa and Patrick Trench.
00:39:08It's Patrick and Pippa.
00:39:12I think I said no initially.
00:39:15Pompous twit.
00:39:18I don't know, I think there were negotiations that went on
00:39:22and eventually I said yes
00:39:25and the first person I met was Richard Wilson, who I'd never met before
00:39:29and we've been friends ever since.
00:39:31I think my character became sort of obsessed with Victor
00:39:35and was constantly spying on him
00:39:38and trying to trick him or catch him out
00:39:42and that then became his persona, really.
00:39:48That's kind of, you felt what he lived for,
00:39:51was to do battle with his neighbour.
00:39:54I think Angus Deaton's character was certainly nastier
00:39:58and more revengeful than Victor himself.
00:40:02Do you get some kind of sick, perverted pleasure
00:40:05out of rowing with our neighbours?
00:40:08Yes.
00:40:09He had a nasty quality to him, quite a malicious side to him,
00:40:12which Victor Meldrew doesn't have.
00:40:14I mean, Angus was just the perfect person, really,
00:40:17to be able to bite off some of the quite complicated lines
00:40:23that I would write for Patrick.
00:40:25It was the first show that I'd done
00:40:27that I hadn't really had any hand in the writing of it
00:40:30and so, for me, the relief of thinking,
00:40:34if something isn't working, I don't need to worry about it,
00:40:37I don't need to worry about it, I'm just speaking the lines.
00:40:40Mad as a bloody March Hare.
00:40:42I wonder if we could get him certified on Bupa.
00:40:45I mean, Angus was like a latter-day Cleese, really.
00:40:48I don't think he ever set out consciously to become that,
00:40:52but he just had that wonderful rhythm and diction.
00:40:57Here we are. What did I tell you? My horoscope for the day.
00:41:00Do not, under any circumstances,
00:41:02go round for a meal tonight at Victor Meldrew's
00:41:05by a trained exorcist.
00:41:08I would ring up and cancel, but I suppose it's a bit inconsiderate,
00:41:11dragging him out of his coffin in broad daylight.
00:41:14Pippa was always on the lookout for when I was crossing the line
00:41:18and going a little bit too far
00:41:20and she was kind of the voice of reason
00:41:22in the same way as Margaret was to Victor.
00:41:25You know who you're starting to turn into, don't you?
00:41:28And the frightening thing is, you can't even see it.
00:41:32It was seen, I think, as being a gradual transition
00:41:37into the same sort of person.
00:41:40So that's, I think, possibly what David Renwick always had in mind,
00:41:45because we were not dissimilar
00:41:47in the way in which we were critical of the outside world.
00:41:56Next door to the left was the relentlessly cheerful
00:41:59and decidedly off-kilter Nick Sweeney,
00:42:02forever peeping through the garden fence.
00:42:05Morning, Mr Meldrew. Are you well?
00:42:10I expect you think I've gone completely off my head.
00:42:13Nick Sweeney character, as played by Owen Brennan,
00:42:17he is perhaps the most...
00:42:20Perhaps he's the most tragic figure in it, really.
00:42:23Owen's character was weird and wonderful, but believable.
00:42:28He was a grown-up schoolboy who never used Victor.
00:42:32Victor's first name always called him Mr Meldrew.
00:42:37Morning, Mr Meldrew.
00:42:42I see your fat pack is nearly off, then.
00:42:46There's the two men who are totally, completely different,
00:42:51and that gives it energy.
00:42:53Mother asked me to give you some cuttings from her wandering Jew.
00:42:57Stay in that position, but try and avoid the direct sunlight.
00:43:01Thank you. That's very thoughtful of her.
00:43:03She's up there now. You can give her a wave.
00:43:07We never see her, and nor does Victor.
00:43:10There's always that suspicion, is she there or not?
00:43:13Is she alive or not, you know?
00:43:15There she is, look.
00:43:18He says it's very nice of you, Mother.
00:43:22Even though she's pointed out,
00:43:24she's up there, she's up there, and I can't see her.
00:43:27The actual character was rather sweet and lovable,
00:43:31but you never really found out what the problem with the mother was.
00:43:35It was slightly Hitchcockian.
00:43:38It was really rather eerie, some of it,
00:43:41sitting in the bedroom and Mother's up there,
00:43:44and something a bit of Anthony Perkins,
00:43:47of him rigging his gate, much to Victor's horror.
00:43:51Morning, Mr Meldrew.
00:43:54How did you...?
00:43:55Oh, I moved it further down to save trampling your pansies.
00:43:58How extremely considerate of you.
00:44:00And just feel, well, this is normal, I'm your neighbour, hi, how are you?
00:44:04And then closing it up again with Victor going,
00:44:06what's this bloody hell's he doing with my gate?
00:44:09He's strange, but of course it's strange because he's always trying to be nice,
00:44:13and what David Rennick is trying to do as a writer, and brilliantly so,
00:44:17is to point out the contrast, obviously,
00:44:20between the irascible Victor and the nice guy.
00:44:24He means well,
00:44:27but he doesn't get a lot of satisfaction out of existence.
00:44:33Over six series and ten years,
00:44:35One Foot In The Grave picked up a host of awards,
00:44:38including three BAFTAs and six British Comedy Awards.
00:44:42But something that was less celebrated was its occasional use of animals.
00:44:47Margaret?
00:44:49What's the matter?
00:44:51Did you put a cat in our freezer?
00:44:55What?
00:44:56The bottom of the freezer cabinet, there's a cat in it.
00:45:01What, a dead one?
00:45:03Well, there's not play with that bloody ball of wool.
00:45:07It's frozen solid wool in!
00:45:10Oh, my God!
00:45:12The frozen cat in the freezer,
00:45:16I don't remember how that happened,
00:45:19but I think that was the first frozen animal we used.
00:45:23Oh! Oh, my God!
00:45:27I thought, they're not going to show it,
00:45:29they're not going to show it.
00:45:31And then when he opens the freezer door, it's actually taken out.
00:45:34It's so ridiculous that you can't help but laugh.
00:45:38I think I feel sick.
00:45:40Obviously, no animals were harmed during filming,
00:45:43but this didn't prevent a public outcry.
00:45:46The frozen cat, I think, had more complaints
00:45:48than they'd had for a sitcom for ten years or something.
00:45:51Are you sure it's dead?
00:45:54Well, if you think it's a pretty safe bed, wouldn't you?
00:45:58I mean, it's a bit parky in there at the best of times.
00:46:02Probably one of the few things that David wouldn't do now.
00:46:05How's it supposed to have kept warm?
00:46:07Rubbed two fish fingers together to start a fire?
00:46:10Then it was a funny joke, and now I think he would go,
00:46:14oh, no, that's...
00:46:16He would probably understand more now the complaints that it got.
00:46:19I think I heard Richard talking about it somewhere.
00:46:21He said, well, you know, this was before the internet,
00:46:23it was the actors that were getting the angry letters, not David.
00:46:26So he's like, well, can we cut down on the dead animals a bit?
00:46:29I certainly got letters about being rude to animals.
00:46:35And it wasn't just cats that received
00:46:37the one foot in the grave treatment.
00:46:40He was pretty cruel to a lot of animals.
00:46:42I mean, the incinerated tortoise was like, oh, why?
00:46:46You know, it's just hideous.
00:46:48There's no obligation to buy.
00:46:50Does it look like a bloody convenient moment?
00:46:53I won't give you that.
00:46:55It's supposed to have been thrown on the fire and died.
00:47:00Which was a very sad sort of thing to have in a sitcom,
00:47:03don't you think so?
00:47:05When the format was sold to America,
00:47:08the American public, they thought, could not cope
00:47:10with the idea of a tortoise being dead,
00:47:12and so they had to change the ending so that the tortoise didn't die.
00:47:15I'm not suggesting anybody freezes their cat
00:47:18or puts a tortoise in an incinerator,
00:47:20but it's a comic idea that, should that happen,
00:47:25we'd want to see Victor Meldrew reacting to it.
00:47:31And it was an animal that supplied one foot in the grave
00:47:34with one of the greatest ever sitcom moments.
00:47:38PHONE RINGS
00:47:414291.
00:47:47I loved the puppy.
00:47:49It was great.
00:47:51I think we did it about six times or something,
00:47:54but the first one was the one that we actually used,
00:47:57where I sort of couldn't find it for a minute.
00:48:00It works particularly well because the dog is the same shape
00:48:03as a telephone receiver.
00:48:05If it had been a Yorkshire Terrier, it'd probably be amusing,
00:48:09but there's something about the similarity of the shape
00:48:11that really makes it work.
00:48:13We had about six Denzels, that was the name of the dog,
00:48:17so you might think it's only one Dachshund,
00:48:20but there were a few to choose from.
00:48:23To the left of Victor's armchair, there is a side table,
00:48:28and lying behind the armchair is the animal handler.
00:48:31And I just seem to remember her sort of just grabbing the dog
00:48:34for the rest of my life until, you know, the cue,
00:48:37you know, grabbing it safely.
00:48:39Even if you know it's coming and you watch it knowing it's coming,
00:48:42you'll still not be able to see it on Richard's face
00:48:44that he's about to do that.
00:48:46And it's the reaction as soon as he's got the dog,
00:48:48which is just... That's comic timing at its absolute best.
00:48:51It was the show's sight gags
00:48:53that were to become One Foot In The Grave's hallmark.
00:48:56I think one of the things that I really love about the programme
00:48:59is the visual humour. I always love visual humour.
00:49:01One Foot In The Grave makes me laugh out loud in a way that I don't...
00:49:04I'm not one for laughing out loud.
00:49:06Dear Mrs Meldrew, have filled in the hole now.
00:49:09Hope it is to your satisfaction. It certainly is to mine.
00:49:14Margaret?
00:49:16They had to build a huge hole and put him on a chair,
00:49:20cos obviously he couldn't stand, and had to scoop all the earth back.
00:49:24Victor?
00:49:26What are you doing?
00:49:28What am I doing?
00:49:30I'm wallpapering this spare bedroom.
00:49:32What am I doing?
00:49:34Not very much.
00:49:36I was sitting in this hole.
00:49:38There was a draft coming down the garden.
00:49:40I remember, at last, we got to the end of it,
00:49:43and then Susie Belding came up to me and said,
00:49:46I'm sorry, it's not what we wanted.
00:49:48We've got to redo it.
00:49:50I think I did it three times.
00:49:53Sitting in this bloody, bloody garden hole.
00:49:57Who's that?
00:50:00Oh, it's Patrick and Pippa.
00:50:02I'll get them to give me a hand.
00:50:04Don't you bloody dare let him see me like this.
00:50:07I'd never live it down.
00:50:09So it was one of the less comfortable filming days for Richard,
00:50:13but it worked.
00:50:15Oh, erm, I'm sorry, but I think that's my phone.
00:50:18Would you excuse me, please, both of you?
00:50:21Yes, Margaret, see you later.
00:50:23Come on, bloody fools.
00:50:25I can't!
00:50:30Thankfully, it's now one of the most remembered scenes.
00:50:34And even the simplest situations led to sublime sight gags.
00:50:42Afternoon.
00:50:44Visual humour is always the thing I go for when it's done really well.
00:50:48Hello, is that Mr P.T. Sturgeon?
00:50:52Yes, well, it's about a large yucca plant
00:50:55your garden centre delivered to my house this morning.
00:50:58The yucca plant in the toilet thing,
00:51:00somebody said to me I'm responsible for one of Victor's greatest meltdowns.
00:51:04But, you know, obviously I didn't write it.
00:51:06Well, I'll tell you exactly what the problem is, Mr Sturgeon.
00:51:09I was out the back working in the garden when he arrived,
00:51:12so I asked him if, for the time being, he'd put it in the downstairs toilet for me.
00:51:16And do you know what he's done? He's only planted it in the...
00:51:19LAUGHTER
00:51:25Yes, actually, it's not that much he can!
00:51:28There's compost and everything!
00:51:30I mean, how anyone could be so utterly goopy just for overnight?
00:51:35Yucca plant in the toilet, that got a wonderful laugh.
00:51:41Coming up, we're off on location.
00:51:43The residents got a bit canny about this,
00:51:46so they upped the price each series.
00:51:50And they're queuing up for cameos.
00:51:53Towards the end of the series,
00:51:55you were seeing sort of Peter Cook and Eric Idle
00:51:58and Timbrook Taylor, Paul Merton.
00:52:00I mean, it was a pretty stellar cast.
00:52:08One Foot In The Grave ran for ten years from 1990,
00:52:12with its figures increasing every time it reappeared.
00:52:16Not until probably the third series that we really hit the button.
00:52:21And, you know, we ended up with an audience of 22 million or something,
00:52:27I think, which is pretty remarkable.
00:52:30But early on, I don't think a lot of people knew about it.
00:52:34And as well as retaining all the original cast and many of the crew,
00:52:38the show's eccentric and instantly recognisable
00:52:41credits and theme tune remained unchanged over six series.
00:52:45One Foot In The Grave
00:52:48I think I've heard David say that the opening title sequence
00:52:51is the cheapest one the BBC ever did for any programme,
00:52:54cos it's just some stock footage of some tortoises walking around.
00:52:57They obviously had some faith in the fact that they were going to pay
00:53:01someone like Eric Idle, who was pretty famous in those days, still is,
00:53:05to write, you know, to commission him to write a signature tune.
00:53:08I think there's a mismatch, in my mind,
00:53:10between the song and the tonical sequences, cos tortoises are...
00:53:13I mean, I apologise to any tortoise lovers out there,
00:53:16but they're amongst the dullest of creatures.
00:53:18The opening credits helps the idea
00:53:20that you are entering your little funny world that you like.
00:53:24You're into a cult now.
00:53:26The absurd elements are kind of, you know, a lot of them are kind of
00:53:31python, you know, inherited from a pythonesque tradition, I suppose.
00:53:35David Renwick was obviously a big python fan.
00:53:38If you see the sketches that he used to write for Alexis Sayles' stuff,
00:53:43yeah, there was definitely a kind of pythonesque quality.
00:53:46They say I might as well face the truth
00:53:50That I am just too long in a tube
00:53:53I started to deteriorate
00:53:56And now I've passed my own sell-by date
00:53:59I think it's partly because he revered Eric Idle so much
00:54:03that he probably felt it was a huge sort of coup
00:54:06to get him to sort of write the theme tune, sing the theme tune.
00:54:10I've just got too many miles on the clock
00:54:14I can't think of many other sitcoms that have that kind of a song, really.
00:54:19I think commissioning Eric Idle to do the sitcom signature tune
00:54:23was definitely a nod and homage to his mentors.
00:54:29While interiors were filmed in London,
00:54:32the exteriors were shot on the South Coast.
00:54:35We used to do all the filming in Bournemouth.
00:54:40Well, between the first and second series, the house burnt down,
00:54:44so there was a different location,
00:54:46but then from series two right through to the end,
00:54:49yeah, it was the same house.
00:54:51And, of course, because it then involved
00:54:55And, of course, because it then involved neighbours,
00:54:58it's not just finding one house.
00:55:00You've got to have the compliant neighbours on either side
00:55:03for three weeks of their life.
00:55:05The houses were all the same, so you could mix them up.
00:55:09Kylie!
00:55:11You'd have your six grips.
00:55:13We'd go off to Bournemouth for two, three weeks,
00:55:17and you'd pull out all the location pieces...
00:55:20Kylie!
00:55:21..shoot everything that was outdoors, in the garden, outside the house,
00:55:26on, you know, locations that you couldn't recreate in a studio.
00:55:30I don't believe it.
00:55:37So all of that is in the can, so to speak, at the end of those three weeks.
00:55:41The high street, going in or out of a library
00:55:44or video rental shop or anything.
00:55:46So Richard appeared in most scenes,
00:55:48so Richard was a presence all the time.
00:55:51A lot of people would find out that we were filming and come and watch,
00:55:55so very often we'd have people standing outside the house.
00:55:58I suppose people in the New Forest have nothing else to do,
00:56:02apart from ride ponies.
00:56:04I remember being in the car with Annette,
00:56:08and it was two o'clock in the morning or something,
00:56:11we were still filming in the night scene.
00:56:15I remember saying to Annette,
00:56:17I don't know what all these people...
00:56:19They're not going to see anything tonight,
00:56:21they're just the car driving away.
00:56:23But filming in a neat suburban close came with its own problems.
00:56:28You're virtually invading their home.
00:56:30You know, everyone's quite excited to begin with,
00:56:33and then when they realise the disruption and chaos it causes,
00:56:38they become, you know, oh, here they go, back again.
00:56:41I think in those days you'd get away with,
00:56:43it's the BBC and not the cash.
00:56:46The houses that were used, the residents or the owners,
00:56:51were temporarily evacuated, but in a very nice way,
00:56:54so that we had free reign.
00:56:56But of course it grew as well, like in the first series,
00:56:59there were no Winnebago's,
00:57:01and Richard would go and sit in his car at lunch,
00:57:05if he needed a look at his script.
00:57:07By the end, obviously you've got a huge circus
00:57:11coming in with wagons and stuff,
00:57:14so location managers would be driving round with boots full of whiskey
00:57:18to drop off disgruntled people who couldn't get into their houses
00:57:23because there's a lorry blocking the road.
00:57:25We are only going into the hall,
00:57:27we're not going into the living room or whatever,
00:57:30it is just the entrance and the exit.
00:57:32So you would do somebody walking into the front door on the street
00:57:36on location, and then you would cut into the studio as they came in.
00:57:40And in the gardens, and of course the gardens were altered,
00:57:43fences changed so that Nick could come in from next door.
00:57:47Morning, Mr Mildred.
00:57:51Lovely weather, I must say.
00:57:53By the time Sitcom was quite well known,
00:57:55the residents got a bit canny about this,
00:57:58and so they upped the price each series,
00:58:01and by the end of it, I think they were charging way too much
00:58:05and there was talk of Victor and Margaret suddenly moving to somewhere else.
00:58:10Fortunately, they were able to reach some kind of settlement.
00:58:14As One Foot in the Grave became a monster hit,
00:58:17famous faces began clamouring for cameos.
00:58:20We had loads of people, Ray Winston, Geoffrey Chater, Paul Merton,
00:58:25to name but a few, they just were everywhere,
00:58:28and they would just do maybe just one line.
00:58:30I think when you've got a sitcom as well written as that
00:58:34and with such a really exceptional, stellar central performance,
00:58:39it's no surprise you could get people like Peter Cook and Barbara Windsor,
00:58:44Phil Daniels, you know, big turns.
00:58:46So Susie and David must have pulled a few favours
00:58:50just to get brief appearances from sometimes very well-known film stars
00:58:55and personalities of the time.
00:58:57That kind of confidence and that kind of popularity
00:59:00is that you can cast pretty much anyone you want
00:59:03and on the whole they'll say yes.
00:59:05So towards the end of the series, you were seeing Timbrook Taylor, Paul Merton,
00:59:10I mean, it was a pretty stellar cast.
00:59:12Coming up, dramatic final scenes as One Foot finally comes to an end.
00:59:17I said, kill him. Do it.
00:59:20After a run of ten years, One Foot in the Grave's Victor Meldrew
00:59:24will meet his maker in tonight's final episode.
00:59:28LAUGHTER
00:59:31If you're only up that hatch, she says, be careful
00:59:34because you'll just put a bag of plaster inside.
00:59:37In January 1995, the fifth series of One Foot in the Grave came to an end
00:59:42and for the next couple of years,
00:59:44the Meldrews only popped up on our screens at Christmas.
00:59:48But in October 2000, something astonishing happened.
00:59:52I was beyond delirious when I heard that it was coming back
00:59:56because in a programme that had been so deceptively clever
00:59:59in almost every single episode,
01:00:02it really didn't come as a surprise
01:00:04that something extraordinary would happen to it.
01:00:07And true to the form of this most eccentric of sitcoms,
01:00:11the audience were in for a big surprise.
01:00:14David said, I think of killing Victor.
01:00:17What do you think?
01:00:19I said, kill him. Yeah. Do it.
01:00:22I had no idea that that was going to be the final series
01:00:26until I saw the script for the last show
01:00:29and I saw that Victor was going to die.
01:00:32Sorry, spoiler.
01:00:34I was very sad.
01:00:36I didn't want the series to end.
01:00:40But it was time that it ended.
01:00:42Obviously, that's what David wanted.
01:00:44He felt as if he'd gone as far as he could with those characters
01:00:47and with the plot lines.
01:00:50There. What do you think of that, David?
01:00:54Having decided that both Victor's feet were headed for the grave,
01:00:58it was time to plan the great man's demise.
01:01:01Now, you may not believe it,
01:01:03but Britain's grumpiest pensioner is about to make his last appearance.
01:01:07After a run of ten years, one foot in the graves,
01:01:09Victor Meldrew will meet his maker in tonight's final episode.
01:01:13Here's our arts correspondent, David Sillitoe.
01:01:15The cold chill of an autumn ratings war tonight
01:01:18carries grumpy Victor Meldrew off to TV heaven
01:01:21in an extended final episode.
01:01:24He says it's the most amazing thing.
01:01:26Next week, they're holding a reunion in London for all the old gang
01:01:30and they've been desperately trying to get hold of you.
01:01:33What sort of reunion?
01:01:35Oh, you've got to go, Victor.
01:01:37You'll be able to swap stories, catch up with everyone.
01:01:41It was quite brave, I think, to kill off Victor
01:01:44because it means you can't come back for a Christmas special
01:01:47or an Easter special or any kind of special.
01:01:50There was much less worry about social media,
01:01:53so nobody was that worried about people spilling the beans,
01:01:57although when we shot it, we were very cautious
01:02:01about where we shot it and how we shot it.
01:02:04My agent said,
01:02:05they want you to be in the last episode of One Foot In The Grave.
01:02:08I said, oh, fantastic.
01:02:09I'd met David a couple of times
01:02:11and he was my admiration for his work, brilliant writer,
01:02:16and I said, yeah, of course, and they sent me the script.
01:02:22Paul Merton played a barman at the fateful reunion
01:02:25only attended by Victor.
01:02:28Yeah, it's the last bit of dialogue that Victor has with anybody,
01:02:32thinking that nobody's turned up for this work's reunion,
01:02:35apart from himself.
01:02:36Herbert Stranks is stuck in traffic on the M6
01:02:38and doesn't think he'll be able to get here this side of Christmas.
01:02:41Alex Bendrix is very sorry,
01:02:43but he's had to fly to Hamburg on business at the last minute,
01:02:46and Bob Loft has decided it's too far to drive with his kidneys.
01:02:52It was very, very cruel.
01:02:55It seemed to be, obviously, the most natural and logical
01:02:59and appropriate end for the character
01:03:01in a show where we had tried to reflect the truthfulness of real life.
01:03:06I just remember being quite sad and angry about it
01:03:09because I didn't want him to die, and certainly not that way.
01:03:12And when the end came, it was totally out of the blue.
01:03:26I just remember this hand falling into shot,
01:03:30which is a very kind of filmesque thing to do for a sitcom, you know.
01:03:35The more you think about the end, the last episode,
01:03:39I must say the more I think it's brilliant.
01:03:42But David had made that decision, and again, that's part of his brilliance.
01:03:46You know, sitcoms don't kill off characters, normally speaking.
01:03:50We all felt that when we saw him on the side of the road about to be killed,
01:03:55we, as his fellow actors, felt terribly sad.
01:04:04The sort of absurdity of the character is still maintained,
01:04:09and to have him, as it were, dying through bad luck,
01:04:13that's pretty clever, isn't it?
01:04:16After the final episode was broadcast,
01:04:19some of the show's more ardent admirers worked out
01:04:22where Victor had been mowed down and went to pay tribute.
01:04:27You won't believe it, but just a few days after his dramatic death,
01:04:31the late and deceased Victor Meldrew have created a shrine
01:04:34at the scene of his fictitious demise.
01:04:36It was next door to a pub, yeah.
01:04:40Flowers, hats.
01:04:42It just astonishes me that there are still people who ask,
01:04:45is it really finished?
01:04:47Who just somehow can't accept that he's gone.
01:04:52The best shows in the world always do have the most serious fans, you know,
01:04:56and they can be sitcoms, they can be sci-fi, they can be drama,
01:04:59but when you have something that's real,
01:05:01you would have people leaving flowers under the bridge where he died,
01:05:05you know, which, I mean, it is a bit strange to do,
01:05:08but they were that passionate about the show and the character.
01:05:12And with no chance of a return for one of our most popular sitcoms,
01:05:16the cast had a variety of emotions.
01:05:19I'd been doing it for quite a long while,
01:05:21and I was getting a bit...
01:05:23weird of someone being angry all the time.
01:05:26Yeah, it was a real sort of...
01:05:28Yeah, the passing of an era, I suppose,
01:05:30the passing of a programme that has been hugely successful.
01:05:33I was sorry to see the end of it, because it was such fun to do.
01:05:37Good morning.
01:05:38Goodbye.
01:05:41He's only landed in England.
01:05:44Over its ten-year history,
01:05:46One Foot in the Grave gave us some of sitcoms' most magnificent moments,
01:05:50and though Victor Meldrew has long since departed...
01:05:534, 2, 9, 1.
01:05:55..this defiantly unconventional comedy
01:05:58is destined to live forever.
01:06:01Afternoon.
01:06:02You'll always be able to see that that is an actor and a writer
01:06:06at the absolute top of their game.
01:06:08It makes me laugh out loud,
01:06:10I think, more than any other sitcom I can think of, really.
01:06:13I mean, I hope in 100 years' time, if the world is still spinning,
01:06:16it'll be talked about...
01:06:19..still.
01:06:21He was a very popular man.
01:06:25A fateful flight is under investigation tonight at 11.30
01:06:29as aviation experts examine an air crash in Disaster Revealed.
01:06:33And viewers aren't happy next,
01:06:35as we count down TV's 30 most complained-about moments.