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One Foot in the Grave

849 statements
167 feature instances
64 referencing feature instances

One Foot in the Grave	type	TVTItem
One Foot in the Grave	label	One Foot in the Grave
One Foot in the Grave	page	OneFootInTheGrave
One Foot in the Grave	comment	One Foot in the Grave was a British TV comedy show that followed the misadventures of cranky Reluctant Retiree Victor Meldrew. The story begins with Victor being forced into early retirement, because his job, where he greets people and signs them in at an office building, is replaced by a small electronic box.Suddenly and unexpectedly finding himself "retired", he looks for other means to keep himself occupied. More often than not this means he lands himself in unbelievable and frustrating circumstances. It seems no facet of his life can leave him without complaints.Despite the situation, it subverts the Dom Com genre. It is a significant Black Comedy, and there are dark moments where it's not meant to be funny, sometimes Tear Jerker material.Written by David Renwick, whose other major work is Jonathan Creek: despite the difference in subject matter, one immediately notices the parallels of being both being very dark and having intricately clever plots.The main characters were: Victor Meldrew (Richard Wilson), the protagonist. Margaret Meldrew (Annette Crosbie), his long-suffering wife. Acts as a Straight Man to his silliness. Mrs Warboys (Doreen Mantle), a friend of Margaret. Patrick and Pippa Trench (Angus Deayton and Janine Duvitski), their neighbors for several years. Victor and Patrick don't get on. Mr Swainey (Owen Brenman), their other neighbor. He's a bit peculiar and nice to the point of annoying.Came tenth in Britains Best Sitcom.
One Foot in the Grave	fetched	2024-04-22T09:16:41Z
One Foot in the Grave	parsed	2024-04-22T09:16:41Z
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One Foot in the Grave	processingComment	Dropped link to CleanPrettyReliable: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
One Foot in the Grave	processingComment	Dropped link to TopCat: Not a Feature - ITEM
One Foot in the Grave	processingComment	Dropped link to VictorAndHugo: Not a Feature - ITEM
One Foot in the Grave	processingUnknown	CleanPrettyReliable
One Foot in the Grave	isPartOf	DBTropes
One Foot in the Grave / int_10a262e4	type	Headphones Equal Isolation
One Foot in the Grave / int_10a262e4	comment	Headphones Equal Isolation: Victor is listening to a comedy tape (Monty Python) as Mrs. Warboys is tearfully explaining that she thinks her husband is having an affair and that she's contemplating suicide. Victor, naturally, continually bursts out laughing.
One Foot in the Grave / int_10a262e4	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_10a262e4	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_10a262e4
One Foot in the Grave / int_10dcbe05	type	Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other
One Foot in the Grave / int_10dcbe05	comment	Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Invoked frequently, usually just as Margaret appears to have reached the end of her tether.
One Foot in the Grave / int_10dcbe05	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_10dcbe05	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_10dcbe05
One Foot in the Grave / int_127fc252	type	Creator Cameo
One Foot in the Grave / int_127fc252	comment	Creator Cameo: David Renwick appears in the opening episode of the the final series, as a TV doctor explaining Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Eric Idle, who wrote and performed the theme tune, appears in a Christmas Episode as a Government environmental inspector. In the final episode, composer Ed Welch (also the composer of quite a few British game shows, including Blockbusters, Catchphrase and Treasure Hunt UK) appears as a cabaret turn, while the crew seen filming a supermarket advert includes One Foot's director Christine Gernon, producer Jonathan Llewellyn and director of photography Geoff Harrison.
One Foot in the Grave / int_127fc252	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_127fc252	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_127fc252
One Foot in the Grave / int_135c6de7	type	Cannot Tell a Joke
One Foot in the Grave / int_135c6de7	comment	Cannot Tell a Joke: In "The Man Who Blew Away", Victor opens up a Christmas cracker and realises they've been tampered with when he finds a joke insulting him. He seems particularly offended by the fact that the joke isn't even coherent.
One Foot in the Grave / int_135c6de7	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_135c6de7	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_135c6de7
One Foot in the Grave / int_149ff4b0	type	HilarityEnsues
One Foot in the Grave / int_149ff4b0	comment	A literal example of this trope happens in "Warm Champagne" — the street the Meldrews live on after the first series is called Riverbank, and when a nearby old people's estate called Riversbank opens it causes no end of confusion, eventually cumulating in one of the residents of Riversbank being mistakenly dropped off at Victor's house and put into the bed. Hilarity Ensues when Victor gets into bed with her, assuming her to be Margaret.
One Foot in the Grave / int_149ff4b0	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_149ff4b0	featureConfidence	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_17ce80aa	type	All There in the Manual
One Foot in the Grave / int_17ce80aa	comment	All There in the Manual: The novelisation fills in a number of backstories and noodle incidents. Your mileage may vary on whether it's funnier not to be told exactly what happened to the previous owner of 19 Riverbank, or what became of the runaway python that the Meldrews inadvertently took as hand luggage on a flight to Athens.
One Foot in the Grave / int_17ce80aa	featureApplicability	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_1994ba0b	type	Gone Horribly Right
One Foot in the Grave / int_1994ba0b	comment	Patrick is Mistaken For Cheating in "The Wisdom of the Witch". First Pippa insinuates he's cheating with his secretary, then it turns out that the secretary has told her boyfriend they're sleeping together, to make him jealous. Which works rather too well.
One Foot in the Grave / int_1994ba0b	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_1994ba0b	featureConfidence	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_1a368bd5	type	Reluctant Retiree
One Foot in the Grave / int_1a368bd5	comment	Reluctant Retiree: Victor Meldrew, replaced unceremoniously by a box, is left feeling old and useless.
One Foot in the Grave / int_1a368bd5	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_1a368bd5	featureConfidence	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_1b590025	type	Dead All Along
One Foot in the Grave / int_1b590025	comment	Dead All Along: Subverted in one episode, which begins with Margaret in a graveyard writing a letter to a relative, which alludes to 'horrible events'. It is heavily implied that Victor is dead, with the events of the letter being shown in a flashback. It even shows the name "Victor Meldrew" on the gravestone that she is visiting. When she returns home, she picks up Victor's hat and a voice-over of Victor is heard saying his catchphrase. We assume that this is in Margaret's head ...until she opens the door to the living room, whereupon it turns out that Victor was Alive All Along. Turns out that the grave she was visiting belonged to Victor's father, and the 'events' simply referred to the typical mishaps that they have to deal with in every episode. Played straight in the 2001 Comic Relief episode.
One Foot in the Grave / int_1b590025	featureApplicability	-0.3
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One Foot in the Grave / int_1ba17583	type	The Ghost
One Foot in the Grave / int_1ba17583	comment	The Ghost: Mr. Swainey's mother. His first episode as a regular member of the cast implies that she doesn't actually exist and that Swainey is a Norman Bates type, but this is disproved near the end of the same episode, when Margaret is called around to his house to help put her to bed. Victor never actually sees her for himself however, and he has doubts about her existence for the rest of the series.
One Foot in the Grave / int_1ba17583	featureApplicability	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_1bdbbbae	type	The Klutz
One Foot in the Grave / int_1bdbbbae	comment	The Klutz: The main schtick of Peter Cook's one-off character Martin Trout in "One Foot in the Algarve".
One Foot in the Grave / int_1bdbbbae	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_1bdbbbae	featureConfidence	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_1c77ec26	type	The Voice
One Foot in the Grave / int_1c77ec26	comment	The Voice: Margaret's mother is heard speaking a few times, but is never actually seen in the flesh.
One Foot in the Grave / int_1c77ec26	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_1c77ec26	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_1c77ec26
One Foot in the Grave / int_1cf11f13	type	No Sympathy
One Foot in the Grave / int_1cf11f13	comment	No Sympathy: Victor is the constant victim of this. Even Margaret, the person most aware of his Cosmic Plaything status, struggles to maintain any patience with what he goes through.
One Foot in the Grave / int_1cf11f13	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_1cf11f13	featureConfidence	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_1e1aa82a	type	Diabolus ex Machina
One Foot in the Grave / int_1e1aa82a	comment	Diabolus ex Machina: Discussed Trope. There are many times throughout the series where Victor, and sometimes Patrick, will suggest that someone or something is arranging the world to annoy them. Of course, they don't know about David Renwick...
One Foot in the Grave / int_1e1aa82a	featureApplicability	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_1e7c47ab	type	Stealth Pun
One Foot in the Grave / int_1e7c47ab	comment	Stealth Pun: Besides obviously being a play on the regular title, the feature-length special "One Foot in the Algarve" has a literal meaning too. In case you don't get it, it's lampshaded at the very end of the credits when the title appears beneath a picture of the severed foot in question.
One Foot in the Grave / int_1e7c47ab	featureApplicability	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_1ec3eb0a	type	Take Our Word for It
One Foot in the Grave / int_1ec3eb0a	comment	Take Our Word for It: Used when Victor attempts to craft a teddy bear using parts cannibalised from other toys. The completed project is never shown, but it's supposedly so hideous that Margaret, a grown woman, needs a stiff drink to steady her nerves after seeing it. And that's to say nothing of what happens when a young boy happens across it...
One Foot in the Grave / int_1ec3eb0a	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_1ec3eb0a	featureConfidence	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_21d70919	type	Crapsack World
One Foot in the Grave / int_21d70919	comment	Of course, given the kind of universe Victor lives in and the stereotype he's come to epitomise, his predicament is understandable.
One Foot in the Grave / int_21d70919	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_21d70919	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_21d70919
One Foot in the Grave / int_222dc873	type	Black Comedy
One Foot in the Grave / int_222dc873	comment	Black Comedy: Uncommonly dark, tackling such subjects as death, kidnapping, illness, child abduction, violence, abusive parents, suicide and the pain of growing old... and yet still managing to wring humour out of them.
One Foot in the Grave / int_222dc873	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_222dc873	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_222dc873
One Foot in the Grave / int_22cf536c	type	Chekhov's Gun
One Foot in the Grave / int_22cf536c	comment	Chekhov's Gun: Early on in one episode, a struggling boxer is being talked down to by his father/manager for being too compassionate and easy-going. He then says that he is going to try and get him to lose his temper with just one person to bring out his "hidden aggression". Of course, anyone familiar with the show already knows exactly how this is going to end. The series is a succession of Chekhov's Gunmen passing through Chekhov's Armoury. Quite often, even the most inconsequential details or objects, or scenes that just seem like throwaway gags, will return with a vengeance later in the episode. Victor catches fleas from the neighbour's cat? It's used at the end. Victor complains about the junk in his garden? Used at the end. Victor talks about someone losing their wig? Used at the end. Hard. An aversion, which must be Renwick playing with us, is the decorated hunting stick that Nick Swainey gives Victor when he moves house. Unlike just about everything else, the boomerang doesn't come back. We do see it again, but only as set-dressing. Another aversion is the fly statue that someone mails to Victor in "The Futility of the Fly". Unlike the above example it seems to be a payoff to something established earlier, but no one has any idea where it came from.
One Foot in the Grave / int_22cf536c	featureApplicability	-1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_233da103	type	Cordon Bleugh Chef
One Foot in the Grave / int_233da103	comment	Cordon Bleugh Chef: Subverted by Victor who, unlike most men in sitcoms, actually appears to be pretty good at cooking most of the time. His propensity for spicy food can sometimes catch people off-guard, though, and seafood most definitely isn't his fortÃ©. Despite being a fairly good cook, he isn't so discerning about what he actually eats however.
One Foot in the Grave / int_233da103	featureApplicability	-0.3
One Foot in the Grave / int_233da103	featureConfidence	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_24321e44	type	Only Sane Man
One Foot in the Grave / int_24321e44	comment	Only Sane Man: Victor sometimes grades into this, as does Margaret from the second series. Word of God has stated that all of Victor's actions are proportionate to events in the bizarre universe the Meldrews live in. Can you honestly say you wouldn't end up like Victor after sixty-odd years in his hellish universe?
One Foot in the Grave / int_24321e44	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_24321e44	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_24321e44
One Foot in the Grave / int_24e51e8	type	Mistaken for Murderer
One Foot in the Grave / int_24e51e8	comment	Mistaken for Murderer: Victor in "Who Will Buy?", though only by Pippa, and then only because she's being set up as a Cloudcuckoolander (a trait which gets dropped by her next appearance) - nobody else is daft enough to think he did it. There's also a lot of suspicion around Afonso in "One Foot in the Algarve", before Mrs Warboys works out the truth.
One Foot in the Grave / int_24e51e8	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_24e51e8	featureConfidence	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_26eb6287	type	Funny Background Event
One Foot in the Grave / int_26eb6287	comment	In another scene Mr Swainey, who has dedicated much of his life to looking after old people and was permanently blithely enthusiastic about it, reflects darkly to Margaret about how he's basically not had a life of his own and never will because of it. Then in the background, Victor's head is smashed through an upstairs window and dangled out of it by a man beating him up for pouring maggots over his lunch previously.
One Foot in the Grave / int_26eb6287	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_26eb6287	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_26eb6287
One Foot in the Grave / int_2719ab04	type	Special Guest
One Foot in the Grave / int_2719ab04	comment	Special Guest: Among those who made guest appearances were Peter Cook, Barbara Windsor, Joan Sims and Ray Winstone.
One Foot in the Grave / int_2719ab04	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_2719ab04	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_2719ab04
One Foot in the Grave / int_27690f66	type	Literary Allusion Title
One Foot in the Grave / int_27690f66	comment	Literary Allusion Title: Many of the episodes have one, e.g. "The Pit and the Pendulum", "Hearts of Darkness", "The Return of the Speckled Band", etc.
One Foot in the Grave / int_27690f66	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_27690f66	featureConfidence	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_27d00b28	type	Same Content, Different Rating
One Foot in the Grave / int_27d00b28	comment	Same Content, Different Rating: For some reason, the seemingly innocuous episode "Hole in the Sky" was rated 12 for DVD release while every other episode in the first five seasons was rated PG - including apparently more likely candidates for "12" rating such as "The Man Who Blew Away" (nudity and suicide) and "Hearts of Darkness" (with its notorious "elderly abuse" scene).
One Foot in the Grave / int_27d00b28	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_27d00b28	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_27d00b28
One Foot in the Grave / int_2a6a8e89	type	Sadist Teacher
One Foot in the Grave / int_2a6a8e89	comment	Sadist Teacher: In "Dreamland", Margaret recounts a story of her childhood involving her wondering why one of the two budgies she attempted to free wouldn't leave its cage. She got her answer when her teacher made her read it out in school, leading to her being laughed at by everyone and causing her to realize that the world was terrible. She believes that the teacher did it deliberately to mock her and recounts that even then, she wanted to hurt him.
One Foot in the Grave / int_2a6a8e89	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_2a6a8e89	featureConfidence	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_2b80abf4	type	Trivial Title
One Foot in the Grave / int_2b80abf4	comment	Trivial Title: "The Man in the Long Black Coat" is a non-appearing character who is mentioned only briefly in the episode of that title, and is almost certainly so-described to justify a Shout-Out to the Bob Dylan song of that name. The song has even less to do with the episode.
One Foot in the Grave / int_2b80abf4	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_2b80abf4	featureConfidence	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_2d7ef923	type	Mistaken for Cheating
One Foot in the Grave / int_2d7ef923	comment	Mistaken for Cheating: Happens when Victor starts doing odd jobs for a female artist. Rapidly exacerbated when Margaret finds an empty condom box in Victor's jacket, and by Victor's ambiguous statements about "putting his back out after being in that position for two hours." He was posing for a painting. The condom box was just litter that he picked up after someone tossed it in his garden. Mrs. Warboys also does this with her husband, even going so far as to hire a private detective to tail him. He wasn't cheating at the time, but in a hilariously cruel twist, he ends up having an affair with the detective. Patrick is Mistaken For Cheating in "The Wisdom of the Witch". First Pippa insinuates he's cheating with his secretary, then it turns out that the secretary has told her boyfriend they're sleeping together, to make him jealous. Which works rather too well. Victor also thinks that Pippa is cheating on Patrick, after he catches her in the house of a rich, handsome man. It subsequently turns out that he's actually her brother, and Patrick is there as well. Victor and Margaret manage the rare feat of mistaking themselves for cheats in one episode where they're on holiday at a seaside guest house. They subsequently end up getting revenge on their supposed partners for "taking advantage" of them — in reality they hadn't done this at all, but they were so generally obnoxious that it was hard to blame the Meldrews for taking the chance.
One Foot in the Grave / int_2d7ef923	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_2d7ef923	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_2d7ef923
One Foot in the Grave / int_2f329e3c	type	Tomato in the Mirror
One Foot in the Grave / int_2f329e3c	comment	Tomato in the Mirror: The post-finale Comic Relief sketch builds up to a rather sad surprise for Victor.
One Foot in the Grave / int_2f329e3c	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_2f329e3c	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_2f329e3c
One Foot in the Grave / int_2f5790f5	type	I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine
One Foot in the Grave / int_2f5790f5	comment	I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Two of Angus Deayton's former Radio Active and KYTV co-stars, Geoffrey Perkins and Michael Fenton Stevens, made guest appearances as Patrick's brother and brother-in-law respectively.
One Foot in the Grave / int_2f5790f5	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_2f5790f5	featureConfidence	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_3094ec26	type	Artifact of Death
One Foot in the Grave / int_3094ec26	comment	Artifact of Death: The scorpion encased in resin that Victor and Margaret are given (and that they can't get rid of) is said to bring bad luck to whomever holds it. Eventually subverted when the old lady who they give it to uses it to smash a knife-wielding mugger in the head.
One Foot in the Grave / int_3094ec26	featureApplicability	-0.3
One Foot in the Grave / int_3094ec26	featureConfidence	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_3823c722	type	Bill... Bill... Junk... Bill...
One Foot in the Grave / int_3823c722	comment	Bill... Bill... Junk... Bill...: Victor and Margaret seem to receive an ungodly amount of junk mail.
One Foot in the Grave / int_3823c722	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_3823c722	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_3823c722
One Foot in the Grave / int_382a6399	type	The Hero Dies
One Foot in the Grave / int_382a6399	comment	The Hero Dies: And fans actually left flowers at the filming location.
One Foot in the Grave / int_382a6399	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_382a6399	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_382a6399
One Foot in the Grave / int_389b0e	type	Title Theme Tune
One Foot in the Grave / int_389b0e	comment	Title Theme Tune: "Clapped out, run down, too old to save / One foot in the grave."
One Foot in the Grave / int_389b0e	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_389b0e	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_389b0e
One Foot in the Grave / int_3a79543	type	One Scene, Two Monologues
One Foot in the Grave / int_3a79543	comment	One Scene, Two Monologues: Victor and Margaret frequently have "conversations" in this style.
One Foot in the Grave / int_3a79543	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_3a79543	featureConfidence	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_3aca1515	type	I Like My X Like I Like My Y
One Foot in the Grave / int_3aca1515	comment	I Like My X Like I Like My Y: "I like my toast like I like my women. Golden brown, and covered in marmalade."
One Foot in the Grave / int_3aca1515	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_3aca1515	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_3aca1515
One Foot in the Grave / int_3c0a4666	type	Noodle Incident
One Foot in the Grave / int_3c0a4666	comment	One was published in 1992; it contains many of the plotlines and jokes from the first three series but mixes them up so events from different TV episodes are juxtaposed in different ways. It also expands on a number of Noodle Incidents, for example telling us what happened on that holiday the Meldrews were setting off on at the end of "Return of the Speckled Band", and filling in the story of the mysterious "Stuart" mentioned in "Timeless Time". A couple of the storylines end very differently too; the alternate endings may represent nixed TV plots. In particular the storyline concerning the Meldrews taking a stranger to see a sitcom, thinking he's Jean's cousin Wilf, which on TV ends in mild embarrassment and no real damage done, goes enormously From Bad to Worse in the book.
One Foot in the Grave / int_3c0a4666	featureApplicability	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_3c0a4666
One Foot in the Grave / int_3c9267d2	type	Flatline
One Foot in the Grave / int_3c9267d2	comment	Flatline: Subverted. Margaret is hooked up to life support as Victor stays with her, holding her hand. The heart monitor does the standard "beep.. beep.. beep.. beep.. beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep", and prompts a Really Dead Montage from Victor, and then a nurse wanders by, complains that the heart monitor had been faulty all week, bashes it, and apologises, as it starts beeping regularly again. Note that at one stage, the episode in question was meant to be the series finale, and Margaret would have been Killed Off for Real, subverting the audience's expectation that Victor's misadventures would eventually take a fatal toll on his health. David Renwick thought this ending would be too unjust, though, and the BBC also changed their mind about ending the series at that point. However, Renwick decided to keep her "death" scene to fake out the audience.
One Foot in the Grave / int_3c9267d2	featureApplicability	-0.3
One Foot in the Grave / int_3c9267d2	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_3c9267d2
One Foot in the Grave / int_3d4d3dc9	type	Humans Are Bastards
One Foot in the Grave / int_3d4d3dc9	comment	Humans Are Bastards: A recurring theme Played for Drama and laughs; see also Crapsack World.
One Foot in the Grave / int_3d4d3dc9	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_3d4d3dc9	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_3d4d3dc9
One Foot in the Grave / int_3e5f74c	type	Take That, Critics!
One Foot in the Grave / int_3e5f74c	comment	Take That, Critics!: The series features a lot of potshots at TV critics, to varying degrees of subtlety. Probably the most blatant was in the series 6 premiere episode, where Victor sets up a successful window cleaning business, which dies literally overnight after an arts critic writes a scathing review of his work in a local newsletter, and Victor goes on a little speech about how critics shouldn't be so mean to people that are just trying to earn a living.
One Foot in the Grave / int_3e5f74c	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_3e5f74c	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_3e5f74c
One Foot in the Grave / int_3fca462c	type	Deus ex Machina
One Foot in the Grave / int_3fca462c	comment	Deus ex Machina: An uncharacteristically saccharine ending to the first Christmas special, when Mr Burridge turns out not to be dead after all. This might be put down to Early-Installment Weirdness, and the fact that the novelisation Retcons away the happy ending as All Just a Dream suggests there may have been a spot of Creator Backlash later.
One Foot in the Grave / int_3fca462c	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_3fca462c	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_3fca462c
One Foot in the Grave / int_42215dce	type	Ambiguous Ending
One Foot in the Grave / int_42215dce	comment	Ambiguous Ending: So did Margaret end up poisoning the accidental killer of her husband at the end of the show? We'll never know, although the fact that she seems to be carrying on her normal business in the Comic Relief special suggests that she didn't.
One Foot in the Grave / int_42215dce	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_42215dce	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_42215dce
One Foot in the Grave / int_44ba9580	type	The Snark Knight
One Foot in the Grave / int_44ba9580	comment	The Snark Knight: Victor. If you fall into the camp that believes that Patrick is merely a younger and less jaded version of Victor, it's safe to assume that he will turn into one too.
One Foot in the Grave / int_44ba9580	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_44ba9580	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_44ba9580
One Foot in the Grave / int_460aa61c	type	Gift of the Magi Plot
One Foot in the Grave / int_460aa61c	comment	Gift of the Magi Plot: In the 1990 Christmas special "Who's Listening?", Victor and Margaret promised each other they wouldn't buy each other anything for Christmas. On Christmas evening, Margaret surprises Victor by telling him she did buy him a present; a replacement for his broken watch. Victor gratefully accepts, and then confesses that he did the same thing. Margaret gets excited as he picks up a jewellery box... only for him to say that he'd actually bought himself a new watch too.
One Foot in the Grave / int_460aa61c	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_460aa61c	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_460aa61c
One Foot in the Grave / int_479f9ad0	type	Characterization Marches On
One Foot in the Grave / int_479f9ad0	comment	Characterization Marches On: In early episodes, Margaret acts more as a comic foil to Victor's misfortunes. Examples include fearfully asking if a cat found frozen in their freezer is definitely dead and mentioning a friend who died of a terminal illness. When Victor reminds her that the woman actually fell from a cliff, Margaret retorts she only did so because "she went to the seaside to convalesce". In later episodes, she develops into a more complex character. The final episode laments that Margaret has evolved into an even more curmudgeonly and no-nonsense figure than her late husband.
One Foot in the Grave / int_479f9ad0	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_479f9ad0	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_479f9ad0
One Foot in the Grave / int_47fea76b	type	Butt-Monkey
One Foot in the Grave / int_47fea76b	comment	Butt-Monkey: Oh yes. Whatever Victor's faults might be, having a tree planted in your downstairs loo, having a chimney sweeping brush jammed up your dressing gown immediately after sitting on a roasting tray with spikes in it and having your name incorrectly listed as the editor of a local newspaper - with residents angry at you unjustly for that - does qualify you as a victim.
One Foot in the Grave / int_47fea76b	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_47fea76b	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_47fea76b
One Foot in the Grave / int_4856ac40	type	Stock Footage
One Foot in the Grave / int_4856ac40	comment	Stock Footage: The end credits for "Starbound" roll over the title sequence from Peter Davison's era of Doctor Who.
One Foot in the Grave / int_4856ac40	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_4856ac40	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_4856ac40
One Foot in the Grave / int_4c9d226e	type	Formerly Fit
One Foot in the Grave / int_4c9d226e	comment	Formerly Fit: Nick Swainey has notably gained weight following the death of his mother in "Endgame", which Victor acknowledges. He's back to normal weight by the time of his final appearance in "The Dawn of Man" however. This is a case of Real Life Writes the Plot as his actor had needed to gain weight for a role and was unable to lose it before filming.
One Foot in the Grave / int_4c9d226e	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_4c9d226e	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_4c9d226e
One Foot in the Grave / int_4e3d253b	type	Downer Ending
One Foot in the Grave / int_4e3d253b	comment	Downer Ending: Pretty much every recurring character in the series ends up in a worse situation than at the start of the show. Victor ends up dead, therefore leaving Margaret (who also loses her mother during the course of the series) a widow. Mrs. Warboys ends up a divorcee after unwittingly driving her husband into the arms of another woman. Mr. Swainey's mother and grandmother die during the course of the series, and there are signs that he's starting to suffer serious depression from the lack of any real progress in his life. Mildred commits suicide, which leads to Ronnie suffering a nervous breakdown. Patrick and Pippa are the only ones to be even vaguely better off, as Patrick has a much higher-paid job, the two have moved to a larger house, and Patrick gets an epic last laugh over Victor in the penultimate episode. But even in their case, it's implied their good luck will not last long, as Patrick is well on his way into turning into a younger version of Meldrew by the end of the series, as Pippa frequently lampshades. The end of the final episode; Margaret has lost her husband, apparently lost contact with every single one of her friends from earlier in the series (where is the inseparable Mrs Warboys?) and the one friend she does have turns out to be Victor's murderer. Depending on your opinion when it comes to revenge, the fact that it's implied Margaret may have murdered the woman in cold blood can also be a pretty accurate example of this trope. The special that came after the final episode at least lifts the blackness of the ending into a gray area as it shows that Victor has, somehow, not known he has been dead for quite some time and seems to have completely forgot he got hit by a car. When he realises it, he seemed more in shock at the revelation than actually depressed. It also provides good evidence that Margaret did not kill the woman at the end of the final episode as it shows her seemingly going about her life as she always has. For a show that goes out of its way to punish the Meldrews for every minor infraction there could be, there's no way she could have gotten away with murder.
One Foot in the Grave / int_4e3d253b	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_4e3d253b	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_4e3d253b
One Foot in the Grave / int_4e7c4536	type	Wham Line
One Foot in the Grave / int_4e7c4536	comment	Wham Line In "The Man in the Long Black Coat", when Pippa is in hospital following a road accident and Margaret says that drunk drivers should be locked away for life, this Wham Line (which actually gets a big laugh): The opening scene of the final episode, which reveals that our hero Victor is dead. From One Foot in the Algarve, which reveals that Mrs. Warboys' pen pal and potential love interest Alfonso's wife faked her own death.
One Foot in the Grave / int_4e7c4536	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_4e7c4536	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_4e7c4536
One Foot in the Grave / int_4f4372e9	type	Early-Installment Weirdness
One Foot in the Grave / int_4f4372e9	comment	Early-Installment Weirdness: Series 1 has the Meldrews living in a different house to the one that they would occupy for the rest of the series, no Patrick and Pippa or Nick Swainey (outside of a small role in the first episode for the latter), and Victor only says "I don't believe it!" once, in the sixth episode. Unlike the later series, the incidental music is a Theme-and-Variations Soundtrack. The show was also a little more like a traditional sitcom in format, with the more tragicomic and dramatic aspects not really ramped up until Series 2.
One Foot in the Grave / int_4f4372e9	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_4f4372e9	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_4f4372e9
One Foot in the Grave / int_50b05d30	type	Disproportionate Retribution
One Foot in the Grave / int_50b05d30	comment	Disproportionate Retribution: Victor usually goes a step or two beyond what most people would do when someone wrongs him. However, this absolutely pales in comparison to what other people do to Victor. One instance had him insulting the children of a sign-maker after they damaged one of his windows by playing cricket on his front lawn. Their father's response? Paint the image of Victor's face into a pub sign with "The Pain in the Arse" written where the pub's name would normally go, then erect the sign on a flagpole outside the Meldrews' house in the early hours of the morning.
One Foot in the Grave / int_50b05d30	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_50b05d30	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_50b05d30
One Foot in the Grave / int_534bc834	type	Escalating War
One Foot in the Grave / int_534bc834	comment	Escalating War: Between Victor and Patrick.
One Foot in the Grave / int_534bc834	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_534bc834	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_534bc834
One Foot in the Grave / int_54428f7b	type	Ashes to Crashes
One Foot in the Grave / int_54428f7b	comment	Ashes to Crashes: A particularly nauseating version where Victor spills the ashes of what he thinks is Mr. Swainey's mother, when in fact it's just herbal tea. He immediately incinerates some toilet roll in cooking oil as a replacement, which inevitably he later ends up drinking.
One Foot in the Grave / int_54428f7b	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_54428f7b	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_54428f7b
One Foot in the Grave / int_553c27bb	type	Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness
One Foot in the Grave / int_553c27bb	comment	Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: Zips from one extreme of the scale to another with remarkable agility; see Mood Whiplash.
One Foot in the Grave / int_553c27bb	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_553c27bb	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_553c27bb
One Foot in the Grave / int_561dab6b	type	Mistaken for Gay
One Foot in the Grave / int_561dab6b	comment	Mistaken for Gay: Victor mistakes Patrick for his gay brother (despite the fact they look nothing alike) due to Patrick carrying a pink umbrella and walking delicately down the road. Naturally, Victor then gives Patrick a video full of hardcore gay pornography.
One Foot in the Grave / int_561dab6b	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_561dab6b	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_561dab6b
One Foot in the Grave / int_5860c090	type	Sitcom Arch-Nemesis
One Foot in the Grave / int_5860c090	comment	Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Victor and Patrick.
One Foot in the Grave / int_5860c090	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_5860c090	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_5860c090
One Foot in the Grave / int_597f86b1	type	Nails on a Blackboard
One Foot in the Grave / int_597f86b1	comment	Nails on a Blackboard: Victor is ferrying some manure to his allotment in a rusty old wheelbarrow that really needs some oil. Fellow gardeners fall by the wayside clutching their ears in agony as he squeals past.
One Foot in the Grave / int_597f86b1	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_597f86b1	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_597f86b1
One Foot in the Grave / int_5abe5b74	type	Everybody Must Get Stoned
One Foot in the Grave / int_5abe5b74	comment	Everybody Must Get Stoned: In the novelisation this happens at an old folks' Christmas party, thanks to a batch of spiked mince pies.
One Foot in the Grave / int_5abe5b74	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_5abe5b74	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_5abe5b74
One Foot in the Grave / int_5ee6a992	type	Oh, and X Dies
One Foot in the Grave / int_5ee6a992	comment	Oh, and X Dies: Victor's death was announced before filming on the final series began.
One Foot in the Grave / int_5ee6a992	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_5ee6a992	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_5ee6a992
One Foot in the Grave / int_60fa92ac	type	Names to Run Away from Really Fast
One Foot in the Grave / int_60fa92ac	comment	Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Victor is justifiably nervous about performing a comedy ventriloquist act for the same audience as the bands "Orphanage Explosion" and "Anthrax Attack". (Subverted in the end however when both the audience and the punk band members themselves are shown enjoying it immensely.)
One Foot in the Grave / int_60fa92ac	featureApplicability	-0.3
One Foot in the Grave / int_60fa92ac	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_60fa92ac
One Foot in the Grave / int_62907b90	type	Bottle Episode
One Foot in the Grave / int_62907b90	comment	Bottle Episode: One of these per series became traditional. "Timeless Time" (series 2), set entirely in Victor and Margaret's bedroom during a sleepless night. "The Beast in the Cage" (series 3), set entirely in a car stuck in a traffic jam. "The Trial" (series 4), set entirely in Victor and Margaret's home while Victor waits for a jury duty call; notably, it is told in real time and Victor is the only character in the entire episode. "Rearranging the Dust" (series 5), set entirely in a solicitor's waiting room "Threatening Weather" (series 6), set entirely in Victor and Margaret's home during a power cut. The two Comic Relief episodes; one with Victor in the bath (which was itself originally intended for "The Trial") and the other at the bedside of a relative in a coma.
One Foot in the Grave / int_62907b90	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_62907b90	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_62907b90
One Foot in the Grave / int_643618e5	type	Replacement Goldfish
One Foot in the Grave / int_643618e5	comment	Replacement Goldfish: In "The Pit and the Pendulum", Pippa observes (with piercing accuracy) that Patrick's dachshund puppy is his "baby substitute", after Pippa miscarried in a previous episode.
One Foot in the Grave / int_643618e5	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_643618e5	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_643618e5
One Foot in the Grave / int_6636a549	type	Remembered Too Late
One Foot in the Grave / int_6636a549	comment	Remembered Too Late: In "Hole in the Sky", Victor visits a Mr Croker to return Â£80 that the latter dropped in the street. When Pippa turns up and is very familiar with Mr Croker, Victor thinks she's having an affair and Hilarity Ensues. Of course Mr Croker is actually Pippa's brother — which really should have occurred to Victor as a possibility at least, considering he already knew Pippa's family name was Croker, and he'd even spent some "quality time" with her dad. He naturally makes a fool of himself before he realises.
One Foot in the Grave / int_6636a549	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_6636a549	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_6636a549
One Foot in the Grave / int_6a993504	type	Audio Adaptation
One Foot in the Grave / int_6a993504	comment	Audio Adaptation: Adapted for radio, but that had only four episodes, two of which were, more-or-less, straight readthroughs of the already less-visual bottle episodes. The others were the first episode, and the one in which the Meldrews discover their house has burnt down.
One Foot in the Grave / int_6a993504	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_6a993504	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_6a993504
One Foot in the Grave / int_6bd689ca	type	Meaningful Echo
One Foot in the Grave / int_6bd689ca	comment	Meaningful Echo: The inept message on Margaret's mother's answering machine takes on a whole new meaning after she dies.
One Foot in the Grave / int_6bd689ca	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_6bd689ca	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_6bd689ca
One Foot in the Grave / int_6c81c95	type	True Art Is Incomprehensible
One Foot in the Grave / int_6c81c95	comment	True Art Is Incomprehensible: In an in-universe example, Victor gets a hold of what he thinks is an abstract painting that was discarded by its artist. In actuality, it's just a piece of plywood covered in bird droppings. As the show continues, both he and Margaret gradually begin to appreciate the "composition". Patrick, however, immediately recognises it for what it is and points it out, much to Victor's chagrin.
One Foot in the Grave / int_6c81c95	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_6c81c95	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_6c81c95
One Foot in the Grave / int_6d332aea	type	Driven to Suicide
One Foot in the Grave / int_6d332aea	comment	Driven to Suicide: "The Man Who Blew Away" has Victor being visited by a man named Mr. Foskett who has a history of suicide after his wife left him, but has seemingly managed to find happiness again through remarriage. When he finds out that his second wife left him, however, he tries to kill himself by throwing himself naked off the roof. Although this attempt seemingly doesn't work out, the Meldrews later learn that he threw himself out of a window at a police station and passed away in the hospital. Mildred's fate in the final series, hanging herself during a game of Happy Families.
One Foot in the Grave / int_6d332aea	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_6d332aea	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_6d332aea
One Foot in the Grave / int_6e27397	type	Missed Him by That Much
One Foot in the Grave / int_6e27397	comment	Missed Him by That Much: In the final episode, Victor goes off to a reunion for a company he used to work at, but finds that no one is able to come except for one possible candidate. After waiting for a while, he leaves by taxi. Only mere seconds after he leaves, said candidate pulls in and enters the pub where the reunion was being held. Becomes more tragic if one considers the fact that if he had waited a little longer, it was highly possible that he would have hung around and wouldn't have been mowed down by a car and killed as a result.
One Foot in the Grave / int_6e27397	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_6e27397	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_6e27397
One Foot in the Grave / int_6e4fa397	type	Alleged Lookalikes
One Foot in the Grave / int_6e4fa397	comment	Alleged Lookalikes: Patrick and his twin brother may behave exactly like one another, but they certainly don't look exactly like one another. Of course, that doesn't stop the comedic mix-ups from happening anyway. But mostly because the man whom Victor assumes to be Patrick's twin is actually Patrick himself.
One Foot in the Grave / int_6e4fa397	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_6e4fa397	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_6e4fa397
One Foot in the Grave / int_6eb1268c	type	Extreme Omnivore
One Foot in the Grave / int_6eb1268c	comment	Extreme Omnivore: Victor will eat just about anything and has a partiality to various bizarre and disgusting recipes, including curry so hot that it would be inedible to anyone else, squid in Stilton sauce, neat whisky alternating with handfuls of Smarties, and pizza topped with anchovies, chili peppers and pineapple.
One Foot in the Grave / int_6eb1268c	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_6eb1268c	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_6eb1268c
One Foot in the Grave / int_6ef9d3fe	type	Christmas Episode
One Foot in the Grave / int_6ef9d3fe	comment	Christmas Episode: Several, and sometimes they were the only episode of the year: 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995-1997.
One Foot in the Grave / int_6ef9d3fe	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_6ef9d3fe	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_6ef9d3fe
One Foot in the Grave / int_702c2de3	type	Line-of-Sight Alias
One Foot in the Grave / int_702c2de3	comment	Line-of-Sight Alias: Victor hastily says that his address is "Dunn Hill", taken from a discarded Dunhill cigarette packet on the table.
One Foot in the Grave / int_702c2de3	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_702c2de3	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_702c2de3
One Foot in the Grave / int_71152dd	type	One Dialogue, Two Conversations
One Foot in the Grave / int_71152dd	comment	One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Common. Notable one occurs in the episode with Patrick's twin brother, where Victor is talking about said brother and Margaret about the American newsreader who looks like Mr. Swainey, leading to Victor assuming that Patrick and his brother are identical, which in turn results in him giving Patrick the video of hardcore gay porn.
One Foot in the Grave / int_71152dd	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_71152dd	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_71152dd
One Foot in the Grave / int_77b009ea	type	Phrase Catcher
One Foot in the Grave / int_77b009ea	comment	Pippa points out to a grouchy, vengeful Patrick that he's beginning to turn into Victor, the man he despises. She's right, too. Patrick even starts using some of Victor's catchphrases.
One Foot in the Grave / int_77b009ea	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_77b009ea	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_77b009ea
One Foot in the Grave / int_78270847	type	Curse Cut Short
One Foot in the Grave / int_78270847	comment	Curse Cut Short: In a series which normally contains no swearing stronger than "bloody" (though "shit" is uttered in a couple of episodes), Margaret narrowly averts a Precision F-Strike with this one in "Descent into the Maelstrom":
One Foot in the Grave / int_78270847	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_78270847	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_78270847
One Foot in the Grave / int_786bf97f	type	Real Life Writes the Plot
One Foot in the Grave / int_786bf97f	comment	Real Life Writes the Plot: The death of Nick Swainey's mother and his substantial weight gain in "Endgame" came about because his actor, Owen Brenman, had been required to put on weight for another role and didn't have time to lose it. He would eventually lose it by the time of the final series, with Nick lampshading his previous weight during his final episode.
One Foot in the Grave / int_786bf97f	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_786bf97f	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_786bf97f
One Foot in the Grave / int_78d0ebcf	type	Crying Wolf
One Foot in the Grave / int_78d0ebcf	comment	Crying Wolf: Averted in one episode, when one of the handyman twins repeatedly plays pranks on Margaret by pretending to be injured. Later on, she finds him lying motionless on the floor and ignores him entirely, believing it to be yet another joke. She remains indifferent for quite a while, and the viewer naturally begins to suspect that it's genuine this time, but she eventually caves in and calls an ambulance, whereupon he rises to his feet and laughs triumphantly.
One Foot in the Grave / int_78d0ebcf	featureApplicability	-1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_78d0ebcf	featureConfidence	1.0
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One Foot in the Grave / int_794cff5	type	Transatlantic Equivalent
One Foot in the Grave / int_794cff5	comment	Transatlantic Equivalent: Cosby (US), Mit einem Bein im Grab (Germany), En fot i graven (Sweden) and Met Ã©Ã©n been in het graf (Holland).
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One Foot in the Grave / int_7ab84d9a	type	Punctuation Changes the Meaning
One Foot in the Grave / int_7ab84d9a	comment	Punctuation Changes the Meaning: Victor is irate after collecting goods and discovering written on the box, 'Meldrew's a turd.' Upon rearranging the flaps on the box, Margaret discovers it in fact says, 'Meldrew, Saturday, for collection.'
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One Foot in the Grave / int_7b981966	type	Beast in the Building
One Foot in the Grave / int_7b981966	comment	Beast in the Building: In "The Return of the Speckled Band", an Indian Python escapes a garden centre and ends up in the Meldrew's house. Whilst one man manages to catch a glimpse of it, the Meldrews never do, and the snake ends up in their suitcase for their holiday to Anthens. The next episode, "In Luton Airport No-One Can Hear You Scream", reveals that the snake didn't survive the holiday, its corpse being eventually found in the suitcase. In "Beware the Trickster on the Roof", a mishap involving a will leads to a cow being put into the back garden of the Meldrews. It ends up wandering into the conservatory of Patrick and Pippa.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_7d89315b	type	"The Reason You Suck" Speech
One Foot in the Grave / int_7d89315b	comment	"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Many of the characters get to deliver these over the course of the series. One of the shortest and most biting is Margaret's putdown of a well-off, cultured gentleman who was vying for her affections. There is also a heroic one coming from Victor Meldrew himself when dealing with the owner of an abusive care home. After taking the job of a doorman, Victor starts his first day being bullied and sneered at by two unsatisfied snobs. After the husband snarks he should buck up his act, Victor complies and, after swiping the husband's toupee off his head and throwing it down the drain, gives them a most scathing "apology" before driving off in their taxi, leaving them speechless.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_7dafc482	type	ChewToy
One Foot in the Grave / int_7dafc482	comment	Chew Toy: Victor's world seems to have it in for him. Virtually all of his bizarre experiences are the result of not-so-hilarious misunderstandings. E.g. the time he went for a foot massage and the masseur turned out to have been using her breasts, which had him branded as a master of vice by the news, who turned up at his house to film him from his first-floor window, with the TV presenter giving commentary in a cherry picker. Can you believe that?
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One Foot in the Grave / int_805deb6e	type	Small Role, Big Impact
One Foot in the Grave / int_805deb6e	comment	Small Role, Big Impact: Mrs. Inglis—played by Susie Blake, quite a big-name cameo—is the HR manager who fires Victor Meldrew in the first episode. Thereby setting up the rest of the series. She even gets the opening line of the entire series but her role is over within the first ten minutes.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_81dd0c45	type	Bizarre Dream Rationalization
One Foot in the Grave / int_81dd0c45	comment	Bizarre Dream Rationalization: In "The Man Who Blew Away", Victor finds to his horror that his car, which had been stolen, has been found. He desperately hopes that it's all a bad dream, but Margaret has to tell him that it isn't.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_82b4f38e	type	Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist
One Foot in the Grave / int_82b4f38e	comment	Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Victor is an unusually complex aversion. Although he's frequently treated by most as the archetypal Grumpy Old Man and is seen In-Universe as the Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist, it's usually only the viewers who are fully aware of the chaotic torment that he is put through that explains his exasperated behaviour. Victor actually comes across as a fairly pleasant, cheerful and honourable guy during the rare and short-lived moments when he isn't being screwed over by the universe and everyone around him. Also because the other characters usually only see Victor doing something utterly eccentric, while the viewers see the build-up, and know that there's a perfectly logical explanation as to why he should drive up to Patrick, introduce himself as if they've never met before, then give him a videotape of hard-core gay pornography. It's also noted that the people most insistent of his Grumpy Old Man image in universe are usually vindictive or inconsiderate JerkAsses who ill-sightedly tried to manipulate or kick around Victor, before getting more than they bargained for. In other words, because he's not some frail old doormat and actually stands up to their bullying, he must be an unpleasant grump. The few truly pleasant people in the show actually tend to think rather kindly of Victor (even if still cause woe for him obliviously). Both David Renwick and Richard Wilson have described Victor Meldrew as a "normal man in a world full of idiots" - seeing as the world Meldrew lives in is sufficiently crapsack it's genuinely hard not to sympathise with the poor man.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_83a903f6	type	Stepford Smiler
One Foot in the Grave / int_83a903f6	comment	Stepford Smiler: Up to Series 6, Mildred was previously presented as an extremely jolly woman. However, "Tales of Terror" reveals this to have been a facade, with her suffering from bouts of depression, and she eventually manages to kill herself.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_83b464fb	type	Straight Man
One Foot in the Grave / int_83b464fb	comment	Margaret sometimes lapses into this despite usually being the Straight Man (er, woman). Every now and then she will make some wild claim that makes very little sense, sometimes seeming a bit out of character. For example, when talking about friends who have died to her husband Victor, she mentions someone who apparently died of a terminal disease:
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One Foot in the Grave / int_8504b817	type	Where the Hell Is Springfield?
One Foot in the Grave / int_8504b817	comment	Where the Hell Is Springfield?: We never find out where the Meldrews live. Some sites confidently claim various places (Mudeford in Dorset, Winchester, somewhere near Guildford) but they all seem to be confusing real-life filming locations with settings. References are made to "Cottleswood", implied to be a nearby town (there is a Cottles Wood in Wiltshire, but it's a patch of woodland; there is no Cottleswood in the UK). It's narrowed down a little by the fact that the Trenches talk about travelling home on the M4, and that Kettering is a reasonable daytrip, but perhaps the most pertinent clue is in "Who Will Buy" when we see that their postcode area is DR. So it looks like the real answer is that it's all in David Renwick's head. Which of course it is, but...
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One Foot in the Grave / int_875615dd	type	Truth in Television
One Foot in the Grave / int_875615dd	comment	Truth in Television: Mixed with Harsher in Hindsight with regards to series 4's "Heart of Darkness" episode, as in recent years, British care homes came under far heavier scrutiny after revelations about the conditions and treatment in a number of care homes across the country. Undoubtedly, some of the home residents could have used a Victor to rescue them.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_89a17726	type	Spell My Name with an S
One Foot in the Grave / int_89a17726	comment	Spell My Name With An S: After a relative dies, Margaret gets a list of his possessions, and asks to have a "cot" from the list, thinking she can give it to some other relatives. It later turns out that the "cot" in question is actually a cow, and a hint as to how the mix-up occurred is given with the accompanying delivery letter, which spells Margaret's name as "Nargaret Medlrew." A literal example of this trope happens in "Warm Champagne" — the street the Meldrews live on after the first series is called Riverbank, and when a nearby old people's estate called Riversbank opens it causes no end of confusion, eventually cumulating in one of the residents of Riversbank being mistakenly dropped off at Victor's house and put into the bed. Hilarity Ensues when Victor gets into bed with her, assuming her to be Margaret.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_8b0da020	type	Even Beggars Won't Choose It
One Foot in the Grave / int_8b0da020	comment	Even Beggars Won't Choose It: In "Dreamland", Victor buys a pair of shoes that literally come from a dead man note who had only just died, to the point where his widow, who had advertised the shoes in a newsagent window earlier that day, takes the shoes off his still-warm corpse when Victor calls round to collect them and a lurid woollen sweater. He's uneasy about the former and Margaret can't stand the latter. Sitting on a park bench, he throws both garments in a nearby litter-bin — only for a tramp to come along and rifle through the bin. The tramp likes the shoes, but throws the sweater back.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_8b6e8d7	type	Anachronic Order
One Foot in the Grave / int_8b6e8d7	comment	Anachronic Order: The final episode "Things Aren't Simple Any More" jumps about between the "present day" and two periods of the past, one before Victor's death, the other (concerning how Margaret came to know Glynis) after it.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_8b6fbb06	type	Watershed
One Foot in the Grave / int_8b6fbb06	comment	Watershed: The show was always made to air after the watershed and while it contained minimal swearing (with a few instances of 'shit' here and there) and usually only implied violence, it did take advantage of its slot to explore much darker areas than most sitcoms. One thing that often gets cut from pre-watershed airings is the sight of Mildred's dangling feet after she hangs herself.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_8e3b5b4d	type	Minimalist Cast
One Foot in the Grave / int_8e3b5b4d	comment	Minimalist Cast: Richard Wilson is the only person who appears in "The Trial."
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One Foot in the Grave / int_93789581	type	Elder Abuse
One Foot in the Grave / int_93789581	comment	Elder Abuse: In "Hearts of Darkness", Victor helps to liberate a bunch of rest home residents from their cruel caretakers.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_95c2a9dd	type	Outliving One's Offspring
One Foot in the Grave / int_95c2a9dd	comment	Outliving One's Offspring: "Timeless Time" very heavily implies that Victor and Margaret once had a son named Stuart who died fairly young. It's an implication that is confirmed by the books, which reveals that he died at the age of about 2 weeks of a hole in his heart (the doctors were pretty sure that his death was not due to the fact that he had been briefly kidnapped by another woman for several days).
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One Foot in the Grave / int_96a33f11	type	Riddle for the Ages
One Foot in the Grave / int_96a33f11	comment	Riddle for the Ages: In "The Futility of the Fly" Victor receives a fly statue in the mail, and no one has any idea where it came from. Usually weird things like this are BrickJokes, but in this case no explanation is ever offered. This is even Lampshaded at the end of an episode by the producer of a play that was based on the incidents of the episode.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_984ef9ef	type	"Not So Different" Remark
One Foot in the Grave / int_984ef9ef	comment	"Not So Different" Remark: Pippa points out to a grouchy, vengeful Patrick that he's beginning to turn into Victor, the man he despises. She's right, too. Patrick even starts using some of Victor's catchphrases. In the episode "The Broken Reflection", Victor dreads a fortnight-long visit from his brother Alfred, viewing him as a dim-witted disaster area. He realises they are not so different when (while bonding over old family photos), he recalls a time as a child when his hat caught fire. Which is exactly how we are introduced to Alfred.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_98576799	type	Throw the Dog a Bone
One Foot in the Grave / int_98576799	comment	Throw the Dog a Bone: Despite being the Chew Toy of a cruel universe, Victor occasionally manages to bring one of his schemes to satisfying fruition, such as humiliating a rude Upper-Class Twit or drugging and torturing a bunch of care workers who are abusing pensioners. There is also his revenge on a Door Lock fitter called Mr Leverick. The episode "Descent into the Maelstrom" actually grants Victor a fairly clear cut Happy Ending. After discovering a friend of Margaret's that visited with her child is actually a escaped mental patient that abducted the infant, he keeps her in the dark and takes the fall for a pair of ear rings she stolenote Actually, it's not clear she did steal the earrings — she never appears to have the opportunity, and the implication is that Victor really did dump them in the newly-repaired waste disposal., getting the usual earful from Margaret. However, not only does Margaret find out the truth and give a rare earnest apology, but a tip off he gave to the police helps in recovering the tot to his parents, who come to praise Victor personally.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_9858c391	type	Chick Magnet
One Foot in the Grave / int_9858c391	comment	Chick Magnet: Kazanzi, the workman hired to deal with the incursion of tree roots into the Meldrews' garden in "The Pit and the Pendulum" — who is, as Lampshaded by Victor's "seaside boarding house" comment, an Expy of Mr Johnson from the Fawlty Towers episode "The Psychiatrist". Margaret and Pippa both adore him, as do a gaggle of schoolgirls. Neither Patrick nor Victor are impressed.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_9d6e002e	type	Whole Episode Flashback
One Foot in the Grave / int_9d6e002e	comment	Whole Episode Flashback: Done twice with Framing Devices. In "Dreamland" the story is being told by Mrs Warboys, in "The Wisdom of the Witch" it's being told by Margaret.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_a1154544	type	Grumpy Old Man
One Foot in the Grave / int_a1154544	comment	It's also noted that the people most insistent of his Grumpy Old Man image in universe are usually vindictive or inconsiderate JerkAsses who ill-sightedly tried to manipulate or kick around Victor, before getting more than they bargained for. In other words, because he's not some frail old doormat and actually stands up to their bullying, he must be an unpleasant grump. The few truly pleasant people in the show actually tend to think rather kindly of Victor (even if still cause woe for him obliviously).
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One Foot in the Grave / int_a188ac4b	type	Overly Long Gag
One Foot in the Grave / int_a188ac4b	comment	Overly Long Gag: In "Hearts of Darkness", Victor and Mrs Warboys, one foot each encased in the same lump of concrete, trudging very slowly uphill.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_a280f130	type	Take This Job and Shove It
One Foot in the Grave / int_a280f130	comment	Take This Job and Shove It: Victor's response to his treatment after he gets a job as a hotel doorman.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_a4c37cbe	type	Mood Whiplash
One Foot in the Grave / int_a4c37cbe	comment	Mood Whiplash: This show can go from hilarious to melancholy and back again in the blink of an eye, often within the same episode, frequently within the space of a minute. One of the most prominent examples comes when Margaret returns home to find Victor buried up to his neck in the back garden, and has to cover his head with a flower pot to spare him from embarrassment when the neighbours visit. Afterwards, in the very same scene, she receives news that her mother has passed away. In another scene Mr Swainey, who has dedicated much of his life to looking after old people and was permanently blithely enthusiastic about it, reflects darkly to Margaret about how he's basically not had a life of his own and never will because of it. Then in the background, Victor's head is smashed through an upstairs window and dangled out of it by a man beating him up for pouring maggots over his lunch previously.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_a65288e2	type	Ascended Extra
One Foot in the Grave / int_a65288e2	comment	Ascended Extra: Mr. Swainey started off as a relatively minor character in the pilot episode. After the Meldrews were forced to move house at the start of series 2, he became their neighbour, and a recurring character.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_a6cda066	type	Rule of Three
One Foot in the Grave / int_a6cda066	comment	Rule of Three: For such a common trope, surprisingly rarely used here, but signposted and then played out with the three cars in "The Exterminating Angel".
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One Foot in the Grave / int_a70223	type	Karma Houdini
One Foot in the Grave / int_a70223	comment	Karma Houdini: Patrick appears to achieve this status in one episode, where his pet dachshund swallows Victor's spare door key, and Patrick responds by getting Victor to sift through dog poop to find it. It turns out that the dog never actually swallowed the key in the first place, which Patrick full well knew. Patrick seems to get away with this, since Margaret still believes the situation is Victor's own fault... until Pippa unknowingly gives Victor a copy of Patrick's diary, in which he gloats about what he's been doing. Patrick also appears to go completely unpunished for shooting a trailerload of garden gnomes in the first Christmas special. Discharging an unlicensed semi-automatic weapon in a residential area is something the law normally takes a very dim view of. Patrick ultimately ends the series truimphant, humiliating Victor one final time in a hospital and getting a better paid job in the process. Although it's implied his good luck won't last long. Several one-time characters or offscreen antagonists of Victor often get away with victimising him or getting the last laugh, even if they were just as provocative as him. This can become even harsher in effect keeping in mind, regardless of his eccentricities, they are still abusing an elderly citizen.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_a7aef9ff	type	Obfuscating Stupidity
One Foot in the Grave / int_a7aef9ff	comment	Obfuscating Stupidity: In "The Executioner's Song", Pippa's justification for considering an affair (and later her reason for breaking it off) is bordering on Insane Troll Logic, but it's implied this is a deliberate ploy to assuage her guilt.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_abad35b4	type	Soundtrack Dissonance
One Foot in the Grave / int_abad35b4	comment	Soundtrack Dissonance: "The Man Who Blew Away" compounds its Downer Ending by playing out the credits to the accompaniment of "The Laughing Policeman".
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One Foot in the Grave / int_adfd3165	type	For the Evulz
One Foot in the Grave / int_adfd3165	comment	For the Evulz: Some of Victor's acts of revenge come off as petty at best, but you can't help but appreciate them! In "Broken Reflection", at some point in the recent past he got tailgated by an impatient computer salesman who yelled an insult when he finally overtook Victor's car 3 miles later. In retaliation, Victor noted down his firm's details that were printed on the car door and, in his words, "took the liberty of inviting him around just to deliberately waste his time for the best part of an entire morning!" before tearing up a sales contract. His satisfied sigh when the salesman leaves in anger, as well as Victor's frankly gutsy move, is both hilarious and kind of inspirational.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_ae3d6438	type	Deadpan Snarker
One Foot in the Grave / int_ae3d6438	comment	Deadpan Snarker: Patrick quickly turns into one of these once the feud between him and Victor starts. Given that his twin brother, who never meets Victor, is shown to be exactly the same during in his sole appearance in the show, odds are this is something that runs in the Trench family, although Victor certainly brings out the worst in Patrick. Most of the characters get their moments of this at different points in the series.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_aec3d8b2	type	Expository Theme Tune
One Foot in the Grave / int_aec3d8b2	comment	Expository Theme Tune: The opening and closing themes sung by Eric Idle describe Victor quite well. ("It's true that my body has seen better days / But give me half a chance and I can still misbehave") — though not all of it applies to him: "I have to pop my teeth in to chew" is completely wrong, for instance, and when the BBC released a set of TV soundtracks as a CD, the blurb on the back actually went to the trouble of pointing out how inaccurate some of the other lines are. The extra lyrics to the Extended Theme Tune (which Idle wrote with the benefit of having actually seen the show) are more specific to him and further mirror Victor's defiance.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_b01abe4f	type	Catchphrase
One Foot in the Grave / int_b01abe4f	comment	Catchphrase: "I don't believe it!" said by Victor, with extra emphasis on the last syllable of "believe". Richard Wilson has long been hounded to repeat this phrase. When he made a guest appearance as himself on Father Ted, he only agreed to say the line on the condition that he got to beat the title character up (which he did, twice) after Ted shouted it at him. Supposedly he now repeats the line only at charity events. Also, to a lesser extent, "What in the name of bloody hell?" And "Oh, God!" with God drawled out, and pronounced more like gawwwd. "What in the name of sanity" is another one that seems to crop up often too, especially when something particularly mental happens, such as someone taking his word too literally and planting a small palm tree bonsai in his downstairs toilet.
One Foot in the Grave / int_b01abe4f	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_b01abe4f	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_b01abe4f
One Foot in the Grave / int_b0657f9a	type	Well-Intentioned Replacement
One Foot in the Grave / int_b0657f9a	comment	Well-Intentioned Replacement: Victor spills what he thinks is the ashes of Nick's mother, whereas it's actually herbal tea. He replaces it with burnt toilet paper, which later ends up being fed back to him when Margaret makes him some of the tea. When the Meldrews drink an expensive bottle of wine bought by Patrick and Pippa for her father, they fill the bottle with some cheap plonk instead, reasoning that a bottle that expensive is going in a collection, never to be drunk anyway. They might have got away with it, except that the fizzy wine blows the cork out and thereby gives the game away. Although Patrick already thinks Victor is a bit weird, this is what ultimately sparks their ongoing feud.
One Foot in the Grave / int_b0657f9a	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_b0657f9a	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_b0657f9a
One Foot in the Grave / int_b15b6a35	type	Cosmic Plaything
One Foot in the Grave / int_b15b6a35	comment	Cosmic Plaything: Victor especially, but also Margaret, Patrick and occasionally Mrs Warboys. Nearly every event in Victor's horrible life seems to be specifically engineered by a malicious God to be as embarrassing, enraging and unpleasant for him as possible.
One Foot in the Grave / int_b15b6a35	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_b15b6a35	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_b15b6a35
One Foot in the Grave / int_b1e81ef2	type	Dead-Hand Shot
One Foot in the Grave / int_b1e81ef2	comment	Dead-Hand Shot: "Things Aren't Simple Any More" combines this with a Dead Hat Shot when Victor is run over and killed, with the only thing we see being his hat and hand falling into view, although a later flashback does give us a glimpse of Victor's body as Margaret finds it.
One Foot in the Grave / int_b1e81ef2	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_b1e81ef2	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_b1e81ef2
One Foot in the Grave / int_b33d17a0	type	Sickly Green Glow
One Foot in the Grave / int_b33d17a0	comment	Sickly Green Glow: Parodied. Victor takes delivery of a large consignment of horse manure which is dumped at the end of his drive, so in order to stop people walking into it, he places fairy lights on top. When the public finds out that the manure was taken from a farm near a nuclear power plant, they immediately panic and think it's dangerously radioactive.
One Foot in the Grave / int_b33d17a0	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_b33d17a0	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_b33d17a0
One Foot in the Grave / int_b53077b3	type	Take That!
One Foot in the Grave / int_b53077b3	comment	Take That!: A Noel Edmonds sweater that Victor has second thoughts about wearing is discarded by the tramp who finds it next to a bin.
One Foot in the Grave / int_b53077b3	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_b53077b3	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_b53077b3
One Foot in the Grave / int_b7fa9b36	type	Adaptational Explanation
One Foot in the Grave / int_b7fa9b36	comment	Adaptational Explanation: In "Timeless Time", Victor and Margaret have a brief conversation about someone called "Stuart". There's just enough context for the viewer to surmise that he is most likely a child of the Meldrews who died when young, but anything more than that is Left Hanging and Stuart is never mentioned again. The novelization not only confirms he was their son, but goes into some detail about the circumstances of his birth and death, as well as giving an explanation for why the Meldrews never had any other children.
One Foot in the Grave / int_b7fa9b36	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_b7fa9b36	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_b7fa9b36
One Foot in the Grave / int_b999f0a4	type	Overused Running Gag
One Foot in the Grave / int_b999f0a4	comment	Overused Running Gag: David Renwick eventually came to see the catchphrase "I don't believe it!" as this and tried to ration its use - not very successfully, as Richard Wilson tended to end up throwing it in about Once an Episode regardless.
One Foot in the Grave / int_b999f0a4	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_b999f0a4	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_b999f0a4
One Foot in the Grave / int_ba236071	type	It Makes Sense in Context
One Foot in the Grave / int_ba236071	comment	There is one exception to the "youths being either obnoxious or criminal", in an episode in which 2 teenagers rush towards Victor as he ducks for cover in the street as he fears the explosion of a hand grenade and start hitting him. They aren't aware of the context and have just seen him lying on the ground screaming, and therefore, not unreasonably, assume he's having a heart attack. They're hitting his chest to try and give him CPR. Victor doesn't realise this, and assumes they're yobs trying to mug him.
One Foot in the Grave / int_ba236071	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_ba236071	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_ba236071
One Foot in the Grave / int_bcb452a9	type	Weirdness Magnet
One Foot in the Grave / int_bcb452a9	comment	Weirdness Magnet: Victor is afflicted with a low-grade version of this. The writer, David Renwick, seemed to delight in putting him through bizarre situations at least once an episode (ranging from the next-door neighbor installing a door in his fence to facilitate a nice chat to having to deal with an old lady's suicide), so it's not surprising he was so disgruntled. It is interesting to note how most of the more unusual residents around Victor seem to get along with him a lot more (or are at least oblivious to his occasional detesting of them). Granted they still occasionally manage to cause trouble for him completely by accident, but it is amusing how they are of the few that actually sympathise with him (in comparison to the supposedly more normal people around him that often gain a borderline obsessive hatred for his disgruntled behaviour).
One Foot in the Grave / int_bcb452a9	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_bcb452a9	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_bcb452a9
One Foot in the Grave / int_c13c9e38	type	Tomato Surprise
One Foot in the Grave / int_c13c9e38	comment	Tomato Surprise: In a special movie-length episode, a photographer ends up chasing Victor and co. all the way to Portugal in search of a very valuable roll of film that fell into Margaret's handbag, suffering no small amount of injuries and mishaps in his attempts to get it back without them noticing. It later turns out that he'd never lost the film in the first place; it had just slipped into the lining of his own jacket. Of course, given that he only realises this after losing said jacket in an earlier scene...
One Foot in the Grave / int_c13c9e38	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_c13c9e38	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_c13c9e38
One Foot in the Grave / int_c1d73c27	type	Spoiling Shout-Out
One Foot in the Grave / int_c1d73c27	comment	Spoiling Shout-Out: The fact that the very last sketch with these characters ever has Victor snarking that The Sixth Sense's Twist Ending is incredibly obvious makes The Reveal that Victor is Dead All Along and Margaret ignoring him is because he's a ghost and she can't hear him (just like in the movie) obvious to any knowing audience members about a minute in advance.
One Foot in the Grave / int_c1d73c27	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_c1d73c27	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_c1d73c27
One Foot in the Grave / int_c2393191	type	Show Within a Show
One Foot in the Grave / int_c2393191	comment	Show Within a Show: One episode featured a play based entirely around Victor's life, as penned by his cleaner. It's almost exactly the same as the show itself.
One Foot in the Grave / int_c2393191	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_c2393191	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_c2393191
One Foot in the Grave / int_c3c18143	type	Hope Spot
One Foot in the Grave / int_c3c18143	comment	"The Man Who Blew Away" has Victor being visited by a man named Mr. Foskett who has a history of suicide after his wife left him, but has seemingly managed to find happiness again through remarriage. When he finds out that his second wife left him, however, he tries to kill himself by throwing himself naked off the roof. Although this attempt seemingly doesn't work out, the Meldrews later learn that he threw himself out of a window at a police station and passed away in the hospital.
One Foot in the Grave / int_c3c18143	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_c3c18143	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_c3c18143
One Foot in the Grave / int_c54d550d	type	Novelization
One Foot in the Grave / int_c54d550d	comment	Novelisation: One was published in 1992; it contains many of the plotlines and jokes from the first three series but mixes them up so events from different TV episodes are juxtaposed in different ways. It also expands on a number of Noodle Incidents, for example telling us what happened on that holiday the Meldrews were setting off on at the end of "Return of the Speckled Band", and filling in the story of the mysterious "Stuart" mentioned in "Timeless Time". A couple of the storylines end very differently too; the alternate endings may represent nixed TV plots. In particular the storyline concerning the Meldrews taking a stranger to see a sitcom, thinking he's Jean's cousin Wilf, which on TV ends in mild embarrassment and no real damage done, goes enormously From Bad to Worse in the book. A second volume, One Foot In The Grave And Counting was published in 2021, ignoring the inconvenient fact that Victor had been killed off and carrying on his misadventures into the new millennium (while also adapting various plotlines from the later series). Some editions were bundled with a reprint of the original novel.
One Foot in the Grave / int_c54d550d	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_c54d550d	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_c54d550d
One Foot in the Grave / int_c6b38794	type	Censored for Comedy
One Foot in the Grave / int_c6b38794	comment	Censored for Comedy: In "Hole in the Sky". When the angry woman goes up into the loft, you can still hear faint bleeps long after her voice has become completely muffled and unintelligible.
One Foot in the Grave / int_c6b38794	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_c6b38794	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_c6b38794
One Foot in the Grave / int_c75df49a	type	Shout-Out
One Foot in the Grave / int_c75df49a	comment	Shout-Out: See Headphones Equal Isolation above. The boxer in "One Foot In the Algarve" is named Hugo. He has the opposite problem to Victor, he's much too calm. Notice the names? Slight chance of a reference to Victor & Hugo (which would have been on air at the same time as writing the special) or the author Victor Hugo. In "Hearts of Darkness" the nursing staff are watching an episode of Bottom (episode "Digger"). The scene they are watching is full of comedy violence, which is an interesting choice given how they treat their patients (definitely NOT so funny). "Yes, it's hard to imagine having an erotic fantasy about Officer Dibble in Top Cat".
One Foot in the Grave / int_c75df49a	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_c75df49a	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_c75df49a
One Foot in the Grave / int_c87737d9	type	Vacation Episode
One Foot in the Grave / int_c87737d9	comment	Vacation Episode: We're first teased with an Un-Installment between series 1 and 2, but there are several subsequent Vacation Episodes, including the 1993 Christmas Episode (and at 90 minutes, effectively a Made-for-TV Movie) "One Foot in the Algarve".
One Foot in the Grave / int_c87737d9	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_c87737d9	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_c87737d9
One Foot in the Grave / int_caa28b82	type	Cloudcuckoolander
One Foot in the Grave / int_caa28b82	comment	Cloudcuckoolander: Mrs. Warboys, whose grasp of reality is tenuous at best. Margaret sometimes lapses into this despite usually being the Straight Man (er, woman). Every now and then she will make some wild claim that makes very little sense, sometimes seeming a bit out of character. For example, when talking about friends who have died to her husband Victor, she mentions someone who apparently died of a terminal disease: Pippa is set up as a Cloudcuckoolander in her first appearance (in "Who Will Buy?") but it doesn't last. Later on she's a bit naive but never again to that extent. Patrick's persecution complex can sometimes lead him into this, for example when he is taken to hospital with a hermit crab attached to his genitals, he is absolutely convinced that Victor has trained the crab to attack him. In that area. In fact, Victor had nothing to do with it and didn't even know the crab existed. In a later episode, Patrick refers back to the incident and is still convinced it was a trained crab.
One Foot in the Grave / int_caa28b82	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_caa28b82	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_caa28b82
One Foot in the Grave / int_cbe6f71c	type	Slower Than a Snail
One Foot in the Grave / int_cbe6f71c	comment	Slower Than a Snail: In one episode, Victor and Margaret are being driven by Mrs. Warboys, who is going far too slow for Victor's liking. Mrs. Warboys protests that she can't drive fast on the narrow mountain road they're following, but Victor points out that while driving on a dual carriageway in Lisbon they were overtaken by "two blokes pushing a Transit van".
One Foot in the Grave / int_cbe6f71c	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_cbe6f71c	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_cbe6f71c
One Foot in the Grave / int_cce55b6a	type	Unintentional Final Message
One Foot in the Grave / int_cce55b6a	comment	Unintentional Final Message: One episode begins with Margaret phoning her mother to discuss coming to visit, and getting a recorded answerphone message addressed directly to her. Later she learns that her mother had died some time previously — her body wasn't found for several days — which not only makes the message the last thing Margaret ever heard from her mother, it also gives her words an eerie new significance.
One Foot in the Grave / int_cce55b6a	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_cce55b6a	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_cce55b6a
One Foot in the Grave / int_ce0e3616	type	Word of God
One Foot in the Grave / int_ce0e3616	comment	Both David Renwick and Richard Wilson have described Victor Meldrew as a "normal man in a world full of idiots" - seeing as the world Meldrew lives in is sufficiently crapsack it's genuinely hard not to sympathise with the poor man.
One Foot in the Grave / int_ce0e3616	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_ce0e3616	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_ce0e3616
One Foot in the Grave / int_cf511248	type	All Part of the Show
One Foot in the Grave / int_cf511248	comment	All Part of the Show: During a dress rehearsal for the theatre, a man falls from the top of the stage and seriously injures himself to the panicky consternation of the rest of the cast. Victor, who has just arrived at the theatre and knows nothing about the play apart from the fact that Margaret's playing a character in it, sits and laughs at what he thinks is brilliant slapstick.
One Foot in the Grave / int_cf511248	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_cf511248	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_cf511248
One Foot in the Grave / int_d13304f	type	Overreacting Airport Security
One Foot in the Grave / int_d13304f	comment	Overreacting Airport Security: In the first episode of Season 2, this happens to Victor offscreen; when an airport customs official asked him how he was today, he replied that he was "fine apart from the crack in [his] bottom". (He suffers from an anal fissure.) Apparently the drugs officers then spent two and a half hours searching for it. (It's described in more detail in the novelisation, which observes that saying it wasn't a pleasant affair would be "like saying a rhinoceros was not a set of fitted wardrobes".)
One Foot in the Grave / int_d13304f	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_d13304f	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_d13304f
One Foot in the Grave / int_d45bdfee	type	Locked in a Freezer
One Foot in the Grave / int_d45bdfee	comment	Locked in a Freezer: Stuck in gridlocked traffic.
One Foot in the Grave / int_d45bdfee	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_d45bdfee	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_d45bdfee
One Foot in the Grave / int_d56607ad	type	Jury Duty
One Foot in the Grave / int_d56607ad	comment	Jury Duty: "The Trial" is about Victor hanging about the house as he waits for a phone call summoning him for jury duty. Subverted in that we never find out what happens when he does get called — or even whether he does.
One Foot in the Grave / int_d56607ad	featureApplicability	-0.3
One Foot in the Grave / int_d56607ad	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_d56607ad
One Foot in the Grave / int_d5b6d628	type	Black Comedy Pet Death
One Foot in the Grave / int_d5b6d628	comment	Black Comedy Pet Death: "We Have Put Her Living in the Tomb" features the deaths of two pet tortoises Played for Laughs - the first one is accidentally roasted alive, with some extra humor coming from a guy trying to ask the Meldrews about satellite television whilst they try to save the tortoise. The second one is unknowingly Buried Alive as part of a Dead Pet Sketch gone wrong.
One Foot in the Grave / int_d5b6d628	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_d5b6d628	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_d5b6d628
One Foot in the Grave / int_d7fc9fd0	type	Vitriolic Best Buds
One Foot in the Grave / int_d7fc9fd0	comment	It is interesting to note how most of the more unusual residents around Victor seem to get along with him a lot more (or are at least oblivious to his occasional detesting of them). Granted they still occasionally manage to cause trouble for him completely by accident, but it is amusing how they are of the few that actually sympathise with him (in comparison to the supposedly more normal people around him that often gain a borderline obsessive hatred for his disgruntled behaviour).
One Foot in the Grave / int_d7fc9fd0	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_d7fc9fd0	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_d7fc9fd0
One Foot in the Grave / int_db99b292	type	Mondegreen Gag
One Foot in the Grave / int_db99b292	comment	Mondegreen Gag: In "Dramatic Fever", Victor and Margaret are invited to a party. However, at the time the woman calls, Margaret has gone off to Kettering with her mother, and she mishears Victor saying Kettering as "catering". This mistake isn't realized until the Meldrews show up and the other people at the party complain about them not having brought any food, forcing them to improvise.
One Foot in the Grave / int_db99b292	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_db99b292	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_db99b292
One Foot in the Grave / int_dcbe8a6e	type	Chekhov's Gunman
One Foot in the Grave / int_dcbe8a6e	comment	The series is a succession of Chekhov's Gunmen passing through Chekhov's Armoury. Quite often, even the most inconsequential details or objects, or scenes that just seem like throwaway gags, will return with a vengeance later in the episode. Victor catches fleas from the neighbour's cat? It's used at the end. Victor complains about the junk in his garden? Used at the end. Victor talks about someone losing their wig? Used at the end. Hard.
One Foot in the Grave / int_dcbe8a6e	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_dcbe8a6e	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_dcbe8a6e
One Foot in the Grave / int_de7d4907	type	Silly Walk
One Foot in the Grave / int_de7d4907	comment	Silly Walk
One Foot in the Grave / int_de7d4907	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_de7d4907	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_de7d4907
One Foot in the Grave / int_e236af66	type	Who Would Want to Watch Us?
One Foot in the Grave / int_e236af66	comment	Who Would Want to Watch Us?: "The Futility of the Fly" revolves around a play being produced about the Meldrew's adventures. The director watching it criticizes the performance, calling it too broad, its plots too implausible, and its main character too cold, and doesn't believe the woman telling him about them.
One Foot in the Grave / int_e236af66	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_e236af66	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_e236af66
One Foot in the Grave / int_e28f88b8	type	Last-Name Basis
One Foot in the Grave / int_e28f88b8	comment	Last-Name Basis: Jean and Victor rather awkwardly remain on this throughout, despite Jean and Margaret being close friends.
One Foot in the Grave / int_e28f88b8	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_e28f88b8	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_e28f88b8
One Foot in the Grave / int_e2a41c3b	type	Literal-Minded
One Foot in the Grave / int_e2a41c3b	comment	Literal-Minded: Victor tells a deliveryman to put a tree in the downstairs loo. The deliveryman doesn't just leave the potted tree in the room - he literally plants it in the toilet bowl, with compost packed neatly around it.
One Foot in the Grave / int_e2a41c3b	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_e2a41c3b	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_e2a41c3b
One Foot in the Grave / int_e3277b30	type	Contrast Montage
One Foot in the Grave / int_e3277b30	comment	Contrast Montage: Victor, whilst working as a footman (a job it is implied he doesn't enjoy) finally snaps after being berated by a hotel guest for not helping him and his wife out of their taxi in a sufficiently obsequious manner... because he notices a disabled person across the road struggling to get out of their car on their own.
One Foot in the Grave / int_e3277b30	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_e3277b30	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_e3277b30
One Foot in the Grave / int_e47e0eb	type	Scary Scarecrows
One Foot in the Grave / int_e47e0eb	comment	Scary Scarecrows: In one of the darker moments of the program, the series 4 episode "Heart of Darkness" ends with Victor taking revenge on some abusive nursing home staff by encasing their feet in cement and disguising them as scarecrows in a field.
One Foot in the Grave / int_e47e0eb	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_e47e0eb	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_e47e0eb
One Foot in the Grave / int_e5e6640b	type	Flanderization
One Foot in the Grave / int_e5e6640b	comment	Flanderization: Mostly inverted for Victor. In series 1 he is more in line with his image in popular imagination of the nasty man: tying his nephews up in the garage, and snapping a man's walking stick. By later series he is more often the hero of a situation.
One Foot in the Grave / int_e5e6640b	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_e5e6640b	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_e5e6640b
One Foot in the Grave / int_e699f8ed	type	Very Punchable Man
One Foot in the Grave / int_e699f8ed	comment	Very Punchable Man: Victor is often an example of such a fellow when given center spotlight, given his unpleasant (though occasionally justified) demeanor often earns him terrible retribution from the universe around him. A good few one shots act as this under Victor's more sympathetic moments however, perhaps most notably a repulsive snob who bullies him during his job as doorman, before getting a vicious scolding and his toupee thrown down the drain in retaliation. Of course, given the kind of universe Victor lives in and the stereotype he's come to epitomise, his predicament is understandable.
One Foot in the Grave / int_e699f8ed	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_e699f8ed	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_e699f8ed
One Foot in the Grave / int_e9e35e8f	type	Exact Words
One Foot in the Grave / int_e9e35e8f	comment	Exact Words: The source of many of the misunderstandings that cause Victor (and sometimes other characters) such problems.
One Foot in the Grave / int_e9e35e8f	featureApplicability	1.0
One Foot in the Grave / int_e9e35e8f	featureConfidence	1.0
One Foot in the Grave	hasFeature	One Foot in the Grave / int_e9e35e8f
One Foot in the Grave / int_ea44cd34	type	Britain Is Only London
One Foot in the Grave / int_ea44cd34	comment	Britain Is Only London: Averted. The series never says explicitly where Victor and Margaret live, but it's implied that they live in a town on the outskirts of the Greater London area. In any case, the series also acknowledges the existence of other places in the UK, including the Midlands town of Kettering, which is where Margaret's mother lives.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_eb8ec7c8	type	Jerkass
One Foot in the Grave / int_eb8ec7c8	comment	Jerkass: Patrick has little in the way of likeable qualities. In addition to being snarky and standoffish with most people he interacts with, some of his petty revenge plots against Victor cease to be reasonable and are instead flat out cruel, such as making him rake through dog muck for a key he possessed all along.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_ee77d3e2	type	Dead Pet Sketch
One Foot in the Grave / int_ee77d3e2	comment	Dead Pet Sketch: Victor and Margaret end up taking care of a pet tortoise named Kylie. Naturally, it does not survive the experience. Also twists the "replacement pet" aspect; Margaret secretly decides to go out and buy a similar-looking tortoise so as not to upset the little girl who owns it. However, prior to her arrival, Victor calls the family to inform them that Kylie has expired. Since Margaret delivered the new tortoise in a closed box and never mentioned her scheme to anyone, they end up burying the live tortoise in a scene that perfectly straddles the line between Black Comedy and Tear Jerker. When one of Victor's magician friends suffers a heart attack, Margaret and Mrs. Warboys try to bring him around (unaware that they're trying to revive the wrong man) and Mrs. Warboys feels a fluttering sensation in his chest. She tries to massage his heart... and then opens his shirt to reveal one of the magician's doves, who has been crushed to death by her attempt at CPR.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_ef92caa4	type	World Gone Mad
One Foot in the Grave / int_ef92caa4	comment	World Gone Mad: And how.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_f15c2859	type	NO INDOOR VOICE
One Foot in the Grave / int_f15c2859	comment	No Indoor Voice: Victor and Margaret's quiet dinner is repeatedly interrupted by a doctor at another table loudly discussing his experiences in the world of medical science. Victor eventually snaps and tells him to shut up, which leads to a literal Noodle Incident wherein he gets beaten up and has a helping of chow mein poured into his trousers.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_f237981e	type	The Alleged Car
One Foot in the Grave / int_f237981e	comment	The Alleged Car: Car trouble is a running theme right from the very first episode. Reaches its pinnacle in "The Man Who Blew Away", in which Margaret and Victor are thrilled when the car is finally stolen... and horrified when it turns up again, just as they're rhapsodising about the reliable new car they're going to buy with the insurance money.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_f247d841	type	Intoxication Ensues
One Foot in the Grave / int_f247d841	comment	Intoxication Ensues: After Victor takes up a job as a gardener for Patrick's boss, Margaret notices him becoming increasingly chirpier. It turns out he's been inadvertently inhaling large amounts of cocaine after a drug dealer hid his stash in the fertiliser, and to top it all off it kills all the plants too.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_f6b5441c	type	Right in Front of Me
One Foot in the Grave / int_f6b5441c	comment	Right in Front of Me: In "Monday Morning Will Be Fine", Victor meets an old schoolmate down at the pub who, mistaking him for another former classmate named Steve, uses the opportunity to complain about Victor. Victor, realising what might happen if he told the truth, keeps up the lie with hilarious consequences.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_f8c7515b	type	Borrowed Catchphrase
One Foot in the Grave / int_f8c7515b	comment	Borrowed Catch Phrase: In the episode "The Futility of the Fly", the West End backer looking at a play based on the Meldrews complains about the string of Contrived Coincidences and unexplained incidents. His final verdict is "I don't believe it."
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One Foot in the Grave / int_f9c3ecc6	type	Series Fauxnale
One Foot in the Grave / int_f9c3ecc6	comment	Series Fauxnale: The 1997 Christmas Special, "Endgame", was supposed to be the final episode and originally would have ended with Margaret being Killed Off for Real.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_fe0330fb	type	Brick Joke
One Foot in the Grave / int_fe0330fb	comment	Brick Joke: At the start of series 3, Victor and Margaret's television and VCR get stolen. Later, in the second-last episode of that series, the burglars actually call Victor and ask if he can help them get the VCR's timer function working properly.
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One Foot in the Grave / int_fec2b522	type	Happy Ending
One Foot in the Grave / int_fec2b522	comment	The episode "Descent into the Maelstrom" actually grants Victor a fairly clear cut Happy Ending. After discovering a friend of Margaret's that visited with her child is actually a escaped mental patient that abducted the infant, he keeps her in the dark and takes the fall for a pair of ear rings she stolenote Actually, it's not clear she did steal the earrings — she never appears to have the opportunity, and the implication is that Victor really did dump them in the newly-repaired waste disposal., getting the usual earful from Margaret. However, not only does Margaret find out the truth and give a rare earnest apology, but a tip off he gave to the police helps in recovering the tot to his parents, who come to praise Victor personally.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

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