One Foot in the Grave/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Accidentally Accurate: In the final-series episode "Tales of Terror", Victor tests positive for blood in the stool after eating black pudding. This was thought to be an old wives' tale at the time, but subsequent studies have found that consumption of black pudding really can cause false positives — in fact, if you go for such a test now, they tell you not to eat black pudding beforehand for exactly this reason.
  • Acting for Two: Christopher Ryan as the McKendrick brothers in "Hole in the Sky".
  • Casting Gag: Fans of KYTV will be delighted to see Angus Deayton and Geoffrey Perkins reunited — as brothers, no less — in "The Dawn of Man".
  • Fake Brit: An interesting example - Richard Wilson and Annette Crosbie are two Scottish actors playing an English couple, but Not Even Bothering with the Accent. Retconned in the novelisation where Victor is said to come from Dundee. (Not an Actor Shared Background; Richard Wilson is from Greenock, a satellite town of Glasgow.)
  • Hey, It's That Guy!:
    • Angus Deayton as Patrick.
    • Paul Merton has a cameo as a barman in the final ever episode. He's also the dentist leaving a bizarre message on the answering machine in the comic relief special with Victor in the bath.
    • Guest stars in episodes include Peter Cook, Joan Sims, Barbara Windsor, Anthony Sher, Roy Hudd, Craig Ferguson (long before The Late Late Show), Ray Winstone (when he wasn't quite as well known), pre-The Office Dawn, Mike, Blakey, Phil Daniels and John Bird (of Bremner, Bird and Fortune)
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Eric Idle sings the theme tune (he also composed it). He also is one of the singers who leaves the mocking song in the tape in the car tape deck (and most likely composed that one too).
  • Throw It In: Despite his disdain for saying Victor's most famous catchphrase, Richard Wilson let the Rule of Funny take precedence and added quite a few instances of "I don't believe it!" that weren't originally called for in the scripts.