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{{quote|"I don't believe it!"|'''Victor Meldrew''', [[Catch Phrase]]}}
'''''One Foot in the Grave''''' was a British TV comedy show that followed the misadventures of cranky [[Reluctant Retiree]] [[Knight in Sour Armour|Victor]] [[The Snark Knight|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 [[Hilarity Ensues|unbelievable and frustrating circumstances]]. It seems no facet of his life can leave him without complaints.
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* [[Artifact of Death]]: The scorpion encased in resin that Victor and Margaret are given ([[Clingy MacGuffin|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 {{spoiler|uses it to smash a knife-wielding mugger in the head}}.
* [[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.
* [[Ashes to Crashes]]: A particularly nauseating version where Victor spills the ashes of {{spoiler|what he thinks is Mr. Swainey's mother, when in fact it's just herbal tea. He immediately [[Well
* [[Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other]]: Invoked frequently, usually just as Margaret appears to have reached the end of her tether.
{{quote|'''Margaret''': "He's the most sensitive person I've ever met... [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|and that's why I love him]], and [[Mood Whiplash|why I constantly want to]] [[Comedic Sociopathy|ram his head through a television screen]].}}
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* [[Crapsack World]]: Even if you ignore Victor's continual mishaps, his universe seems unnaturally full of shysters, thieves, muggers and burglars, and everyone who surrounds the Meldrews seems to either loathe them or be incredibly irritating. The series' overaching message, if it has one, seems to be "Life is cruel, utterly meaningless and basically horrible."
* [[Creator Cameo]]: David Renwick appears in the opening episode of the the final season. Eric Idle, who wrote and performed the theme tune, appears in a [[Christmas Episode]] as the titular Government environmental inspector.
* [[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.
* [[Dead All Along]]: {{spoiler|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 "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}}.
** {{spoiler|Played straight in the 2001 Comic Relief episode}}.
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* [[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, [[Percussive Maintenance|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.
* [[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 [[Psycho|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.
* [[Grumpy Old Man]]: Victor, naturally. Of course, given how much crap he gets put through, and given that many of the youths in the programme actually ''are'' obnoxious brats or outright criminals, his complaining is not unjustified.
* [[Headphones Equal Isolation]]: Victor is listening to a comedy tape 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.
* [[Humans Are
* [[I Like My X Like I Like My Y]]: "I like my toast like I like my women. Golden brown, and covered in marmalade."
* [[Intoxication Ensues]]: After Victor takes up a job as a gardener for Patrick's boss, Margaret notices him becoming increasingly chirpier. {{spoiler|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 [[That Poor Plant|kills all the plants too]]}}.
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** Mrs. Warboys also does this with her husband, even going so far as to hire a private detective to tail him. {{spoiler|He wasn't cheating at the time, but in a hilariously cruel twist, he ends up having an affair with the ''detective''}}.
** Victor also thinks that Pippa is cheating on Patrick, after he catches her in the house of a rich, handsome man. {{spoiler|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
* [[Mistaken for Gay]]: Victor mistakes Patrick for his gay brother (despite the fact they look nothing alike) due to Patrick carrying a [[Camp Gay|pink umbrella and walking delicately down the road]]. Naturally, Victor then gives Patrick a video full of hardcore gay pornography.
* [[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 {{spoiler|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}}.
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* [[Not So Different]]: 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 [[Phrase Catcher|using some of Victor's catchphrases]].
** Also, after being forced to stay together in an abandoned house for a while (and after a few glasses of whiskey) Victor and Patrick seem to put their differences aside and actually get along quite well. {{spoiler|Of course, barely a minute later something goes wrong and they end up back at square one}}.
** Margaret despite often acting as the [[Closer to Earth|more sensible and sociable of the couple]] can often prove to be just as bad tempered and oddball as Victor (and is far more likely to [[
* [[One Scene, Two Monologues]]: Victor and Margaret frequently have "conversations" in this style.
* [[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?
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* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: The Meldrews had to move house in the first Series 2 episode, due to the owners of the real-life house which had stood in for the Meldrews' house in the location scenes of Series 1 wanting too much money to allow the BBC to keep on using it. Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that the interior set for the second house is near-identical to the original one, only with the layout flipped around.
* [["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 [[Man of Wealth and Taste|well-off, cultured gentleman]] who was vying for her affections.
{{quote|'''Margaret''': Do you know what's actually ''worse'' than [[Call Back|warm champagne]]?
'''Ben''': ...no?
'''Margaret''': No... I really don't think you do.}}
* [[Reluctant Retiree]]: Victor Meldrew, replaced unceremoniously by a box, is left feeling old and useless.
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* [[The Snark Knight]]: Victor. If you fall into the camp that believes that [[Deadpan Snarker|Patrick]] is merely a younger and less jaded version of Victor, it's safe to assume that he will turn into one too.
* [[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 {{spoiler|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"
* [[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...
* [[Take That]]: A [[Deal or No Deal|Noel Edmonds]] sweater that Victor has second thoughts about wearing is discarded by the tramp who finds it next to a bin.
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* [[Title Theme Tune]]: "Clapped out, run down, too old to save / One foot in the grave."
* [[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 {{spoiler|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}}...
* [[Trans
* [[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.
* [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist]]: Victor. Though he does fall in the "at least pitiable" category sometimes; after all, he does end up in the oddest predicaments which does go some way explain his eternal grumpiness.
** To be perfectly fair, Victor actually comes across as a fairly pleasant, cheerful 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.
* [[The Voice]]: Margaret's mother is heard speaking a few times, but is never actually seen in the flesh. She's actually voiced by Annette Crosbie (Margaret) herself, just with a much thicker Scottish accent.
* [[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 neighbour 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 [[Vitriolic Best Buds|oblivious to his occasion detesting of them]]). Granted, they still occasionally manage to cause trouble for him [[Stop Helping Me!|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).
* [[World Gone Mad]]: And how.
{{reflist}}
{{BAFTA TV Award for Best Comedy (Programme or Series)}}
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[[Category:Comedy Series]]
[[Category:British Series]]
[[Category:Britcom]]
[[Category:Dom Com]]
[[Category:TV Series]]
[[Category:Britain's Best Sitcom]]
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