DVD
One Foot in the Grave
Series Four and Christmas Special

Starring: Richard Wilson and Annette Crosbie
BBC DVD
RRP: £15.99
BBCDVD1859
Certificate: PG
Available 24 April 2006


Who thought retirement could be so chaotic? Certainly not cantankerous Victor Meldrew and his long-suffering wife Margaret. But there's one thing to remember in the Meldrew household - whatever can go wrong always does...

The Pit And The Pendulum: Victor decides that Patrick's cherry tree is the cause of his garden being dry and enlists a Neanderthal gardener to cultivate the stray roots. This is the famous episode where Victor is buried in his own back garden. It also has a rather touching moment when events give a rather bland telephone answer machine message a different meaning.

Descent Into The Maelstrom: Margaret collapses from nervous exhaustion, but after a few days of Victor's loving care decides to go back to work to get some peace and quiet. This episode sees Victor's local dry cleaner getting his dinner jacket mixed up with a gorilla suit, and Mr Sweeny spends an evening on the Meldrew's kitchen floor when he puts his back out while fixing their sink.

Hearts Of Darkness: On a trip into the countryside, Victor stumbles upon a home for the elderly, where the residents are being abused by the staff, and hatches a plot for their liberation. In the history of One Foot in the Grave, this is possibly the darkest episode. The first half of the story sees Victor, Margaret, Mrs Warboys and Nick Swainey on a day out, while the second half sees Victor stumbling upon a old people's home where the staff are mistreating the residents. This episode also includes a blink and you'll miss it appearance of the actress who provided the voice of Margaret's mother in The Pit And The Pendulum.

Warm Champagne: Margaret has arranged to meet up with Ben, an acquaintance she made on holiday. She is surprised to find another woman in her bed when she returns. And so is Victor. In this episode a street light crashes through the Meldrew's window resulting in their bedroom being flooded with light at nights. This episode also highlights the problems with holiday romances.

The Trial: Victor spends a day at home whilst on-call for jury service. He contemplates his various ailments, gets a letter from a disgruntled Jehovah's Witness and struggles to save himself from a blow-by-blow account of Mrs Warboys's holiday. This episode sees Victor home alone for the entire 30 minutes. It's amazing the things he will do to while away the hours. He's already been sitting around at home for five days waiting for a call from the courts.

Secret Of The Seven Sorcerers: The Meldrews invite Patrick and Pippa around for a friendly meal, but Patrick is distinctly worried about what horrors might befall them. Victor also has his conjuring friends over to go through their usual trick testing.

The second disc in this collection includes the Christmas Special episode One Foot Foot in the Algarve. Victor, Margaret and Mrs Warboys embark upon a hellish holiday in Portugal. After collecting their hire car (with free hair conditioner), they take a slow drive to their destination - along the way making a quick stop for Victor to almost sell Mrs Warboys into prostitution. They then have a brush with the local police who throw them in, what they believe is, a cell in the local police station. Mrs Warboys meets up with her Portuguese pen friend who she has never met before. This episode also sees Peter Cook guest star as Martin, an accident prone paparazzi photographer.

The only extra on this collection is an audio commentary with writer David Renwick and Victor Meldrew himself, Richard Wilson. This is not overly great as they spend the most part chatting and laughing at what is going on on the screen. Although Renwick does provide some interesting snippets of information every now and then.

One Foot in the Algarve also has an extended closing credits sequence, which is interesting as we get to hear some additional lyrics from the theme tune. I have to say that the Christmas Special was the episode I enjoyed the most. Sure you could see the jokes coming a mile away, but everything builds well, especially Mrs Warboys's pen friend's little secret.

If you are a fan of the show then this DVD release won't disappoint. For £16 you really can't go wrong.

Darren Rea

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