The Complete One Foot in the Grave - Series 1-6 Plus Christmas Specials

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Customer reviews

review by: nick willy date: 2008-09-24 rating:
i dont believe it!
i have only watched the first two series and my ribs are hurting from laughing already.This is simply hilarious!!!

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review by: fjireland date: 2008-07-25 rating:
A Comedy Classic At A Bargain Price
What more can I say... this truly is a classic show that has and certainly will continue to stand the test of time and it is right now a steal at its current price.

I have to agree with two other reviewers here...

the American reviewer who says that how well written and acted "one foot in the grave" is really shows how poorly most American comedies compare. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like some American comedies ... Friends, Seinfeld, Cheers in particular but even these shows don't hold a stick to a show like this (and in my opinion to most successful British-made sitcoms who know when to bow out and don't suffer the conveyor belt syndrome of 24 episodes every year regardless of actual episode and story quality). Yes, one foot in the grave is a breath of fresh air because unlike most sitcoms it manages to be both dark and very funny, it doesn't rely on witty one liners delivered by young and gorgeous actors/ actresses who can't help but show they are delivering funny lines and know it too.

Also, I agree with my fellow twentysomething reviewer below- I too remember catching this show often as a teenager and loving it, even though I was hardly the target audience. I also agree that it's great that the cast are mostly older people than your average t.v show allows nowadays because of the desire to sex everything up and appeal to young people... it's nice to see a show focusing on characters in their later years of life... so often older people are cast in mere token roles now on t.v.

Well, as for this actual set... every episode made is present on this set... a lot of which I had never seen before actually, I was only six when series one first aired! I was a casual viewer of the show, I caught the odd episode on BBC ONE in the mid- late nineties but hadn't followed the show religiously, so this set is an absolute treat... i think all the episodes (including all the Christmas specials) are consistently good... none of the shows struggle for funny moments... there's always some crazy accident, misunderstanding to fuel plenty of laughs... And I for one actually liked the final episode, I know some other reviewers didn't though, I'm glad they killed Victor off in such a dark way... it was fitting for a show that often treaded closely on the line of dark humour... and it stopped the temptation of resurrecting the show for another series or Christmas special every other year until the quality waned and the show would be very tired and unfunny any more.

Finally, I know there are some early reviews stating problems with audio-visual timing, that the mouths don't move on screen at the same time as the words are spoken and heard. I was considering buying this set at Christmas when it was on sale cheaply here on Amazon again but I was put off by these reviews.. a few weeks back, I saw the more recent ones saying they had no such problems and I decided to take the chance and buy the set at last... I'm glad I did.. I too experienced no such problems and I watched the series on two different tv.s and two different dvd players.. one very basic sony model, one sony hard disk dvd recorder.
As for the price, this 12 disk set includes the 6 series (with 6 x 30 minute episodes each) and a total of 6 separate 1 hour Christmas specials (90 special, 91 special, one foot in the Algarve special, 95 special, 96 special, 97 special)... all for just £32 or for me 45 Euro... an absolute steal, I mean I saw this set here in Ireland in a high street branch of hmv for 99 Euro last year, more than double the price!

So it really is a quality classic show and at a bargain price right now. Highly recommended to anyone who has ever watched and enjoyed even one episode of the show.

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review by: wilkens15 date: 2008-02-29 rating:
Comedy monument
The chance to watch them all, the overall brilliant episodes of Victor Meldrew's struggle with the modern world. Overall? Yes,series 1-5 are of excellent quality and bring back many golden television moments of anger management, miss-communication, frustration, weird neighbours and what not. But, and there's always a but: the final season is not one I will watch very often. After several years of only bringing Christmas specials (apart from 'Starbound' they were a dive downwards in themselves being more David Renwick-already-with-Jonathan-Creek-in-mind and less involved with Richard Wilson) why in the name of sanity did they have to make this uneasy, sad looking final season, coming to a grinding halt in that last episode. The focus shifted, Meldrew was already a parody of himself as if Renwick not only knew he'd kill this character in the end but wanted to give a weatherwarning for die-hard fans. The episode in which the housekeeper writes a stage-play about a grumpy man is utterly unbearable when you, like me, came to like Victor pretty early on. Morrissey comes to mind: this joke isn't funny anymore.
Best keep that one in the box after one viewing and concentrate on the monumental timing of direction, dialogue and actors in those first five rollercoaster rides of embarrassment.

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review by: Call me Rob date: 2008-02-22 rating:
In the name of all that's holy.....
Victor Meldrew, a fantastic comic creation of the brilliance that is David Renwick, will live on forever.

An epitome of a moaning old fella, he is hugely understood. Of course he has the right to complain when people dump their rubbish on his neighbour's lawn, or when someone dumps an old Citroen 2CV in a skip he hires, but most of the situations in this series are ENTIRELY believeable! Poor old Victor, an irony in the name itself, always believes he is right to complain about life's bitter pills, and I believe he is!

Since buying this DVD set, I've watched it 3 or 4 times now. I don't tire at the jokes about the frozen cat, or Mrs Warboys being rolled down a hill and mounted by a dog or Victor's Honda being stolen and returned with the plants still growing on the back seat. Patrick (Angus Deayton - Have I got news for you) and Pippa (Janine Duvitski - Abigails Party) are a perfect comic foil to Victor and Margaret along with mummy's boy Mr Swainey (Owen Brenman). The Meldrew's friend Mrs Warboys (Doreen Mantle - Jam and Jerusalem) is possibly the most thick-skinned person around, but is entirely loveable by her naivety!

The series begins by Victor being dismissed by Suzie Blake, who later played Bev Unwin in Corrie, and follows him through his adjustments into pensionable age. The odd cameo by actors such as Stephen Lewis (Inspector Blake - On The Buses) makes it all worthwhile.

The hour-long specials are worth mentioning too. One foot in the Algarve is probably the darkest of them all, and a true insight in to the mind of the writer. Beautiful scenery, Peter Cook and a brilliant storyline make this unmissable.

The unmentioned heroine is, of course, Margaret (Annette Crosbie). As his everloving wife, she plays the role amazingly, lovingly and humourously. In the face of life's daily events, she always comes out on top.

Enough of my ramblings. Victor excels Hyancinth Bucket and his contemporaries of the early 90's due to the on-the-ball scripting and acting. There'll be times you'll know what's coming and times you won't have a clue but you'll laugh all the way through. I don't beleive it!


review by: Rich date: 2007-12-09 rating:
Amazing!
This box set is a must have, containing every single episode of this fantastically written and wonderfully casted/acted sitcom.

What's so good about this collection is it's 12 dvds, the entire series 1-6 including every Christmas/One off special as well as bonus Documentary 'The Story Of One Foot In the Grave' and the 'Britains Best Sitcom' featurette, all in all, this is hours and hours of absorbing, funny, heartwarming comedy which appeals to all ages.

I'd recently got hold of the Only Fools And Horses series 1-7 box set, and the downside of that was the missing christmas specials and one offs and feature lengths, as they contain integral parts of the continual storylines (eg Del meeting Raquel etc)

And with this box set, with every single moment available in chronological order, you don't miss a thing.

I'm sure if you're viewing this item and reading my hastily typed review, you already know how brilliant this sitcom was, the writing of David Renwick, the absolutely brilliant performances of Richard Wilson and Annette Crosbie, as well as the brilliant other characters such as Mrs Warboys, Mr Swainey, Patrick and Pippa and numerous guest stars such as Paul Merton, Barbara Windsor, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Eric Idle to name a few.

This is extremely good value for money and highly recommended, oh, and i've personally found no problems at all with audio/visual sync, so i wouldn't worry about that.

'I've been replaced by a box... It's standard procedure apparantley for a man of my age. The next stage is to stick you inside one."

Timeless and brilliant, and in my opinion quite underated

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