Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #417 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-10-16
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 12
• Running time: 1170 minutes

DVD Description
This is the complete collection of the much-loved, long-running BBC1 sitcom One Foot In The Grave, featuring all the episodes and Christmas specials.

Who would have thought retirement could be so chaotic? Certainly not querulous Victor Meldrew, one of tree-lined suburbia's perennial complainers, or his long suffering wife Margaret. When he's forced to take early retirement, Victor suddenly has plenty of time on his hands to rage against the petty annoyances of life. But there's one thing to remember in the Meldrew household - whatever can go wrong often does and it usually spells disaster for Victor.

Synopsis
The world's most miserable man, Victor Meldrew (Richard Wilson) features in this collection of all six series from the hugely popular show.

Customer Reviews

i dont believe it!
i have only watched the first two series and my ribs are hurting from laughing already.This is simply hilarious!!!

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.

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.