One Foot in the Grave was a popular BBC television situation comedy series, or "Britcom", written by David Renwick. The series featured the exploits of Victor Meldrew, an irascible pensioner with attitude, played by actor Richard Wilson. His catchphrase was, "I don't believe it!" (occasionally rendered as "I do not believe it!") His long-suffering wife Margaret was played by Annette Crosbie. The other most consistent supporting character was a family friend, Jean Warboys, played by Doreen Mantle. Other regular characters were next door neighbour Patrick Trench, played by Angus Deayton, (who invariably discovered Victor in an inexplicably bizarre or uncompromising situation) his wife Pippa played by Janine Duvitski and overly cheery charity worker Nick Swainey, played by Owen Brenman.
The show ran for six series, plus specials, over a ten year period, from 1990 to 2000. Four episodes were remade for BBC Radio 4. In the final episode, Victor was killed by hit-and-run. Margaret discovers the culprit, but the ending is ambiguous as to what she does about it.
There was a short postscript to the series in the form of a sketch for Comic Relief. Victor and Margaret are visiting a friend in hospital, but he is barely conscious. Victor keeps complaining about the situation, but Margaret doesn't reply. Finally Victor is reminded of the film The Sixth Sense and a sudden realisation strikes him....
This series featured highly innovative scripts and outrageous comedy situations. If anything could go wrong, it not only went wrong but pulled half of the universe down with it (at least in a metaphorical sense).
The theme song was written and sung by Eric Idle.
Bill Cosby starred in the American version of the show, simply titled Cosby which ran from 1996 - 2000. David Renwick was listed as an executive producer on the series.
In the Father Ted episode "The Mainland" Ted and Dougal encounter Richard Wilson (out of character) and drive him mad by constantly repeating his One Foot in the Grave catchphrase.