MovieChat Forums > One Foot in the Grave (1990) Discussion > serious parts

serious parts

posted 17 years ago by McKinley85
31 replies | jump to latest

Hi, I loved this show so much when I was a kid. I got the DVDs recently and it's strange to see the shows now I am older and how dark it got sometimes. I mainly remember the classic bits like victor getting buried and mrs warboys being rolled down the hill tied up in the bag and such. I don't think I really remembered those darker parts. It really makes me appreciate them in a different light. Whats everybodys favourite serious parts? I really love the scene after margeret comes home after disapearing and explains her recuring dream of killing the teacher.

[–] greg-233 17 years ago

There's that bit where Victor is lost in the middle of nowhere, after he's managed to get his foot out of a block of concrete. He finds a country house, but it turns out to be a nursing home where the elderly residents are mistreated by the staff. Thanks to Victor, a patient gets a syringe full of knock-out drugs and sticks it into the head of staff. That scene was quite dark and weird. The next morning the field is full of new "scarecrows".

[–] mungreluk 17 years ago

The idea of mugging/stabbing an old lady doesnt sound like a good idea for a sitcom. But its done so well that we're led to think that she (nana Moon) has been killed by the mugger. Then we find out that she actually survived by belting the mugger with the unlucky scorpion that Victor was desperate to get rid of.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] mungreluk 17 years ago

But surely one of the funniest scenes is to follow, where Pippa takes the dummy into the toilet for a pee. The looks on Victor and Margarets faces are brilliant. That shows it was much more comedy than drama.

[–] tgrrrsss 17 years ago

One of the darkest scenes ever was also very funny.
Ronnie rings up to say Mildred has died, when they get there they discover she dies an hour earlier, having hanged her self during a game of Happy Families.

Brilliant, even though it showed the sadness beneathg Ronnie and Mildred's bright and bubbly veneer.

[–] tremas-1 12 years ago

I agree. To me, it's the best tragicomedy on TV. "Waiting for God" had some of it, too, but not in as distinct and concentrated a form.

[–] marktayloruk (2378) 2 years ago

Victor was a hero in that episode.

[–] Dolemite (79) 2 years ago

Yes, that bit with the new "scarecrows" I found very un-nerving, even if they had been bad.

[–] the_asylum666 16 years ago

its the serious moments that really give this show something extra as it works brilliantly like that. The characters are fantastically written like nick. love the bit where he becomes depressed and regrets his life reffering to himself as an "overgrown boy scout" and "whos going to wheel me around". And of course the irritatingly cheerful ronnie and mildred who we learn is only a facade. I also tear up when they read the note regaridng mr foskett and for some reason i cant help but feel sorry for (mr starkey i think) in "who's listening" when he breaks down at the end.

[–] ap-dove 16 years ago

My favourite serious moment is when Victor gives his wife a hug after they learn their house has been demolished. It all turned serious and was classic.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] tgrrrsss 16 years ago

I agree, I sometimes wonder if we didn't explore Mr Sweeney enough, then I think the ambiguity suits him better, however it is highly probably he's a very depressed and lonely man underneath, as he once hints at to Margaret in a quite poignant scene with the 2 of them alone in a car.

[–] marktill 16 years ago

Yeah, and in THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, where Mr. Swainey finds out that Tania the nurse, whom he had finally plucked up the courage to ask out, is already seeing someone else.

"Life's never that wonderful, is it?"

... during which he's dressed as a giant city gent on stilts for a Silly Walk fundraiser! Absurdly surreal and yet touchingly real.

[–] w-thomson 16 years ago

I really liked the moment in "One Foot In The Algarve" where Margaret becomes slighly depressed over turning 60. When she sees young women walking around a beach with fine and young bodies, this I'm affraid happens in life.

[–] A Jay 16 years ago

One of the more moving scenes for me was when there are hints at the past of Margaret and Victor and the fact they did have a child once (his name was Stuart) as to what happened to him, I don't think it was ever explained

I make a very good friend, & an even better enemy

[–] tgrrrsss 16 years ago

Also there was a episode when a young girl (Now a woman) that Margaret and Victor new as a child turns up with her baby.

It turns out she'd been in a phsyciatric unit and had in fact abducted the child explaining it off as her own, that was quite dark.

Funny end as the baby was obsessed with Gnomes!!!

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

Wasn't the father of the abducted child dressed as a gnome when they were reunited?

[–] daggillies 16 years ago

I think it's definitely hinted at that they lost their child a long time ago. It's a testament to the brilliance of the two leads that a slight pause, a wistful look , is all it needs to conjure up a tale of tragedy that is only ever addressed obliquely, and very seldom at that.

[–] knife_of_justice 16 years ago

They never mention Stuart again by name. But when Pippa announces she's pregnant, Margaret gets a bit over excited than is necessary and says something like "It'll be the time of your life. You'll see!"

And there were a lot of subtle lines in the episode with the abducted baby.

[–] tremas-1 12 years ago

TO: A.JAY
FROM: TREMAS
David Renwick, the series' writer, gives details about Stuart in his 1992 book "One Foot in the Grave" (BBC/Isis Publishing Ltd.)
Stuart was born on Sept. 4, 1951, Renwick writes, at the end of "a difficult pregnancy and an impossible birth." He died 12 days later.
An autopsy revealed "a hole in the baby's heart which, under any circumstances, would have limited his chance of survival. Margaret was strongly cautioned against a second pregnancy, and for a while they had considered the possibilities of adoption. But they knew there was no way you can replace a memory."
Renwick's book is a compilation of scenes from various episodes and some situations that apparently were considered for dramatization but were never expanded into scripts.

[–] tremas-1 12 years ago

I agree with AP-DOVE about that scene from Episode 1 Season 2 ("In Luton Airport...") It is a tragic moment. Victor and Margaret are at the site of their demolished home, Victor is ranting and all of a sudden he hears Margaret sobbing. He immediately stops, walks to her and puts his arms around her.
At the end of that episode, Margaret returns the support, when she finds Victor back at the razed site of their old home, reminiscing, and she gives him encouragement.
This episode always grips me, because when my wife and I were in our mid-to-late 50s our home in Florida was demolished by Hurricane Andrew (1992) and we had to start our lives all over again. The final scene, when Victor and Margaret walk away, hand in hand, brings tears to my eyes. My wife died this year, you see.

[–] dave_smith1984 16 years ago

Not the darkest moment, but I loved the scene just after Margaret has put the head of Victor's puppet in the microwave and Victor discovers it. He confronts Margaret and they have a row which is slightly uncomfortable for the viewer (well, me at least) to watch. But having pushed her to breaking point, she cracks and yells that she's lost her job.

Victor's mood instantly and convincingly changes, and he forgets all about the argument and consoles her. A beautiful scene which really captures the essence of the two characters.

Of course, the underlying subtext of the scene is that the series started in exactly this way, only for Victor, and Margaret is terrified of becoming as eccentric as him, as she reveals, hillariously at the end of the scene.

This is a classic Renwick scene, going from hillarity, to bitter conflict, to compassion and back to hillarity again. It proves again that a good sitcom can do jokes well, but a GREAT sitcom can handle serious moments too, appropriately and convincingly.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] DC1977 10 years ago

I thought the serious parts were very contrived and totally out of place and unnecessary.

I remember an episode where an old man bought bendy dinosaurs for his grandchildren instead of spending the money on securing his home and ended up getting burgled and might have even been killed.

Wasn't there one episode where Margaret's mother died and her body hadn't been discovered for days?

I never thought these added anything to the series, it was as though the series was trying to attain some form of gravitas simply for the sake of it.

[–] tgrrrsss 9 years ago

Cannot agree at all DC.

There is the clue in the title One Foot in the Grave.

It's shows some of the dark sides of life and tragedy, but also how funny it can be.

Life's a laugh and death's a joke as the song goes in Life of Brian.
OFIG shows this brilliantly.

[–] jamie-martin-1 9 years ago

@DC1977 - I think you've literally missed the whole point of the whole series. It was always supposed to be a black / dark comedy, illustrated best by the final episode.

[–] DC1977 8 years ago

I know what you mean but these scenes felt totally contrived and artificial.

That's my point.

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

No, they didn't. That's just your cynical self.

[–] nass_k 8 years ago

the ending was pretty dark. you were left wondering what happened between margaret and glynis.

[–] tgrrrsss 8 years ago

INdeed of course Renwick was known for darker comedy and subversiveness, of course many forget the clue in the title, ONe Foot in the Grave, so the clue is there in the title

[–] 12 years ago

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