The story of One Foot In The Grave, part two: How to kill off a sitcom icon like Victor Meldrew

IT’S rare that all the essential segments combine to make a top-notch sitcom, which explains why the vaults of TV stations are littered with long-forgotten failures gathering dust.

Thank goodness this isn’t the case with One Foot In The Grave, the classic sitcom written by David Renwick and starring Richard Wilson as cantankerous Victor Meldrew and Annette Crosbie as his long-suffering wife, Margaret.

Bringing a sitcom to life is a painstaking job for all concerned. “It’s remarkable how ridiculously short a time we had in which to do the shows,” says Annette Crosbie, now 84.

“We didn’t have a full five days to rehearse, we had five mornings because director Susie Belbin had to spend the afternoons wearing her other hat, that of producer.

“Then the day in the studio, starting at 10 and staggering through the rehearsals for the cameras, when the rhythm and certainty disappears as you cope with the real props and doors and how they affect the timing – all the technical stuff that has nothing to do with performance but which you have to remember when the audience comes in.”

Belbin believes Crosbie’s performance was underrated. “She was a great foil for Richard to play off, and was excellent in the role.”

Crosbie set high standards for herself and was disappointed if she felt she hadn’t reached the required level.

Both Richard Wilson and Annette Crosbie were nervous when the sitcom began.

“I was also excited, though,” says Wilson, 82. “Susie kept saying to me during Series One and Two, ‘Just you wait, you’ll see, this will take off.’”

The programme’s setting was kept deliberately vague because David Renwick didn’t feel the need to declare where the Meldrews lived.

So, with no specific locality required, the two principal considerations when choosing where outdoor filming would take place were, firstly, finding somewhere boasting a favourable climate.

Then, secondly, an area easily reached from the BBC studios in London. The Bournemouth area, which enjoys a relatively mild and stable climate, fitted the bill perfectly.

Viewing figures soon rocketed, peaking at 20 million for the 90-minute instalment, One Foot In The Algarve, screened on Boxing Day 1993.

The plot centred around a trip to the Portuguese region for the newly-divorced Mrs Warboys, who planned to meet her Portuguese penpal while Victor hoped for a quiet break in the sun before becoming embroiled in a plot to discredit a well-known national figure.

Writer David Renwick was fully aware of the dangers of adapting a popular sitcom into a feature-length version.

“It’s a gamble, especially if you’re setting your story abroad, because there’s a tendency to get so excited about the location that you lose sight of all the regular parameters. Because it all looks so exotic you’re no longer as ruthless as you should be with the pacing, and all the vitality and spontaneity is often sacrificed.”

He was determined that One Foot In The Algarve wouldn’t follow the path taken by other writers, who’d simply stitched together two or three regular episodes.

But in steering clear of such traps, he created another problem for himself. “I ended up going the other way, packing the script with too many ideas and storylines, and it became indigestible.”

His over-length script was eventually edited down, though, and the festive special was welcomed by the national press and 20 million viewers. Making the extended episode wasn’t without its headaches, though.

For director Susan Belbin, an initial visit to Portugal to check out locations turned into a nightmare. Her car was broken into and thieves swiped her passport and programme notes.

“It was a huge blow. What was particularly frustrating is that the people who grabbed my bag didn’t want the paperwork – they probably dumped it. It’s very difficult working up that level of enthusiasm again: it clouded my enjoyment of a project which suddenly became a chore.”

While returning to the UK, her plane hit terrible turbulence. “It’s the worse I’d ever experienced. When your drink ends up on the roof of the plane, you fear the worst. People were screaming, it was awful.”

Problems continued during the actual filming with progress hampered by the elements.

“It started raining on the first day of filming,” recalls Richard Wilson. “I remember getting dressed for a night shoot and putting on thermal underwear and gloves. I thought to myself: ‘This is not what I hoped the Algarve would be like.’ It was so cold.”

Eventually, the final scenes were in the can and the team could return to the UK where Belbin, Renwick and the production team started assembling what would become the most watched episode in the entire series.

The standard of writing and acting remained high throughout the run of the sitcom but after penning the fifth season, David Renwick believed he’d squeezed every ounce of life out of Victor Meldrew – it was time to quit.

Renwick discussed the situation with Richard Wilson. As well as becoming increasingly busy writing his new series, Jonathan Creek, he told Wilson that he lacked sufficient confidence to contemplate further episodes.

Although Wilson didn’t want Victor killed off, believing such drastic action would conflict with the character’s general ethos, he would respect Renwick’s decision.

David wasn’t keen on a repeat of Only Fools And Horses where the fantastic closing scenes saw the Trotters walking up the Yellow Brick Road, only for them to return a couple of years later.

“I didn’t want people constantly asking when Victor was coming back – or anyone trying to persuade me.

“Also, killing off the lead character in a major sitcom would be a first.”

Recalling the moment Renwick told him about the character’s fate, Richard Wilson says: “It was reaching the stage where scripts weren’t as original as they had been.

“I knew David was finding it difficult to keep dreaming up ideas, and I was getting a bit tired of the character, trying to maintain a freshness. It was great that the show had remained popular for so long, but I agreed it was probably time to move on.”

Annette Crosbie, however, was saddened by the news. “I would have liked it to run forever because it was good and I enjoyed it so much.”

Now, Renwick had to decide how Victor would die. He’d toyed with the idea of him exiting a shop with a book on positive thinking only for a piano to fall on his head.

Although it was just a passing thought and didn’t come to fruition, Renwick was determined to add an element of surprise to the script, and not pursue the expected path.

“For as long as it had been my intention to kill him off, I’d always felt it should probably be in a road accident – mainly because I get so exasperated and angry about reckless driving, which just seems to be getting worse and worse,” says Renwick.

“So I felt there was a minor comment to make there. Of course, once I started writing, the dramatic imperative took over. And although I would have loved to have got the knife into that whole yob element on the roads, it was more interesting to pull a switch at the end and reveal that the culprit was now actually Margaret’s new friend.

“And so then you’re not quite sure how to react, because you feel this great sympathy for Hannah Gordon’s character, who was racing to the hospital where her own husband was near to death.”

Recalling her role as Glynis Holloway, the woman responsible for Victor’s death, actress Hannah Gordon says: “One of the sad things about the part was that she was killing off Victor Meldrew.”

She was, however, enamoured of the script. “David got it right. He doesn’t just write funny lines, he writes about actual life. So when someone is being killed, you do it for real.”

Richard Wilson regarded the final episode as a “very good piece of writing” and “wonderful to act”, as did Annette Crosbie.

The fragmented process of constructing an episode, however, means it’s usually not until one watches the final product that its poignancy is felt.

For a moment, Renwick felt a lump in his throat while watching the death scene being filmed. The image of Victor’s arm falling into shot as his cap drifts away in a rivulet of rain was, says Renwick, “Suddenly very chilling and for just a moment I felt the dramatic loss of a close friend.”

For Richard Wilson, the sitcom marked the pinnacle of his career in terms of the exposure and opportunities it afforded.

“I enjoyed other shows I did, like Tutti Frutti, but One Foot opened everything up for me.”

Annette Crosbie, meanwhile, says: “I wouldn’t say One Foot In The Grave was my favourite job of all time because for me there wasn’t an awful lot of acting to be done. But I loved doing it, in a way that nothing else has provided.”

Richard Webber is the author of The Complete One Foot In The Grave, authorised by the show’s creator David Renwick and published by Orion.