"Actor: Barbara Ashcroft"

• One Foot In The Grave: Complete Series 1-6 | DVD | (29/10/2012) from £19.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  In Victor Meldrew, One Foot in the Grave brought us one of the greatest characters in the history of British situation comedy. David Renwick's multi-award winning creation spawned a catch phrase--"I don't believe it"--that vocalised the sentiments of the perennially disgruntled, the irritated or the plain bewildered. Victor is a superannuated security guard struggling to fill his premature retirement usefully, but he is frustrated at every turn. Coincidences, external forces and events and other people conspire against him. Somehow or other, he always gets the blame, leaving a trail of walking wounded in his wake, usually led by his long-suffering wife Margaret. This first series, originally transmitted in 1990, contains countless comic moments, many of them truly surreal. But Victor is never a one-dimensional target for our laughter. Indeed, as with the best comedy, we mock him at our peril. None of us get through life without our share of Meldrew moments. Thanks to Richard Wilson's performance--which rightly made him a major television star--he is a rounded human being who genuinely can't understand why he is constantly at odds with the world around him, despite his best efforts. And in Annette Crosbie as the increasingly enraged Margaret, he has the perfect screen partner. --Piers Ford

• The Complete One Foot In The Grave Boxset | DVD | (16/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £69.99

  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 always does and it usually spells disaster for Victor... The complete collection of the long running BBC1 sitcom One Foot In The Grave. For individual series episode listings please refer to the singular boxed sets.