Victor Meldrew
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| Victor Meldrew | |||||||||||
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| One Foot in the Grave | |||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Richard Wilson | ||||||||||
| Duration | 1990–2000 | ||||||||||
| First appearance | Alive and Buried (1990) | ||||||||||
| Last appearance | Things Aren't Simple Anymore (2000) | ||||||||||
| Cause/reason | Hit and run | ||||||||||
| Created by | David Renwick | ||||||||||
| Profile | |||||||||||
| Date of birth | 9 July 1928 | ||||||||||
| Date of death | 20 November 2000 (aged 72) | ||||||||||
| Occupation | Retired | ||||||||||
| Residence | 37 Wyngate Drive (Series 1) 19 Riverbank (Series 2–6) |
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Victor Meldrew was a fictional character in the popular BBC One sitcom One Foot in the Grave. Created by David Renwick and played by Richard Wilson, the character was the archetypal grumpy old man. However, many fans of the series saw him as a mouthpiece for the very things that always got on their nerves, whether it was children, cars, animals, power cuts or the neighbour next door (the latter, in Victor's case, played by Angus Deayton).
[edit] Character
The pensioner is most famous for his catch phrase, "I don't believe it!", an expression of discontent which was actually used fairly infrequently. Quite often, he would stop short at "don't". According to Wilson this is because David Renwick wanted to avoid the catch phrase becoming overused. Renwick once pointed out in an interview that the name "Victor" is ironic, since he almost always ends up as the loser.
The series was so successful that in the UK the term a Victor Meldrew has become shorthand for a constantly bitter and complaining elderly man, in much the same way as the name Ebenezer Scrooge. This is a little unfair to the character, as the bizarre misfortunes that befell Meldrew would be enough to exasperate anyone. Wilson himself once said in an interview that he was a "normal man in a world full of idiots". Victor is a tragic comedy character, however, and many people found themselves sympathising with him, rather than laughing at him as he became embroiled in complex misunderstandings, bureaucratic vanity and, at times, sheer bad luck.
Although he is often accused of being miserable and grumpy, this is quite debatable. In the episode 'Warm Champagne', his long-suffering wife Margaret defended Victor. When Margaret had contemplated having an affair with a man named Ben she'd met upon a dreary holiday, Ben put Victor down and accused him of being insensitive. Margaret retorted that Victor was in fact the most sensitive person she'd ever met. If he wasn't so sensitive he wouldn't get so upset by the smallest of things. That is the reason she chose him.
In the final episode, "Things Aren't Simple Anymore", Meldrew was killed off after being hit by a car. This eliminated any potential rumour of a seventh series being made. Despite the incident being fictional, passers-by left bouquets of flowers at the railway bridge in Shawford, a small village in Hampshire, England, the location where it had been filmed.[1]
