I like the episode where Victor and Margaret go to stay in their friends' B&B a the seaside and Victor is beaten up by midgets in the bathroom and the Roumanian girl says,"I hope your private parts get better soon", just as Margaret is coming up the stairs.
When he goes into the bathroom with some insect spray because he thinks the Romanian girl says that it's full of midges
Hehe - true. I'm amazed KUA managed to churn out as many episodes as it did. I mean, lots of shows have running gags and similar plotlines (broadly) but KUA seemed like, basically, the exact same jokes and setups every time. It was, effectively, a show composed entirely of running gags, week in week out. It amazes me that it was a success in between the anarchic stuff of the 80s and the modern, 'cutting edge' comedy of the 00s. But hey ho, people liked it. It was comfortable and cosy, I guess; something no one could possibly be offended or challenged by.
With OFITG, I totally agree. I seem to recall there had been an episode long before the finale in which the setup of the whole thing was Margaret writing a letter to a relative, with the story told in flashback and the implication that Victor had died. There was another one in which Margaret went missing and her coat was dredged out of a canal, leading the audience to believe she had died. It was dark stuff. And I loved it.
The appeal of KUA I think is that everyone knows someone like Hyacinth. I know I do, I have a relative who is uncannily like her in many ways. My mum and I have even joked on many occasions about how much like The Bucket Woman this person is:D, but it was very old fashioned even for the 90's.
My favourite episode of One Foot is the one where Mrs Warboys comes to stay with the Meldrews because her flat has been flooded, and spends the whole time unintentionally insulting Margaret. When Margaret makes them all pasta with sauce she even says, "this is nice, not that I can taste it its my allergies. It might be absolutely horrible":D
OFITG is my fave sitcom,its the only sitcom i can watch again and again without ever getting bored or fed up with it. There are too many funny and great moments to mention. I love the ones people have already mentioned. I don't think anyone has mentioned the episode where they are stuck in a traffic jam with Mrs Warboys! Very funny!
I love the darker moments in OFITG and the way they blend dark stuff with funny stuff. A great example of this is when Patrick and Pippa discover Vicor buried up to his neck in the garden. One of the funniest moments but then the next moment Margaret comes out to tell Victor she has just received a phone call to say her mother had died, somehow it works in OFITG.
Regarding KUA i do like it but its not in the same class as OFITG. Its got no depth at all and is repetitive. I think it has a good cast though. Parricia Routledge is very good as Hyacinth and its watchable enough. They do have some episodes that are a bit different like the OAP outing to the seaside and the one where Hyacinth and Richard go out on a boat and both end up in the river:D
Oh! I'm so happy i've found somewhere to rave about just how much I love this sitcom. It's so intricately and cleverly plotted, and so so dark, it's hard to believe it was considered mainstream. I only ever watched the last episode once, I remember it was on tv when I was about 20 and I went and cried in the bathroom after seeing it like a total loser. I just loved it so much I hated the idea that Margaret didn't get a happy ending, and the idea that Victor felt totally unwanted and unimportant. It was consistent with the show though, I can't deny that.
Oh! I'm so happy i've found somewhere to rave about just how much I love this sitcom. It's so intricately and cleverly plotted, and so so dark, it's hard to believe it was considered mainstream. I only ever watched the last episode once, I remember it was on tv when I was about 20 and I went and cried in the bathroom after seeing it like a total loser. I just loved it so much I hated the idea that Margaret didn't get a happy ending, and the idea that Victor felt totally unwanted and unimportant. It was consistent with the show though, I can't deny that.
There were quite a few moments in the show in which Victor was badly let down and made to feel unwanted and unimportant. Recall the episode were Victor thought he had been invited to give a talk at a WI meeting by a relative. It turned out, at the end of the episode, that the invitation had been a joke, and we saw a dejected Victor sadly throw a sheaf of paper he'd been filling with notes into the bin.
Absolutely adore this show- probably my favourite sitcom (and I wasn't even born when it started!)
Have to agree that Margaret is plain nasty at times, whereas Victor is well intentioned but unlucky. She allows him to think he's wet himself when she sprinkles him with water, openly mocks his impotence, disappears for several days without telling him where she is, derides his sitcom to the point of him stopping writing it, puts the doll he was restoring in the microwave and kisses another man (she is awful to Victor when the Fruit & Veg woman tries to seduce him, which he completely rebuffs!)
Conversely, Victor is always trying to spare Margaret's feelings- not least when the schizophrenic little girl she taught to read comes back with a stolen baby and takes Margaret's mothers earrings. Rather than shatter her illusions about this woman, Victor allows Margaret to believe he accidentally put them in the waste disposal unit.
All he really wanted out of life was good standards and a bit of fairplay- who can blame him for that?! (And his intentionally wasting the computer salesman's time who cut him up on the motorway is a moment of brilliance- "memo")
There were quite a few moments in the show in which Victor was badly let down and made to feel unwanted and unimportant. Recall the episode were Victor thought he had been invited to give a talk at a WI meeting by a relative. It turned out, at the end of the episode, that the invitation had been a joke, and we saw a dejected Victor sadly throw a sheaf of paper he'd been filling with notes into the bin.
And when he wrote that sitcom that he was so proud of, and Margaret told him it was dreadful, and he disappeared having ripped it up. Or when he was asked to do his ventriloquist act, and turned up all tux and shiny shoes....and no one was there. So upsetting. I'm a total OFITG geek, but I don't know...it was something about leaving it so desolate and dark, it left this massively dark feeling in me that I hoped we'd be spared of. As I say, it fitted in with the tone of the program, but it was so upsetting to leave a character that we'd built a love for as an audience, in such a hopeless and sad way.
What about the time Victor thought everyone had arranged a surprise birthday party for him in the church hall. He got himself dressed up and turned up dead happy and excited but no one was there
I think it's probably a sign of an amazing sitcom that can easily make moments so heartbreaking and sad, without being schmaltzy, and break your heart, whilst also being amazingly funny otherwise.
Love OFITG. Never fails to make me laugh, I always put it on when I've had a bad day to cheer me up. Can't remember the name of the episode, but the one when Victor gets a job as a chauffer and manages to wreck all his boss's cars, and then goes to Ronnie and Mildred's and goes to the toilet and their photo is on the underside of the toilet seat:D
And Mr Swainey saying to Victor "Mrs Meldrew tells me it's years since you have had an upright" when he is vacuming his haunted caravan, makes me cry with laughter everytime.
Just thought of another one, when Victor takes the off cuts of carpet the dry cleaners and dumps Margaret's clothes and the wallpaper for the spare room with a photo of Victor's face with "Get A Life " written underneath :D
Fantastic exchange from 'Hearts of Darkness', when Mrs Warboys turns up for an outing wearing an identical dress to Margaret:
Victor (shouting back as they trudge through the woods): Mind your new dress on these thorns, Mrs Warboys, they're very sharp!
Margaret: HER new dress? What about MY new dress, thank you very much!
Victor: Oh... is that new as well? You never said.
Margaret: I knew it was going to be one of those days. If I'd put on a bloody RABBIT COSTUME she'd have turned up wearing one!
I got the impression Patrick and Pippa were like a younger Victor and Magaret? There's that bit where Patrick looks in the mirror and his reflection changes into Victor :eek:
Absolutely adore this show- probably my favourite sitcom (and I wasn't even born when it started!)
Have to agree that Margaret is plain nasty at times, whereas Victor is well intentioned but unlucky. She allows him to think he's wet himself when she sprinkles him with water, openly mocks his impotence, disappears for several days without telling him where she is, derides his sitcom to the point of him stopping writing it, puts the doll he was restoring in the microwave and kisses another man (she is awful to Victor when the Fruit & Veg woman tries to seduce him, which he completely rebuffs!)
Conversely, Victor is always trying to spare Margaret's feelings- not least when the schizophrenic little girl she taught to read comes back with a stolen baby and takes Margaret's mothers earrings. Rather than shatter her illusions about this woman, Victor allows Margaret to believe he accidentally put them in the waste disposal unit.
All he really wanted out of life was good standards and a bit of fairplay- who can blame him for that?! (And his intentionally wasting the computer salesman's time who cut him up on the motorway is a moment of brilliance- "memo")
I agree, a lot of people think that Victors the nasty one and Margarets the nice one, when, if anything it's the other way around.
I think Margaret showed remarkable restraint considering she had to put up with Victor but when she had the chance to have an affair with Ben, the chap they met on holiday when Victor got sunburnt feet, she turned him down. Ben thought that Victor was a miserable old git but Margaret realised that it was because Victor was so sensitive that Life upset him so much. OFITG teaches us a lot about the nature of Love.
I think Margaret showed remarkable restraint considering she had to put up with Victor but when she had the chance to have an affair with Ben, the chap they met on holiday when Victor got sunburnt feet, she turned him down. Ben thought that Victor was a miserable old git but Margaret realised that it was because Victor was so sensitive that Life upset him so much. OFITG teaches us a lot about the nature of Love.
Yeah, it irks me when people refer to Victor as a 'grumpy old man'. Even the continuity announcers do it on the show's reruns. Victor was not a grumpy old man - he was a sensitive guy who was dogged by bizarre bad luck, incompetence and completely surreal situations. He responded to it all in ways we all wish we'd have the guts to. People unfamiliar with the show probably think it's just about an old git moaning about life, when it is nothing of the sort - it's a rich, surreal programme about the absurdity of life.
Comments
When he goes into the bathroom with some insect spray because he thinks the Romanian girl says that it's full of midges
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOVKKrj2344
Sick, but very, very funny.
And...'The pastry, the pastry....'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJhf3k8QCi8
The appeal of KUA I think is that everyone knows someone like Hyacinth. I know I do, I have a relative who is uncannily like her in many ways. My mum and I have even joked on many occasions about how much like The Bucket Woman this person is:D, but it was very old fashioned even for the 90's.
My favourite episode of One Foot is the one where Mrs Warboys comes to stay with the Meldrews because her flat has been flooded, and spends the whole time unintentionally insulting Margaret. When Margaret makes them all pasta with sauce she even says, "this is nice, not that I can taste it its my allergies. It might be absolutely horrible":D
I love the darker moments in OFITG and the way they blend dark stuff with funny stuff. A great example of this is when Patrick and Pippa discover Vicor buried up to his neck in the garden. One of the funniest moments but then the next moment Margaret comes out to tell Victor she has just received a phone call to say her mother had died, somehow it works in OFITG.
Regarding KUA i do like it but its not in the same class as OFITG. Its got no depth at all and is repetitive. I think it has a good cast though. Parricia Routledge is very good as Hyacinth and its watchable enough. They do have some episodes that are a bit different like the OAP outing to the seaside and the one where Hyacinth and Richard go out on a boat and both end up in the river:D
It said something that despite all the denials, Millionaire had to rig its first million winner for the same evening.
There were quite a few moments in the show in which Victor was badly let down and made to feel unwanted and unimportant. Recall the episode were Victor thought he had been invited to give a talk at a WI meeting by a relative. It turned out, at the end of the episode, that the invitation had been a joke, and we saw a dejected Victor sadly throw a sheaf of paper he'd been filling with notes into the bin.
Have to agree that Margaret is plain nasty at times, whereas Victor is well intentioned but unlucky. She allows him to think he's wet himself when she sprinkles him with water, openly mocks his impotence, disappears for several days without telling him where she is, derides his sitcom to the point of him stopping writing it, puts the doll he was restoring in the microwave and kisses another man (she is awful to Victor when the Fruit & Veg woman tries to seduce him, which he completely rebuffs!)
Conversely, Victor is always trying to spare Margaret's feelings- not least when the schizophrenic little girl she taught to read comes back with a stolen baby and takes Margaret's mothers earrings. Rather than shatter her illusions about this woman, Victor allows Margaret to believe he accidentally put them in the waste disposal unit.
All he really wanted out of life was good standards and a bit of fairplay- who can blame him for that?! (And his intentionally wasting the computer salesman's time who cut him up on the motorway is a moment of brilliance- "memo")
And when he wrote that sitcom that he was so proud of, and Margaret told him it was dreadful, and he disappeared having ripped it up. Or when he was asked to do his ventriloquist act, and turned up all tux and shiny shoes....and no one was there. So upsetting. I'm a total OFITG geek, but I don't know...it was something about leaving it so desolate and dark, it left this massively dark feeling in me that I hoped we'd be spared of. As I say, it fitted in with the tone of the program, but it was so upsetting to leave a character that we'd built a love for as an audience, in such a hopeless and sad way.
And Mr Swainey saying to Victor "Mrs Meldrew tells me it's years since you have had an upright" when he is vacuming his haunted caravan, makes me cry with laughter everytime.
Just thought of another one, when Victor takes the off cuts of carpet the dry cleaners and dumps Margaret's clothes and the wallpaper for the spare room with a photo of Victor's face with "Get A Life " written underneath
Victor (shouting back as they trudge through the woods): Mind your new dress on these thorns, Mrs Warboys, they're very sharp!
Margaret: HER new dress? What about MY new dress, thank you very much!
Victor: Oh... is that new as well? You never said.
Margaret: I knew it was going to be one of those days. If I'd put on a bloody RABBIT COSTUME she'd have turned up wearing one!
One of mine too, loved it when he put the tape in for some music and discovered the garage men had taped over it with a song about Victor.
Victor Meldrew, Victor Meldrew
he can stick it up his bum,
he can bugger off to kingdom come.
Sung by the wonderful Eric Idle, genius
tune every week too!
That reminds me of the traffic jam episode where Victor puts the cassette on, and his mechanics have recorded a song on it about him
There's a man we can't stand any longer,
Always on the bleedin' moan.
Every time we fix his bloody Honda,
He's back grousing on the phone!
Checked his brakes and clutch and then-
Overhauled his whole transmission.
He just brought it back again.
Victor Meldrew, Victor Meldrew
He can stick it up his bum....up his bum!
He can bugger off 'till kingdom come!
I love Mrs. Warboys saying "They hold a note quite well dont they"
The only person I felt was miscast was Pippa. She was brilliant but I could never see her and Patrick as a couple. Did anyone else feel like that?
I agree, a lot of people think that Victors the nasty one and Margarets the nice one, when, if anything it's the other way around.
Yeah, it irks me when people refer to Victor as a 'grumpy old man'. Even the continuity announcers do it on the show's reruns. Victor was not a grumpy old man - he was a sensitive guy who was dogged by bizarre bad luck, incompetence and completely surreal situations. He responded to it all in ways we all wish we'd have the guts to. People unfamiliar with the show probably think it's just about an old git moaning about life, when it is nothing of the sort - it's a rich, surreal programme about the absurdity of life.