David Renwick writes elaborate mysteries and domestic comedy that takes bad temper seriously. We recommend One Foot in the Grave for its feeling as much as its jokes, though he sometimes works too hard to manufacture another grievance.
Fi1m perspective
Victor Meldrew’s bad temper is funny, but David Renwick also makes us notice what it does to the people around him. In One Foot in the Grave (1990), retirement supplies grievances that are often absurd without making Victor’s anger seem invented for a joke. He remains difficult company, and the writing does not ask us to pretend otherwise. That willingness to leave a comic character awkward and exhausting is a large part of why we recommend the series.
Richard Wilson and Annette Crosbie give that writing the feeling it needs. We were unexpectedly moved by One Foot in the Grave: Renwick makes the effects of Victor’s temper on those around him matter as much as the joke. Wilson keeps the man persuasive even when the sequence of misfortunes starts to look too carefully arranged. Crosbie is equally important to a comedy whose sharpness depends on our caring about the company Victor keeps.
Renwick moved from sketch work with Andrew Marshall to solo writing in the late 1980s; One Foot in the Grave was his first major solo series. His contributions to Agatha Christie’s Poirot in 1990 and 1991 also put him to work in detective drama. Jonathan Creek (1997), with Alan Davies in the title role, brought apparently impossible crimes and their logical explanations together with character comedy. It is a sensible home for his skill at constructing puzzles that reward close attention.
The elaborate plotting is also where we begin to lose patience with One Foot in the Grave. Some chains of events are so insistent that we notice the writer supplying Victor with another reason to shout. Wilson and Crosbie get the series through those stretches, but an ordinary irritation would sometimes have been enough. Start with One Foot in the Grave, and forgive the occasional overworked plot for the sake of Wilson and Crosbie.
Biography
David Renwick is an English television writer, director and producer. He created and wrote the sitcom One Foot in the Grave (1990–2000), starring Richard Wilson, and the mystery series Jonathan Creek (1997–2016), starring Alan Davies. He also wrote episodes for Agatha Christie's Poirot.
Born in Luton in 1951, Renwick worked as a journalist on the Luton News before contributing comedy sketches, often with Andrew Marshall, to shows including The Two Ronnies and Not the Nine O'Clock News. He began writing solo projects in the late 1980s.
Renwick received the Writers' Guild Award for Best Comedy Writer in 1992 for One Foot in the Grave and the Ronnie Barker Award at the 2008 British Comedy Awards. He has written novels based on his sitcom.
