The Life and Times of Derek Pangloss

Right, you can take your Alfred Hitchcock and Stan Lee cameos, and stick them right up your arse. We only do the important ones around here. So did you know that David Renwick appeared in One Foot in the Grave not once, not twice, but a total of seven times?

Let’s take a look. You may know one or two of these. You might even know all the ones listed on IMDB. But I believe that two of them are previously entirely unpublished. Including our very first example.

Series 2, Episode 4: Who Will Buy?

TX: 25th October 1990

Renwick’s first cameo in the series is an odd one. Indeed, you can barely hear him at all. The production paperwork confirms that the TV playing Poirot at the beginning of the show isn’t an actual clip from Poirot, but is… Angus Deayton and David Renwick.

This is a double in-joke, as at the time this episode aired, Renwick was a writer on Poirot, credited on four adaptations: “The Lost Mine” (TX: 21/1/90), “The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim” (TX: 4/2/90), “Wasps’ Nest” (27/1/91), and “The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor” (3/2/91). And once you know that, “Who Will Buy?” becomes even more intertextual than usual for One Foot in the Grave.

Starting off gently… until you’re suddenly watching a scene between Owen Brennan and Janine Duvitski with the actual Poirot theme playing in the background.

Series 4, Episode 6: Secret of the Seven Sorcerers

TX: 7th March 1993

Rather more audibly this time, Renwick makes a brief appearance as the radio presenter, again at the top of the episode:

I kind of feel I’d like to listen to a late night radio programme hosted by Renwick. Particularly one where I could ring up and ask him obscure questions about Hot Metal.

Series 5, Episode 4: Rearranging the Dust

TX: 15th January 1995

For my money, by far the funniest of all these cameos. No, he isn’t the man whose dog pisses all over Victor’s car. He’s the solicitor who, apropos of nothing, decides to get involved:

I find Renwick’s delivery of “professional representation without delay” very amusing indeed.

1997 Christmas Special: Endgame

TX: 25th December 1997

This is very, very silly. Renwick is the commentator on the American wrestling that poor old Derek McVitie accidentally records instead of Verdi’s Requiem.

Potential second career there, I think.

Series 6, Episode 1: The Executioner’s Song

TX: 16th October 2000

Yes, here’s the one everybody knows. The quite marvellously named Derek Pangloss is here to talk about your bowels, and only your bowels.

Potential third career there, I think.

Series 6, Episode 3: The Futility of the Fly

TX: 30th October 2000

Oh dear. Yes, Renwick is the Attenborough-like wildlife programme narrator in this highly disturbing sequence. More disturbing than anything in “Hearts of Darkness”.

The thing I really love about this is that in his final series, Renwick engineered a situation where he gets to narrate events in his own sitcom. I can’t think of anything more fitting, for either him or the show.

Series 6, Episode 6: Things Aren’t Simple Any More

TX: 20th November 2000

Appropriately enough, Renwick gets one last appearance in the final episode of the show. He’s part of the crew shooting the Christmas advert in the closing montage sequence, along with director Christine Gernon and producer Jonathan Paul Llewellyn. And doing some particularly amusing exasperated acting.

This is what passes for populist content on Dirty Feed, by the way.

With thanks to Darrell Maclaine-Jones.

UPDATE (26/12/21 @ 12:40pm): You know, when writing this article, I had a horrible feeling I was going to miss at least one cameo. What I didn’t think would happen is that I’d miss one of the most obvious cameos of the lot. I am brilliant.

So thanks to Darren Mackay and One Foot in the Podcast for pointing out Renwick’s appearance in “Things Aren’t Simple Any More”, which I had inexplicably missed entirely, and have now added.

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