Doreen Mantle, who has died aged 97, found fame in her 60s as Mrs Warboys, the hapless, naive best friend of Margaret, the grumpy Victor Meldrew’s longsuffering wife, in the sitcom One Foot in the Grave. The much-loved programme, created by David Renwick, starred Richard Wilson as Victor and Annette Crosbie as Margaret, and ran for six series between 1990 and 2000.
The character of Mrs Warboys was initially devised for a story in the first episode, in which Renwick needed a guinea pig for the forcibly retired Victor when, looking for ways to fill his time, he tests his conjuror’s rusting guillotine, recovered from the attic after 12 years. Feeling that the scene would not be as funny with Margaret suffering the humiliation, Renwick substituted her friend. “I want to get out – I feel extremely dizzy,” Mrs Warboys says, lying flat on her front, shortly before the blade falls and she survives the ordeal.
