Clive Mantle "The Return of Shelley" and had a small role as Johnny Ladder in the Menahem Golan-directed film "Mack the Knife", a 19th-century set crime comedy which starred Raúl Juliá, Richard Harris, and Julia Migenes in the leading roles. He also appeared in the radio plays "Farewell, My Lovely"; "Frozen Assets"; and "The Rise and Fall of the Romanov Autocracy". In 1990, Mantle had a small role as an electric meter reader in the "One Foot in the Grave" episode "The Return of the Speckled Band", and played Harry, a man who "gave Clint Eastwood a pounding" in "White Hunter Black
One Foot in the Grave occasionally the subject of controversy for some of its darker story elements, but nevertheless received a number of awards, including the 1992 BAFTA for Best Comedy. The programme came 80th in the British Film Institute's 100 Greatest British Television Programmes. The series, originally shown on BBC One, is now available on DVD and is regularly repeated in the United Kingdom. Four episodes were remade for BBC Radio 2. The series inspired a novel, published in 1992, featuring the most memorable moments from the first two series and the first Christmas special. The series features the exploits and mishaps of irascible