Have I Got News for You to Ian and Kevin Maxwell, in case programme-makers appear biased in their treatment of these two heartless, scheming bastards." However, the Maxwell brothers were about to go on trial, and on 26 July 1996, the BBC and Hat Trick Productions were fined £10,000 each in the High Court for contempt of court. The risky nature of the joke was readily apparent on the night itself, with Hislop and Merton humorously claiming that Deayton might genuinely have to prepare himself for a spell in prison because of it. In 1996, a book based on the series, "Have I Got 1997 for
One Foot in the Grave Television Sitcom in 1992 from the Royal Television Society and the British Comedy Award for Best Sitcom in 1992, 1995 and 2001. In 2004, "One Foot in the Grave" came tenth in a BBC poll to find "Britain's Best Sitcom" with 31,410 votes. The programme also came 80th in the British Film Institute's 100 Greatest British Television Programmes A number of complaints were made during the series' run for its depiction of animal deaths. For example, in the episode "The Valley of Fear", a dead cat is found in the Meldrews' freezer; in another, a tortoise is roasted in a