Today we are looking at our favourite grumpy TV characters. Those ‘bah humbug’ and ‘I don’t believe it!’ men who are well known for their sour dispositions.

Probably the first person who springs to mind is Victor Meldrew – it was for me – but our screens are regularly graced by men who just love a good moan, and in fact, a whole series of shows and programmes have been devoted to blokes who just can’t help grumbling.

Grumpy Shows

One such show is the aptly titled Grumpy Old Men, which first appeared on our screens in 2003 and featured conversations with a variety of telly’s best loved moaners, who – in true British style – love to moan but rarely complain. You know the sort of thing; you go to a restaurant and think the soup’s cold, but you don’t want to make a scene so you say nothing, but moan incessantly about it thereafter.

Narrated by a classic grumpy old man, Geoffrey Palmer – who played the harried patriarch of the family in Butterflies – the show lets its guests let off steam about issues that bug them.

Over the years it’s featured chat with Jeremy Clarkson, Bob Geldof, A. A. Gill, Nigel Havers, Tony Hawks, Simon Hoggart, Rory McGrath, Bill Nighy, Matthew Parris, the late John Peel, Will Self, Arthur Smith, Tim Rice, Rick Stein, Tony Slattery, Rick Wakeman, Lemn Sissay, Don Warrington and Des Lynam, among many others.

In case you’ve never seen it, here’s ten minutes or so from one of the shows, but be warned, it contains swearing!

The show has spawned several ‘specials’ such as Grumpy Old Men at Christmas and led to a sister show, Grumpy Old Women.

And there was the hugely successful American film, Grumpy Old Men starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Here’s a clip from it to demonstrate why it is we love a grumpy old git…

Memorable Moaners!

So who’s our best loved miserable git? Is it Victor Meldrew whose entire life is dogged by what he sees as the unreasonable nature of the rest of the population, or is someone like Jeremy Clarkson who’d find something to moan about if he were dropped spang in the centre of paradise?

Or maybe your favourite is someone like Jim Royle who moans and groans about pretty much everything. In fact, his often used phrase ‘my arse’ has become a nationally recognised way of showing our displeasure at something, and rightly so – it gets right down to the point without further elucidation.

In telly history, there’ve been some great male moaners, such as Albert Tatlock in Coronation Street, Amos Brierly in Emmerdale and Albert Steptoe in Steptoe and Son. It seems we just love to watch a man with a bugbear and find amusement in hearing his woes.

Here’s a clip of Albert Steptoe at his miserable, bigoted best. Again, it contains some offensive language!

So who’s your favourite grumpy git on telly? Let us know!