The Nation's Favourite

This was a commissioned article for the theatre programme of the Comedy Theatre Company's production of dinnerladies (2011).

Victoria Wood has been the nation's favourite name for over a quarter of a century. Ever since she made her television debut in 1974 on ITV talent show New Faces, she has been delighting audiences with her wry eye for the foibles of everyday life, filtered through well-drawn characters and rich dialogue, which led one Guardian critic to describe her as "the lovechild of Alan Bennett and Pam Eyres".

Wood first made a name for herself performing comic songs on the BBC consumer affairs series That's Life in 1976. Although the songs would remain part of her repertoire (most famously, 'The Ballad of Barry and Freda'), Wood's background as a drama undergraduate led her to write her first play, Talent, which was adapted by Granada TV in 1979. Two more plays, Nearly a Happy Ending and Happy Since I Met You, saw Wood work with long-term friend Julie Walters, and Duncan Preston, the beginning of a regular collaboration that would remain into the next two decades. Both Wood and Walters were the stars of a titular series for Granada, which saw Wood’s first effort at combining songs and sketches.

However, it was a move to the BBC and the series Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV that saw Wood’s talents come to fruition. Complemented by a repertory cast of Celia Imrie, Duncan Preston and Julie Walters, Wood’s astute characterization and dialogue was perfectly realized in a series of stand-ups, songs and sketches, the most memorable of which was the spoof soap opera Acorn Antiques, which affectionately parodied the wooden acting, contrived plots and low production values of Crossroads and its ilk. The sketch was so successful that it became a hit West End musical 20 years later, directed by Trevor Nunn at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

As Seen on TV earned Wood the BAFTA for /Best Light Entertainment Programme Award three years running (1985–1987), which she won for a fourth time the following year with An Audience With Victoria Wood. The 80s ended with an eponymous series, Victoria Wood, consisting of six comedy playlets set in places like an airport departure lounge and a health farm. Although not as well-received as As Seen on TV, the series showcased Wood’s flair for character and situation, a precursor to her future work on dinnerladies.

In 1994, the drama Pat and Margaret (1994), starring Walters and Wood as the titular long-lost sisters, was a venture into darker, more poignant territory for Wood. Her first full-length drama since the early 80s, Pat and Margaret drew critical acclaim and was nominated for two BAFTA Awards. Her talent for drama reached an apex with the 2006 ITV biopic Housewife, 49, based on the diaries of wartime housewife Nella Last. The drama won two BAFTAs for Best Single Drama and Best Actress for Wood.

In amongst her dramatic work, Wood continued to produce one-off comedy shows, such as Victoria Wood’s All Day Breakfast and the Christmas specials Victoria Wood With All the Trimmings and Victoria Wood’s Midlife Christmas. She also continued touring her stand-up act to sell-out audiences, and it was while on tour that the idea for a sitcom germinated.

dinnerladies made its debut on BBC1 at 9.30pm on Thursday 12 November 1998. Set in the canteen of a Manchester factory, it starred Wood as dinner lady Bren, along with Thelma Barlow and Anne Reid as the bickering Dolly and Jean, Maxine Peake as the stroppy Twinkle, Shobna Gulati as the dotty Anita and Andrew Dunn as supervisor Tony, Bren’s love interest. The show also featured Wood’s regular collaborators Celia Imrie, Duncan Preston and Julie Walters, the latter giving a memorable performance as Bren’s eccentric and self-centred mother, Petula.

With Wood’s acerbic writing and a strong ensemble cast, dinnerladies was an instant smash with audiences and critics alike, gaining over nine million viewers in its first series. TV critic Cameron Borland called it “brilliantly written, wonderfully observed, and above all else, beautifully played”. The Radio Times’ Jasper Rees compared Wood’s writing to that other great observer of northern vernacular, Alan Bennett, noting how she is “tuned to the northerner’s pickiness with vocabulary, and her scripts take on fastidiousness”. And, like the best of Bennett, dinnerladies is intrinsically infused with a bittersweet quality: “I never meant to do pathos,” said Wood, “but I can’t seem to avoid it”.

A second and final series of dinnerladies followed in November 1999, with Wood announcing she had taken the series as far as she could go; but, after 16 episodes over two series, it went out on a high, winning Best TV Comedy at the 2000 British Comedy Awards.

Then, in April 2009, nearly a decade after the last television series, dinnerladies was revived as a London stage show, prior to a national tour. Andrew Dunn and Shobna Gulati reprised their roles from the television series. Another tour followed in 2010 with original cast member Sue Devaney.

 

© John Good