"Beat me on the bottom with a Woman's Weekly": All things Victoria Wood

Mel O'Drama

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Victoria’s Empire


Episode Two - Ghana, Jamaica and Newfoundland

Episode Three - New Zealand, Australia, Zambia and Victoria Falls

(6th-13th May 2007)




The second and third episodes continued in the same vein. I know I shouldn’t be, because it’s Victoria Wood, but I felt surprised at the level of quotable humour in the writing. I didn’t expect to laugh out loud so much:

Victoria Wood said:
Absolutely boiling. I wouldn’t advise anyone planning a menopause to come here… It’s soggy heat. I feel like a complementary hand towel in an Indian Restaurant.

I think it’s a lovely way to get a message across. One minute Vic is in a taxi in Ghana quipping that while the taxi driver tells her the government is corrupt, at least he won’t be complaining that there are too many black people, as taxi drivers back home do. The next she’s standing before a mural depicting the history of slavery in the area and it’s no joking matter.

It’s the perfect balance. Behind the humour is a serious message, brought to life in a way that’s perhaps more shocking because Vic is as blunt and frank about grim facts as she is cultural idiosyncrasies.


She visits a tiny dungeon beneath a Christian chapel on a fort, into which around 300 captives would be compressed for weeks or months before being shipped to lives of slavery in sugar plantations.


The detail is horrifying. The ships in which they were crammed, chained in twos on shelves could be smelt for over ten miles. The life expectancy of a plantation slave was just eight years, and that was the ones that didn’t die from dysentery or starve themselves to death. On visiting the dungeon, Vic comments:
Victoria Wood said:
The British people obviously had no difficulty reconciling the two activities. Cramming frightened people into a filthy hole and singing to Jesus.

It’s fascinating to see her discussing her understandable discomfiture as a white British woman to people who live locally when reflecting on the entitlement of the British slavers.

Equally, she speaks about the British cruelty towards the indigenous Maori people when taking New Zealand, and her anger at the injustice comes across.

Vic is the perfect host for this series, because there’s absolutely nothing fake about her, which drives home the reality of those moments of reverence. In contrast to this, there are irreverent moments where Vic pokes gentle fun at the huge emphasis of God in the culture, or tells a Queen Victoria statue to crack a smile. Her comments when en route to meet a monarchist in Newfoundland were hilarious:
Victoria Wood said:
I don’t know what I think of the Royal Family really. I think the Queen does a good job. Princess Margaret had some very jaunty swimwear. But, a bit like a soap on the telly, you lose track when there’s too many young people.
Victoria Wood said:

I’ve been told Carla collects Royal Family dolls, so I’m rather dreading being surrounded by a load of wooly Queen Mothers or bears. Oh crikey. Please let them not be bears in tiaras.


While speaking to Carla, Vic’s voiceover tells us that she wishes she was allowed to ask her to speak more quickly, as she’s now late for another engagement. I love how up front she is about the stresses of documentary making.





(continued)

 

Mel O'Drama

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Victoria’s Empire

(continued)




There’s plenty of scope for great Victoria Wood material in the third episode where Vic visits a traditional herbalist in a market place in Zambezi marketplace. She points to various items as tells her what each item treats - tortoiseshells for bleeding (it’s set on fire and one inhales the smoke); a python skin for treating ear problems, and so on. Vic points to some feathers on a stick and asks what that is used for. Turns out it’s a feather duster that the herbalist uses to clean his stall.

And it gets worse, Vic points to some items in a bowl that look like a cross between sausages and slugs. Her voiceover as he talks is hilarious:
Herbalist said:
This is… special for women.
Vic in voiceover said:
Herbalist said:
If a lady have got a problem… to her vagina.
Vic in voiceover said:
Herbalist said:
If she is very big…
Vic in voiceover said:
Oh! Please!
Herbalist said:
…she can get this, and put it…
Vic in voiceover said:
I’m not listening… Can we go now?


Throughout the whole three hours, there’s no sense of a default, politically correct, safe stance on certain topics. She sits through a church service that she complains is “slow” and “plodding’ and no more interesting than services in the UK. As she is served a hearty meal by her hosts, she tells us in voiceover that she really doesn’t want any - it’s too late and too hot. She visits a park but says it looks too dull to get out of the taxi and suggests that if viewers are that interested to know what it’s like they can just visit a terrible park near their home. She has opinions and she states them. But she does so in a way that’s palatable and endearing. There’s no question of Vic prostituting her own beliefs or value systems at all. She listens with an open mind, and speaks from the heart. And I adore her for it.

At her last stop of Victoria Falls, Vic comments how the more she’s travelled, the less equipped she feels to do a “clever, end-of-documentary, smartypants type summing up”. So she does what she does best. She speaks from the heart, puts some stuff out there, admits she doesn’t know and leaves it with the audience to digest, to process and to decide. As a documentary, this series is fascinating. As a piece of Victoria Wood work it’s a work of brilliance, and one that shows us more of Victoria herself than almost anything else out there.
 

Mel O'Drama

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Happy Birthday, BAFTA





(7th November 2007)







While not really a Victoria Wood vehicle, I thought this eight minute section was worth a watch as it saw Vic revisiting the standup from which she’d practically retired.

It’s great to see and feels very much like a Reader’s Digest version of a full-length Vic standup show. Having watched a number of live shows, now, a number of the gags here were very familiar. But they’re no less funny. And there’s a lot of new material as well. Apart from the delivery, which makes everything feel fresh and spontaneous, everything’s cleverly fitted into a broader theme of “The Seven Signs Of Ageing”.

As always, Vic’s observational humour hones in on very British behaviours. Many of which are influenced by other cultures. In true Noughties style, Vic now covers everything from skinny lattes to texting to sitting on wet aluminium chairs on the pavement when going out to eat. And other areas of progress are covered:


Victoria Wood said:
Another sign of ageing is you remember when it was “Jif”. You were happy when it was “Oil Of Ulay”… We never used it, but we all had one.

I liked Jif… It implied you could clean your bath in a jiffy… “Cif”. Is that for the EU? Is that cos Spanish people can’t say “juh”? Is everything going to have to start with a “suh”? …Jelly Babies. They’re going to have to be “Selly Babies”. Jammy Dodgers have to be “Sammy Dodgers”. Jockstraps have to be “sock straps”. Which for some people they always have been.

As a whistle-stop farewell to stand-up, this is a treat, with the perfect balance of nostalgia and newness.
 

Mel O'Drama

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Victoria Wood’s Mid Life Christmas


(24th December 2009)






It’s appropriate that the final show of my chronological DVD rewatch also marks the thirtieth anniversary of Talent, the twentieth anniversary of the Victoria Wood sitcom series (this shocked me. Where does the time go?), fifteen years since Pat and Margaret, and ten years since dinnerladies was drawing to a close.

In common with all the above, Vic is paired with Julie Walters for one of several threads running through the series. Better yet, Julie is playing one of her most iconic roles: actress Bo Beaumont. The brilliant spoof documentary Beyond The Marigolds sees Bo - post Mrs Overall - attempting to find her way back into the public eye by entering the tacky world of reality TV.

Along the way, Bo and her “friend and companion” Wendy (played by Vic) meet various household names - Delia Smith, Torvill & Dean, Anton from one of the dancing shows - who are horrified by her ideas (Delia), lack of skill (Torvill & Dean) or lack of interest and application (Anton). There’s also a reverse situation when Bo storms off after meeting a producer of I’m A Celebrity… who fills her in on celebrities eating sphincters and willies of various animals.

Vic does this documentary style so well. Julie is brilliant as the theatrical luvvie who is condescending towards everyone she meets (she keeps forgetting Anton’s name, and criticises the biscuit Delia offers her for being in the oven a couple of minutes too long). She also gamely flails about while clinging to the side of an ice rink.

The relationship between Bo and Wendy isn’t explicitly stated, and is all the better for it. If the announcer had simply stated that Bo now lives happily with her lover Wendy, it would be a one joke moment (and a pretty bad one at that). Instead, Wendy is simply seen being domestic around the house, fetching and carrying for Bo and tagging along with her to all her engagements. It’s almost addressed in a moment at the ice rink, where the documentary maker Colin gets a moment alone with her:

Colin said:
You do an awful lot for Bo… there’s the shopping, cooking, cleaning and driving… You’re almost a dogsbody.
Wendy said:
I’m very privileged. You don’t see what she does for me.
Colin said:
You know, I don’t. What does she do for you? I’m intrigued.
Wendy said:
SHE’S MY LIFE. She’s my life.

It reminds me very much of Vic’s song Pam in which the protagonist unwittingly “chums up” with Joan who moves in then professes her love.

Is Wendy an obsessed fan? Does she love Bo? And, if so, is it reciprocal? Is Bo even aware of Wendy’s feelings? Does she love Wendy back? Or is she simply happy to have a slave? I love that these questions aren’t answered.


Appropriately, as we near the end of their collaborative work, the relationship between the glamorous, showbiz-loving Bo and her homely, timid companion Wendy has echoes of Julie and Maureen from their first screen pairing Talent, more than three decades earlier.

After deciding to forget the whole reality show business, she settles in at home where Wendy puts a blanket over her knees, serves her a plate of assorted snacks (including her famed “crackermole”) and they settle down to watch When Celebrity Gastric Bands Fail. The message, perhaps, is that it’s more fun to watch celebrities making fools of themselves than to be a celebrity making a fool of yourself. Bo, for all her ignorance about reality TV and the people who occupy it, has ended up making the wisest choice of all. It’s a delight to see the happy sparkle in Bo’s eyes as she sits, tray on lap, and stuffs her face. It’s the perfect way to leave this character, and I’m glad she’s had a kind of closure. It's a good place to leave her.






(continued)


 

Mel O'Drama

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Victoria Wood’s Mid Life Christmas



(continued)




Thematically, this special feels a little like Vic’s greatest hits being given a new spin. There’s lots of familiar ground, and the new stuff is enjoyably analogous with earlier material, while still being fresh and new. Julie aside, there are none of Vic’s usual rep company. And while they’re missed, it’s to Vic’s credit that without them the special still feels, well… special.

Additional recurring sketches in the series include Lark Pies To Cranchesterford, a spoof of earnest “bonnet” period dramas of the time. I haven’t watched these a great deal, but I’d have to assume it’s spot on. There’s some familiarity to fans of earlier satires such as Acorn Antiques and The Mall, with genre tropes (there is a lot of anachronistic contemporary language, and even some Americanisms, which is presumably a swipe at period telly’s lack of attention to detail. At one point Vic’s character says “You do the math”), bad dialogue and occasional technical glitches such as extras standing round awaiting their cue before moving, or poorly composed shots with Vic’s character’s huge sleeves dominating the shot in the foreground.

Then there’s the thread which captures the episode’s title: the Mid-Life Olympics, which is wonderfully observed. One of the funniest moments sees footage of the Ladies Outdoor Parking event, where the commentators observe and discuss such dramatic moments as a woman bursting into tears after failing to reverse into a space with the task completed by a passing male motorist. It’s a typically hilarious, politically incorrect, life-based observation from Victoria.

In common with As Seen On TV, the episode begins with a Vic monologue and closes with a song. The Christmas-themed monologue is nicely observed. From there being nothing on TV, to a visiting relative sidling up to a plug in air freshener to fart, hoping the scent of cinnamon and vanilla will cover up essence of sprout.

The song is a highlight, which is a little surprising since it’s an old one. But it’s THE Victoria Wood song.

It’s given a build-up right from the beginning, when Vic references all the Barrys and Fredas sitting at home, and we actually see Barry and Freda watching the show a few times throughout. In closing, Vic sits at the piano to sing The Ballad Of Barry And Freda before the audience. But in-keeping with the rest of the episode, this is a classic with a twist.

Firstly, many of the lyrics are new, referencing everything from Russell Brand to an old favourite subject of Vic’s… daytime telly:

Victoria Wood said:
I can’t do it. I can’t do it. I must refuse to get unzipped. I’m tearful. I’m fearful. Worried that I’m ill-equipped. Don’t bully. I can’t fully guarantee to cope without a rope and pulley.


Victoria Wood said:
Let’s handle some scandal. Come and sip Ribena from my peep-toe sandal. Surprise me. Chastise me. Let’s be Fern and Phil and you can patronise me.


There are even some new Christmas lyrics:

Victoria Wood said:
Get festive. Get restive. Dunk me in the duvet like a big Digestive. Just humour a late bloomer. Stuff me Christmas stocking with your big satsuma.

This new version of the song becomes a green screen SFX extravaganza as numerous Fredas and Barrys - resplendent in cardigans and dressing gowns appear in order to dance round Vic’s piano, before stripping to baggy y-fronts and enormous bras to do a full-on Busby Berkeley inspired routine, complete with elaborate synchronised dance moves and aerial shots. It’s a triumph. Not quite as funny as earlier versions which have Vic and the piano - binging the story to life deprives the audience of the hilarious mental imagery the lyrics evoke - but it’s a great little time capsule version, and certainly brought my journey through Vic on DVD to an appropriately rousing, nostalgic close.
 

Mel O'Drama

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What Larks Or… What I Did On My Holidays!





(December 2009)





For most hour long TV specials, an accompanying making of which runs for forty minutes would be excessive, and would probably wear thin after ten of those minutes.

But this is written and presented by Vic and so is an absolute treat. She talks us through Mid Life Christmas from conception to production. It’s all here: putting together a period piece; learning dance routines; working with green screen.

There’s also an in-depth look at the wonderful dance sequence in which Vic plays The Apprentice’s Margaret Mountford to perfection. From the splitting desk to the timing of the skirt being ripped off. It’s all covered. How else would we know that Alan Sugar's silhouette was played by Susan Tully's Dad?!

Typically, Vic is quite frank about the things that went wrong or that she wasn’t happy with, and as we get to some reshoots of the Freda and Barry sequence, Vic talks us through how she’d have liked it to be if they’d had the time and budget. It covers the sort of stresss we wouldn’t normally think about - like the road outside the theatre being dug up by workmen with loud drills on the day the show was to be played to an audience.

The producer gets a number of scathing comments from Vic in voiceover and, possibly through editing, comes out of it looking a little ineffectual. It’s difficult to know whether she really felt he wasn’t that good or she loved him enough to be able to take the pee, as she would with Julie Walters. It could be either. Vic has said that she didn’t feel the BBC trusted her and were too heavy handed with their input, and it seems to be common knowledge that Vic was unhappy with the scheduling of this special as she’d expected it to air on Christmas Day rather than Christmas Eve. Perhaps the slightly derisory comments about the producer are representative of those creative struggles.

There are several prolonged sequences of Vic walking round London by the National Theatre or across the Golden Jubilee Footbridge talking into camera that feel very natural and accessible. It’s just like taking a walk with a friend. Which is how it should be for a national treasure.

It might be an accompanying piece, but this look at wheels of showbiz turning is hugely entertaining in its own right, being viewed as it is through Vic’s eyes.
 

Barbara Fan

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little tit bits from the bio

Betty Jackson made her clothes.

Not all the cast were happy on dinnerladies - Duncan Preston felt he was underused and they werent keen on all the script rewrites they had to learn as it was filmed twice!!

Just got to 2002 and she and the great Soprendo have separated.
 

Mel O'Drama

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Duncan Preston felt he was underused

It's an interesting one, that. Stan was a quiet, introverted kind of character. To me he was written and played perfectly and I thought he had some terrific moments, like his anger at people treating equipment badly, or that lovely moment after his father died. But I can imagine it might be frustrating to be in that role if Duncan himself is an extrovert. When I watched that Des and Mel interview recently, I remember being surprised at how animated and lively he seemed compared with many of his best-known roles.


and they werent keen on all the script rewrites they had to learn as it was filmed twice!!

That's understandable. Vic seems to have been a perfectionist, and I can imagine that would cause people to question why there's a need to film it the way she wanted. But the end result speaks for itself.



Just got to 2002 and she and the great Soprendo have separated.

Out of interest, does it say anything about the reasons behind the separation?
 

Mel O'Drama

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Victoria Wood: The Secret List





(2020 - based on Victoria’s 2009 plans)





At first glance, I considered giving this one a miss. The premise is described thus:
In 2009,Victoria wrote a list of her favourite moments from her seminal 80s series - As Seen On TV - intending to produce a 25th anniversary compilation, before finding herself busy with other projects. The list remained locked away in her office - until now.

Now, I finished rewatching As Seen On TV in its entirety just three and a half weeks ago. Great as it is, the idea of watching a clip show didn’t thrill me. And the idea of a series based on someone’s jottings sounds like a Vic sketch in itself. It reminds me of that time the continuity announcer described an upcoming period drama which was based on some wigs left over from another production.

According to the official write up:


Victoria Wood's Secret List features more than 20 sketches from the comedian's vast array of work. The sketches - chosen by Victoria herself - were discovered on a list in one of her personal notebooks after her untimely death.

Both programmes will also feature previously unseen insights into Victoria's life, including clips from her own personal archive. They also include contributions from a number of well-known faces who will discuss her broad catalogue of award-winning comedy.



Basing a TV series around a dead person’s jottings seems at best tacky, and at worst mercenary. It raises some questions around ethics with which, even as a viewer, I had to wrestle. Tellingly, there are no contributions from Vic’s colleagues.

Other than one woman said to be an intimate friend who reads out extracts of Vic’s letters to order while looking appropriately pensive, nobody present seems to have even known Vic. Instead, there are talking heads from three or four people for whom the description “well-known faces” seems so much an exaggeration as an outright lie. I didn’t recognise one of their faces, and only one name (writer Russell T. Davies) rang any kind of bell. They seemed to be the people who were free on that afternoon rather than being curated with any kind of care.

Apart from Davies and the crying friend, contributors were all of the standup comedienne variety - mostly very young. All claiming to be inspired by Vic (which I’m sure they were, although perhaps in some cases not as completely as they claimed). A couple were coming at it from entirely the wrong angle of gynocentrism, which really isn’t what Vic is about. Retconning her as a feminist rather than a hugely successful writer and performer who transcends gender misses the point and actually belittles her successes. But it’s to be expected from the BBC who are notorious for not really getting what Vic is about.

Once again, the Beeb censor Vic’s work while claiming to celebrate it. One of Mrs Overall’s funniest lines from the final Acorn Antiques episode - “Oh my good golliwog” - was censored to be “Oh my good golly”. Missing the point entirely that the term is supposed to be more inflammatory than the “good God” it’s substituting. That’s the gag. I really am wary about watching old material shown on the BBC, because their approach to anything deemed (by them) to be controversial seems to be censorship rather than open discussion. How can I take what I'm watching at face value? And how can anyone make an informed decision based on material that’s edited to be non-triggering to hypersensitive millennials? Thank God for the unedited DVDs.

While, so far, it may sound as though I hated this two parter, I really didn’t. It was pleasantly surprising to find that the scope wasn’t entirely limited to As Seen On TV. There were clips of Vic interviews, and the ones from early in her career were as fascinating as ever. Other vehicles of Vic’s were included, from Talent (there was a brief outtake showing them preparing for a scene) through to her eponymous 1989 series, Pat & Margaret, dinnerladies and Housewife, 49. Even That Day We Sang got a mention.

The clips themselves - and many from the list were shown in full - were as wonderful as ever. Despite only having watched them very recently, they still had me grinning from ear to ear.


For anyone interested, the full list can be found here.
 

Mel O'Drama

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More Dawn French’s Girls Who Do Comedy





(2006)







I had to have a peek at these two last night. The Victoria Wood episode and the Julie Walters episode, naturally. Both very insightful. Julie’s hugely quick-witted and animated and makes for a delightful subject. Vic is very deep and gives some very thoughtful and fascinating replies.

Both of them are incredibly frank on all kinds of topics from schooldays to family and divorce.

Vic is also very critical of her younger self, saying how she wasn’t very good in her New Faces/That’s Life days because she knew little about the world or about herself. There’s a sense that she’s really grown into being comfortable with herself that echoes the growing confidence that’s been apparent from watching her work chronologically.
 

Barbara Fan

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Im impressed @Mel O'Drama - still there reviewing Miss Wood

I find that i have to do it in dribs and drabs as I can only take in so many songs or skectches or epiosdes of Acorn Antiques before it gets to me as too much and i need a break.

Im still looking for Eric and Ernie DVD, shout if you ever find it!! She is casting it right now in her book and Daniel Rigby became her lodger in London and they got on really well.
 

Mel O'Drama

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Im impressed @Mel O'Drama - still there reviewing Miss Wood

Oh thanks BF. Although I'm probably heading towards a natural end. There are some grainy old interviews on YouTube, but there's not much more I can watch on TV, I think.


I find that i have to do it in dribs and drabs as I can only take in so many songs or skectches or epiosdes of Acorn Antiques before it gets to me as too much and i need a break.

I know what you mean. I think it's helped that I've done a mix of sketch shows, films, documentaries, interviews and sitcoms, so it's been quite varied which has helped me stay interested.


Im still looking for Eric and Ernie DVD, shout if you ever find it!!

I will. I'm hoping to come across it myself at some point.


She is casting it right now in her book and Daniel Rigby became her lodger in London and they got on really well.

Oh, that's not too long ago. Does this mean you're near the end of the book?
 

Barbara Fan

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Im in the final 1/4 of it and have passed all the pages with pics!! ;)

I used to devour books, now im a slow reader in bed and sure i doze off on occasion!!
 

Mel O'Drama

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Im in the final 1/4 of it and have passed all the pages with pics!! ;)

Oh - that's a sure sign you're on the last lap.



I used to devour books, now im a slow reader in bed and sure i doze off on occasion!!

I'm the same. I used to have at least one on the go all the time and would read a few every week. But I just don't seem to have the concentration for it these days. It takes a lot more effort than it used to, and I read far too little as a result.
 

Mel O'Drama

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Victoria Wood In Her Own Words



(2020)





This feature-length documentary serves not only as a whistle-stop tour of Vic’s career on stage and screen but also as a study into who she was as a person, with a little exploration of her unusual childhood and her difficult mother, her marriage to Geoffrey Durham and the themes in her work that came out of her real experiences, such as her hysterectomy and her eating disorder.

Overall there’s a better class of contributor than The Secret List had. Those who’ve worked on Vic’s shows include Susie Blake, Duncan Preston, Shobna Gulati and Christopher Harper who played her gay son in Housewife, 49. There are some well known faces such as Gyles Brandreth, Jenny Eclair and Jo Brand. Beyond that it’s an iffy mix of talking heads, mostly “comics” of the ilk that would appear on Richard Osman’s House Of Games to save costs in order to pay for the one celebrity viewers have heard of. There’s the one who won “Celebrity” Mastermind with Vic as her specialist subject. A couple of young women: one with pink hair and one without. And two middle aged men: one with a hipster beard; the other whose huge glasses were wearing him.

It sounds a little tacky. And being on 5 I was braced for it to be so. But actually it’s done with taste and fondness.

There are many well-chosen clips from Vic’s career, including numerous interviews and films Eric and Ernie.

The view of Vic, while appropriately weighted towards admiration of Vic’s talent, is quite balanced. Vic’s lack of self-esteem is touched upon, as is her need to control her environment and to take tough decisions. Christopher Harper mentions being taken aback at her brusque professional detachment when he went to her home to audition, as he’d been expecting the friendly stage persona.

Duncan Preston in particular is a delight. He’s quite frank about his own shortcomings saying, for example, that he didn’t feel he fully got what Vic wanted of him in Happy Since I Met You.

Duncan also talks about the arguments he had with Vic over his lack of material in dinnerladies, as @Barbara Fan was saying about recently. He evidently asked Vic if he could be written out. She firmly told him “no” but a few days later the rewritten scripts arrived and Stan got to lose his rag over something. It came across that while Vic was willing to be unpopular for the good of the project, she would also compromise and collaborate for the same reasons. Watching this, it became clear how difficult a time she had on dinnerladies. Writing it all. Wanting to micromanage all aspects (the director once asked her to go away when she was behind the camera with him for a scene in which she didn’t appear). Appearing in it. Recording it in front of an audience. Then scrutinising it to see what she wanted to change and staying up all night doing rewrites in order to record it a second time. It must have been a very lonely time. But what incredible results she got because she knew exactly what needed to be done.

Still available to view on My5 for anyone who’s interested, In Her Own Words is well worth a look for Vic fans. In the best way possible, it’s been like flashing back over my last six weeks’ viewing history. Which makes it the perfect coda to my Victoria Woodathon.
 

Barbara Fan

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The one thing that came across to me re dinnerladies was that she appeared to be a control freak, and as you say she hardly slept as she was always rewriting between Day 1 and 2 of filming. I get the impression she didnt suffer fools gladly either and she quickly fell out of love with the BBC

One thing became apparent, she wouldnt have coped with Duffy and Hagman and their ad libbing and playing around!!
 

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Mel O'Drama

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The one thing that came across to me re dinnerladies was that she appeared to be a control freak

I think she'd need to be. She's a visionary, and it must be so difficult to have a very clear, very specific intuition around what's going to work and then be around people who don't get it. It must have been very difficult to entrust others to speak the words she'd chosen so carfully. I think that's why those people who were able to read her work the way she saw it were the ones she kept re-using.


I get the impression she didnt suffer fools gladly either and she quickly fell out of love with the BBC

From what I've seen of the way the BBC have treated some of her work, I can fully understand that. If Victoria wanted to say something, she was going to say it, and I can't imagine her taking kindly to someone trying to muzzle her or change her vision.


One thing became apparent, she wouldnt have coped with Duffy and Hagman and their ad libbing and playing around!!

Oh yes. Can you imagine?!

I think it's the musician in Victoria. It's been fascinating to watch her in interviews talking about the importance of rhythms and how each word is carefully chosen to create a certain rhythm, just like a piece of music. With these things I suppose there are some sets where ad libbing is encouraged, some where people can get away with it, and others where it's just a big no-no. I have to respect all the actors who worked with Vic, because their memories for dialogue must have been impeccable in order for them to make it.




Don't know if such a thing even exists after your exhaustive Woodathon, @Mel O'Drama but this promises "never-heard-before material" at 6.30 this evening

Oh my word. What perfect timing. Thanks for this James. I'll have a listen to it in the morning (although, of course, by then it will have been heard before).
 

Barbara Fan

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Missed one of your questions @Mel O'Drama

The book touches on their marriage and that they went to counselling in the 90s, but by 2002 their marriage had broken down, tried it again but a combination of workload, pressure, time apart - he was often away too for long periods as the great Soprendo or in Pantomime ,and stress of dinnerladies took its toll and Mr Durham moved out to a flat nearby but had good access to their children.
 

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The book touches on their marriage and that they went to counselling in the 90s, but by 2002 their marriage had broken down, tried it again but a combination of workload, pressure, time apart - he was often away too for long periods as the great Soprendo or in Pantomime ,and stress of dinnerladies took its toll and Mr Durham moved out to a flat nearby but had good access to their children.

Thanks for that BF. In Victoria Wood: In Her Own Words, something that came across strongly was that the two remained on good terms right up to the end, which I thought was lovely.





this promises "never-heard-before material" at 6.30 this evening

It was a really fun listen and there were a few things I hadn't heard before (the tour guide was great). I really liked the tone of the show, which didn't take itself too seriously. And best of all, they got stuck into the semantics and rhythms. It certainly made the ironing feel less chore-ish, and I'm looking forward to part two next week.
 
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