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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 253255" data-attributes="member: 23">Victoria Wood’s All Day Breakfast (continued) <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ELXgpADW4AEDB9e.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />I was most looking forward to revisiting The Mall, the successor to (and, as it turned out in the final instalment, a spin-off from) Acorn Antiques, updated for the Eldorado era. Though we were served a few wonderful moments of the “actors” tripping over their lines, and a camera came into shot at least once, it struck me that The Mall has less focus on technical hiccups and more on the contrivances in the writing, particularly the tendency to wallop the audience about the head with exposition and pipe-laying as we initially meet the characters. Such as Pippa preparing to open her new shop in the opening scene:And so it goes. Vic herself is great fun as a Trish Valentine/Pat Butcher type brassy gossip with a heart of gold. And Philip Lowrie regularly stole the show as the camp gay cafe owner, filling every line with innuendo, my favourite of which came when he offered Duncan Preston’s character a cappuccino, made by his assistant/toyboy lover:The set could conceivably have belonged to a cheap-ish daytime serial. I can imagine it being the kind of setup that viewers might have found reassuring. Its lack of scale made it feel intimate and cosy, all of which added to the believability of The Mall, which is incredibly helpful with satire. It was a treat to have a number of instalments appearing throughout the one special, which allowed it to be both serial and one-and-done deal at the same time. The identity of the mysterious new arrival was perfectly played with enjoyably unsubtle hints and interrupted sentences to build the excitement:The door opens, interrupting Pippa's crucial line. Mrs Overall’s inevitable arrival was a great moment, and it’s so good to hear the audience reaction when she arrives and opens a new branch of Acorn Antiques. Naturally, the bad acting goes into overdrive. My favourite moment, naturally, was Mrs O's single scene. After cutting off Roger mid-line (with the actor looking suitably irritated) she had to walk from one side of the Mall to the other, speaking and with three characters following her. It's just hilarious. They start, but she's too slow and they bump into one another. She recovers a little, but as she repeats her line, the fountain in the middle suddenly stops (presumably someone's realised it's obscuring the view of them and drowning out the sound) and she glares at it in confusion. Then she's so busy looking for her very visible mark on the floor she trips over her lines:The return of perhaps Vic’s most iconic and enduring creation alone makes this special feel incredibly important. I even love that it’s a huge retcon, since Mrs O. was killed off in Acorn Antiques. It’s another nod to the lack of attention writers sometimes pay to previous stories, and I like that Vic decided sod it and gave Mrs O. a happy ending (if not the rest of the Acorn Antiques characters). You can tell everyone involved is having a whale of a time, and none more so that Julie Walters who makes Mrs Overall's return a reason to cheer. Unusually for a 50 minute show, there’s just one solo stand-up/singing piece, which is saved for the very end. And it works well. This format could easily have run to a series, but instead condenses what Vic does best into less than an hour. There’s no chaff or filler and it ends up being a lovely little time capsule. Anyone with iPlayer might want to take advantage of this being there before it’s taken down in five days’ time. While there, I noticed there are a few more Vic-related shows, including an episode of Mastermind with Victoria Wood as one of the specialist subjects. I’ll certainly be diving into that one in the coming days. </blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?