Victoria Wood
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Victoria Wood OBE (born 19 May 1953) is an English comedienne, actress, singer and writer. She has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with songs of her own composition, which she accompanies on piano.
Wood is often regarded as among the top sitcom writers in Britain owing to her understanding of British culture and high command of the English language. Much of her humour is lost on those not well-acquainted with British culture, since it abounds with references to popular British media, stereotypically British pastimes, attitudes, prejudices, and even brand names of quintessentially British products. She is noted for her skills in observing culture, and in satirising classes of people using a variety of regional accents. Wood's humour is also characterised by euphemism. One of her most popular comic songs, "Let's Do It", which tells the story of Freda (a woman eager for sex) and Barry (an introverted man terrified of sex), makes clever use of allusions to a multitude of risqué activities while avoiding all taboo words. Her sitcom dinnerladies is regarded as a prime example of dialogue-based TV comedy, where the focus is more on discussion between characters than story or action.
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[edit] Career
[edit] Early years
Wood began her showbusiness career as an undergraduate, appearing on the TV talent show New Faces in the midst of studying drama at the University of Birmingham. Her first big break was as a novelty act on the BBC's consumer affairs programme That's Life! in 1976. She first met long-term collaborator Julie Walters when they both appeared in the same theatre revue together, In At The Death in 1978. Its success lead to the commission of Wood's first play, Talent (also 1978), which won her an award for Most Promising New Writer, the first of many.
[edit] 1980 - 1988
During this period Wood wrote and starred in several TV sketch shows, usually alongside Walters. These shows included Wood and Walters (1981) and Victoria Wood As Seen On TV (1985) and featured highlights such as a sarcastic BBC announcer (Susie Blake) issuing lines like "We'd like to apologise to our viewers in the north. It must be awful for you.".
Victoria Wood As Seen On TV was also notable for featuring the classic spoof soap opera Acorn Antiques, rumoured to be named after an antiques shop (closed 1990's) in Prestwich, where she was born. Acorn Antiques became famous in its own right, and was celebrated for characters such as "Mrs Overall" (Julie Walters), the deliberately bad camera angles, Celia Imrie's superb sarcastic tone, the wobbly sets and the unforgettable line "...and 87p change. Enjoy your antiques!". The sketches had more than a passing resemblance to the production values held by real-life ITV soap opera Crossroads in the 1970's.
[edit] 1989 - 1999
During this period she began to move away from the sketch show format and into more self-contained works, often with a more bitter-sweet flavour. Victoria Wood (six parts, 1989) featured Wood in several individual stories such as 'We'd quite like to apologise', set in an airport departure lounge, and 'Pam', set around a fictional talk show. The television film, Pat and Margaret (1994), starring Wood and Julie Walters as long-lost sisters with very different lifestyles, continued this trend into stand-alone plays with a poignant undercurrent to the comedy. In 1998, she wrote her first sitcom, dinnerladies, which continued her now established milieu of mostly female, mostly middle-aged characters depicted vividly and amusingly, but with a counterpoint of sadder themes.
[edit] 2000 - 2005
During this period Wood became less prolific. She wrote and starred in Acorn Antiques: The Musical, which opened in 2005 at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London, for a limited period. It starred the same cast as the original 1985 series, with the exception of Wood playing Julie Walters' "Mrs Overall" role for a couple of performances each week.
[edit] 2006 - present
Recently, Wood wrote the 2006 one-off ITV serious drama Housewife, 49, and played the lead role of an initially introverted middle-aged character who discovers new confidence and friendships in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, during World War II. It was notable for being an adaptation of the real diaries of Nella Last, instead of an original script.
[edit] Associated actors
Wood is notable for frequently including the same actors in her shows. These actors have appeared in most of her work in the 80's and 90's and include Celia Imrie, Duncan Preston, Susie Blake, and most notably Julie Walters.
[edit] Awards and recognition
- She was awarded the OBE in 1997.
- She was made a honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Sunderland in 1994.
- In 2003, she was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.
- In the 2005 Channel 4 poll The Comedian's Comedian, she was voted 27th out of the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians, comediennes and comedy insiders. She was the highest-ranked woman on the list, beating French & Saunders, Joan Rivers and Joyce Grenfell.
- She has been voted funniest comedienne by the readers of Readers' Digest.
- She was voted best comedienne by Radio Times readers.
- In 2006, Victoria came 8th in ITV's poll of the public's 50 Greatest Stars, four places behind fellow co-star Julie Walters.
[edit] Personal Life
Wood married magician Geoffrey Durham in March 1980. They separated in October 2002. They have two children, Grace and Henry.
[edit] External links
- Victoria Wood at the Internet Movie Database
- In-depth look at her first TV play 'Talent'
- Victoria Wood at the BFI's Screenonline
- Profile at Caroline's Comedy Base
- Profile at TV Museum
- Victoria Wood at BBC Comedy Guide
- A Chronology
- Songs and Sketches
- Return to drama (Manchester Evening News)
- Biography (Museum of Broadcast Communications)
| Victoria Wood |
|---|
| Situation Comedies |
| Victoria Wood (1989 TV series) | dinnerladies |
| Sketch Shows |
| The Summer Show | In At The Death | Wood and Walters | Victoria Wood As Seen On TV | Victoria Wood's All Day Breakfast | Julie Walters and Friends | Victoria Wood: Live In Your Own Home | Wetty Hainthropp Investigates | Victoria Wood with All The Trimmings |
| Television Dramas |
| Pat and Margaret | Housewife, 49 |
| Notable Collaborators |
| Julie Walters | Celia Imrie | Duncan Preston | Anne Reid | Susie Blake | Trevor Nunn | Grimms | John Dowie | Patricia Routledge |
| Theatre |
| In At The Death | Talent | Nearly A Happy Ending | Happy Since I Met You | Acorn Antiques: The Musical |
| Stand Up Comedy |
| Funny Turns | Lucky Bag | An Audience With Victoria Wood | Victoria Wood Up West | Victoria Wood: Live In Your Own Home | Victoria Wood Live 1997 |
| Books |
| Lucky Bag:The Victoria Wood Song Book | Up To You, Porky | Barmy | Mens Sana in Thigummy Doodah | Chunky |
| Other Roles |
| New Faces | That's Life! | Great Railway Journeys of the World | The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse | The Wind in the Willows | Big Fat Documentary | Victoria Wood: Moonwalking
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