Victoria Wood (1989 TV series)

Victoria Wood
Victoria Wood with Patricia Hodge and Jim Broadbent in 'Staying In', 1989
Created by	Victoria Wood
Starring	Victoria Wood Julie Walters Celia Imrie Lill Roughley Anne Reid Meg Johnson Susie Blake
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	6
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Release
Original network	BBC1
Original release	16 November 1989 – 21 December 1989

Victoria Wood was a series of six one-off situation comedies written by and starring Victoria Wood in 1989, who took a break from sketches, two years after her very successful and award winning series Victoria Wood As Seen On TV. Wood appeared as "Victoria" ("Miss Wood" in episode one), a fictionalised version of herself, in all six episodes - in The Library it was said that she "worked in TV" and in Over To Pam characters appeared to recognise her celebrity (although two confused her with Dawn French) and in the final episode, Staying In, she was taken to a party to perform as a comedian and was expected to go through her stand-up 'routine'. Her character often broke the 'fourth wall' of TV and spoke directly to the camera, but not in every episode.

Bored with the sketch format and with a yearning to recapture previous success as a playwright, Wood came up with six individual sitcoms as a compromise. She admitted to finding the writing difficult. Though Wood was written as the central character, other lead parts were written with specific actresses in mind, like Julie Walters and Una Stubbs. "I want people to like me and the people who play my friends, and not everybody else" she said.^[1] Screenonline says of the shows "Modest in ambition and scale but rich in wit and acuity, the six playlets showcase Wood's eye for human foibles and her distinctively eccentric characters.".^[2]

Reception

The series was met with a mixed critical reception initially.^[3] The series started out with an impressive 13 million viewers tuning in, but by the next week had dropped to 11 million. Wood regretted the decision not to record it in front of a studio audience and described the filming as a "boring, diabolical and awful" experience. The Daily Express described the show as 'tiresome stuff' and the Daily Mirror said her targets were predictable and snobbish. Wood took some blame for the disappointing reaction saying "It wasn't well written by me as it could have been, and I shouldn't have been in all the sketches".^[4]

Episode guide

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original airdate
1	"Mens Sana in Thingummy Doodah"	Kevin Bishop	Victoria Wood	16 November 1989
Victoria attends a health farm. Featuring Julie Walters, Lill Roughley, Liza Tarbuck, Meg Johnson, Anne Reid, Georgia Allen, Selina Cadell & Peter Martin.
2	"The Library"	Geoff Posner	Victoria Wood	23 November 1989
Victoria helps her friend Sheila (Anne Reid) who uses the services of a dating agency. Featuring Anne Reid, Carol MacReady, Richard Kane & Philip Lowrie.
3	"Over to Pam"	Geoff Posner	Victoria Wood	23 November 1989
Victoria chums her hairdressing friend (Kay Adshead) to a daytime TV interview on 'Live With Pam'. But the snobbish host Pam Cunard (Julie Walters) gets her comeuppance when a working class teenage girl guests. Featuring Julie Walters, Lill Roughley, Kay Adshead, Meg Johnson, Julia St. John, Hugh Lloyd, Margery Mason and Shirley Cain.
4	"We'd Quite Like to Apologise"	Kevin Bishop	Victoria Wood	7 December 1989
Victoria hangs around an airport passenger lounge waiting with her fellow passengers for their plane to arrive. Featuring Julie Walters, Lill Roughley, Celia Imrie, Susie Blake, Una Stubbs, Jane Horrocks, Philip Lowrie, Peter Martin & the voice of Duncan Preston.
5	"Val de Ree (Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha)"	Kevin Bishop	Victoria Wood	14 December 1989
Victoria and Jackie (Celia Imrie) go on a walking holiday across the moors. Featuring Celia Imrie, Joan Sims, Michael Nightingale, Avril Angers & Sian Thomas.
6	"Staying In"	Geoff Posner	Victoria Wood	21 December 1989
Victoria wants to stay in, but her stuck up friend drags her along to a posh London dinner party. Featuring Celia Imrie, Lill Roughley, Susie Blake, Patricia Hodge, Jim Broadbent, Deborah Grant, Phyllis Calvert, John Nettleton, Roger Brierley and Richard Linton.

Mens Sana in Thingummy Doodah

Front cover of 'Mens Sana in Thingummy Doodah' (Methuen, 1991). A collection of the six scripts from 'Victoria Wood'.

In 1991, the scripts of all six shows were published by Methuen as "Mens Sana in Thingummy Doodah – And other nuggets of homely fun". The book is dedicated to "All the old bags in Equity, most of whom were in the series". The book contains an exclusive introduction by Wood about what it's like to make a TV programme.

Once the Writer has finished writing, she takes the 'scripts' to the BBC where a seventeen-year-old Secretary spills coffee on them and leaves them behind the photocopier. When the Secretary leaves the BBC to become a full-time sunbather it can sometimes be a jolly long time before those 'scripts' come to light! And sometimes when they do they have been hidden for such a long time they have become 'dated' and 'unrealistic'. But fortunately, the BBC will still make them into 'programmes'.^[5]

References

1. Victoria Wood – The Biography, Neil Brandwood, Ted Smart, 2002, p.151-152
2. "Screenonline – Victoria Wood (1989)". Screenonline Online. 2007.
3. "Museum TV – Victoria Wood". Museum TV. 2007.
4. Victoria Wood – The Biography, Neil Brandwood, Ted Smart, 2002, p.159
5. Mens Sana in Thingummy Doodah, Victoria Wood, Methuen, 1991, p.1

External links

• Victoria Wood at BBC Programmes
• Victoria Wood at the BFI's Screenonline
• Victoria Wood at the Internet Movie Database
• Victoria Wood at TV.com
• Radio Times Guide To TV Comedy on 'Victoria Wood'