Talent (1978 play)
Encyclopedia
Victoria Wood
Victoria Wood CBE is a British comedienne, actress, singer-songwriter, screenwriter and director. Wood has written and starred in sketches, plays, films and sitcoms, and her live stand-up comedy act is interspersed with her own compositions, which she accompanies on piano...
, first performed in 1978. It centres around two friends, one of whom is about to enter a talent contest in a run down nightclub. Commissioned for the Crucible Theatre
Crucible Theatre
The Crucible Theatre is a theatre built in 1971 and located in the city centre of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. As well as theatrical performances, it is home to the most important event in professional snooker, the World Snooker Championship....
, Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
, it received much acclaim and transferred to a London run in 1979. That same year a television adaptation was broadcast. It was the first time Victoria Wood and Julie Walters
Julie Walters
Julie Walters, CBE is an English actress and novelist. She came to international prominence in 1983 for Educating Rita, performing in the title role opposite Michael Caine. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it won her BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actress...
appeared together on TV.
A mixture of dialogue and music, one of its tunes inspired The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
song Rusholme Ruffians. The script was published by Methuen in 1988, along with another Wood play Good Fun
Good Fun
Good Fun is a play by Victoria Wood, first performed in 1980. It is set in an Arts Centre in North West England.-Origins:Wood, keen to trade on her previous stage success Talent, was commissioned to write another play by impresario Michael Codron. "I wrote one called Pals, which he said was 'very...
.
Origins
After receiving much acclaim for her writing and performance in a 1978 revue at The Bush Theatre titled In At The DeathIn At The Death
A sketch revue performed at The Bush Theatre, London in 1978, most notable for being the first time that future colleagues Victoria Wood and Julie Walters would work together....
, Wood was commissioned by then theatre director David Leland
David Leland
David Leland is a director, screenwriter and actor who came to international fame with his directorial debut Wish You Were Here in 1987.-Life:...
to write a play for Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
's Crucible Theatre
Crucible Theatre
The Crucible Theatre is a theatre built in 1971 and located in the city centre of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. As well as theatrical performances, it is home to the most important event in professional snooker, the World Snooker Championship....
.
The initial commission was for Wood to co-write, with fellow revue writer Ron Hutchinson, a play about strippers. According to Wood "The Bush Theatre was over a pub which had strippers and Ron and I spent twenty minutes one evening watching a large girl in boots walk out of the ladies' lavatory, take off her clothes (she kept on her boots, the floor was filthy) and walk back into the ladies lavatory again. Then Ron said he was too busy to do this play, and David asked me if I would do it on my own. Not knowing anything about the world of the stripper and having all the investigative zeal of a defrosting beefburger, I decided to try and write up an idea of my own. The idea came quite easily, though typing it out was quite difficult."
Wood got the idea for a play set around talent contests, based on her own experiences entering them (she had won ATV
Associated TeleVision
Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...
's New Faces
New Faces
New Faces was a British television talent show popular in the 1970s and 1980s, presented originally by Derek Hobson. It was produced by ATV Network Limited for the ITV Network. The first run of the show was from 29 September 1973 to 2 April 1978 and was recorded at the ATV Centre, Birmingham...
three years earlier). She said "I had always been fascinated by talent contests and had entered quite a few in my late teens and early twenties. I never won, though in a Birmingham nightclub I once came third on the clap-o-meter
Clap-o-meter
A clap-o-meter, clapometer or applause meter is a measurement instrument that purports to measure and display the volume of clapping or applause made by a studio audience or an audience at some other event. It is used to decide the result of competitions based on the popularity of the contestants,...
... I was also interested in the relationship between attractive sparky girls and big fat plain ones."
Plot
Talent centres around two friends, the plain, overweight Maureen, and her more glamorous friend Julie, who has entered a talent contest. According to Screenonline:"Julie is one of the hopefuls - a 24-year-old secretary and young mum caught between her youthful dreams of showbiz glamour and the realisation of her more likely future: soul-crushing domesticity and drudgery with upwardly mobile boyfriend Dave. With her for support is the awkward, frumpy Maureen, long in the shadow of her slimmer, better-looking friend.
But Bunters nightclub holds few prospects for Julie - just a grotty dressing room, a surprise encounter with Mel, the flash, sportscar-driving boyfriend who abandoned her as a pregnant schoolgirl eight years ago, and the unwelcome attentions of the oily compere, who precedes his seduction by telling her, "you have got a mediocre voice, a terrible Lancashire accent, no experience and no act," before enticing her with the promise of a spot on the Des O'Connor Show (moments later, he is groping a bemused Maureen and offering her twenty minutes in the back of his white Cortina)."
Stage version
The play was first performed at the Crucible TheatreCrucible Theatre
The Crucible Theatre is a theatre built in 1971 and located in the city centre of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. As well as theatrical performances, it is home to the most important event in professional snooker, the World Snooker Championship....
in Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
in September 1978. It was directed by David Leland. The cast was Hazel Clyne (Julie), Victoria Wood (Maureen), Roger Sloman
Roger Sloman
Roger Sloman is an English actor. Born in the Harlesden district of London, he has performed in dozens of television and film appearances since the late 1970s...
(George Findlay), Bill Stewart (Arthur Hall), Eric Richard (Mel), Peter Ellis
Peter Ellis
Peter Ellis may refer to:*Peter Ellis , architect who designed the Oriel Chambers in Liverpool*Peter Ellis , actor in The Bill*Peter Ellis , British television director...
(Compere). Wood also went to the side of the stage to play piano to accompany the songs in the show. She said " I think that worked better than having a band. I have never seen it done since in the way that we did it. Is suppose because fat actresses who can double as musical director are thin on the ground (or fat on the ground)."
She later claimed that she had not intended to be in the show at all, "though everyone assumed I had written it with the express purpose of drinking Babycham
Babycham
Babycham is the trade name of a light, sparkling perry invented by Francis Edwin Showering , a brewer in Shepton Mallet in Somerset, England; the name is now owned by Constellation Europe Limited. Launched in the United Kingdom in 1953, the drink was marketed with pioneering television...
and having my bosoms fondled nightly.
The show had a London Transfer to the ICA, beginning on 31 January 1979, with Bill Stewart and Peter Ellis being replaced by David Ellson and Jim Broadbent
Jim Broadbent
James "Jim" Broadbent is an English theatre, film, and television actor. He is known for his roles in Iris, Moulin Rouge!, Topsy-Turvy, Hot Fuzz, and Bridget Jones' Diary...
.
The show had a London fringe revival in 2008 at 'Upstairs At The Gatehouse'. The cast was Vikki Stone (Maureen), Stephanie Briggs (Julie), Harry Dickman (George Findlay), John Walters (Arthur Hall) and Charlie Carter (Mel/The Compere).
In September 2009 a revival began at the Menier Chocolate Factory
Menier Chocolate Factory
The Menier Chocolate Factory is an award-winning 180 seat fringe studio theatre, restaurant and gallery. It is located in a former 1870s Menier Chocolate Company factory in Southwark Street, a major street in the London Borough of Southwark, central south London, England. The theatre stages plays...
in London, also directed by Victoria Wood.
Television version
Granada TelevisionGranada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
producer, Peter Eckersley was so impressed with the show, he signed Wood up for a TV version of it which was broadcast on the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
network on 5 August 1979. Wood had originally written the part of Julie for her co-star in In At The Death, Julie Walters
Julie Walters
Julie Walters, CBE is an English actress and novelist. She came to international prominence in 1983 for Educating Rita, performing in the title role opposite Michael Caine. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it won her BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actress...
, and while she was not available for the stage version, she was able to appear in the TV remake. It was the first of many television appearances the two would make together.
The rest of the cast were Bill Waddington
Bill Waddington
Bill Waddington , was an English music hall performer and comedian who was born in Oldham, Lancashire. In later life he achieved stardom as the pompous ex serviceman Percy Sugden in Granada Television's long running soap opera, Coronation Street.Waddington was born at Oldham on June 10, 1916, the...
(George Findley), Eric Richard (Mel), Nat Jackley
Nat Jackley
Nat Jackley was an English comic actor starring in variety, film and pantomime from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s whose trademark rubber-neck dance, skeletal frame and peculiar speech impediment made him a formidable and funny pantomime dame.His later years were spent as a character actor in...
(Arthur), Sue Glover
Sue and Sunny
Sue and Sunny were a vocal duo and session singers operating in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Although sisters, their full stage names were Sue Glover and Sunny Leslie...
(Cathy Christmas), Peter Ellis
Peter Ellis
Peter Ellis may refer to:*Peter Ellis , architect who designed the Oriel Chambers in Liverpool*Peter Ellis , actor in The Bill*Peter Ellis , British television director...
(Compere), Andrew Dodge (Cathy's accompanist).
The television critics were unanimous in their praise, and Wood received congratulatory letters from actor John Le Mesurier
John Le Mesurier
John Le Mesurier was a BAFTA Award-winning English actor. He is most famous for his role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the popular 1970s BBC comedy Dad's Army.-Career:...
and fellow northern writer Alan Plater
Alan Plater
Alan Frederick Plater, CBE, FRSL was an English playwright and screenwriter, who worked extensively in British television from the 1960s to the 2000s.-Career:...
. It even lead to an offer for Wood to join the then new satirical comedy show Not The Nine O'Clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News is a television comedy sketch show which was broadcast on BBC 2 from 1979 to 1982.Originally shown as a comedy "alternative" to the BBC Nine O'Clock News on BBC 1, it featured satirical sketches on current news stories and popular culture, as well as parody songs, comedy...
, which she turned down.
A year later, a television only sequel to Talent called Nearly A Happy Ending
Nearly A Happy Ending
Nearly A Happy Ending is a television play written by Victoria Wood, which ITV broadcast on 1 June 1980.It is a sequel to Wood's earlier play Talent, with the same lead character's, Julie and Maureen ....
was broadcast on Granada, again written by Wood and starring Wood and Walters reprising their roles.
The Smiths
A song from the show, Fourteen Again, had its lyrics adapted for another tune, Rusholme Ruffians by the eighties pop group The SmithsThe Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
. Its lead singer Morrissey
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
was a great fan of Wood's, and had even proposed marriage to her via the music press (to which she responded "Morrissey and I have been married for 11 months, though due to touring commitments, we have yet to meet.") According to the band's biographer Johnny Rogan
Johnny Rogan
Johnny Rogan is an author of Irish descent best known for his books about music and popular culture. He has written influential biographies of The Byrds, The Smiths and Van Morrison. His writing is characterised by "an almost neurotic attention to detail", epic length and a sometimes hostile...
"He paid her the ultimate “compliment” by hijacking her song “Fourteen Again” and transforming its sardonic nostalgia into a lacerating satire on mind-numbing proletarial leisure. In Morrissey’s landscape, the fairground in the original song becomes a carnival of violence tinged with bitter romance...It is fascinating to observe Wood’s characteristic self-effacing, but affectionate, adolescent recollections juxtaposed to Morrissey’s almost cinematic melanchony. They both share an appealing laconic style and dour wit, but Morrissey’s world view is more threatening, pessimistic and painful."