Victoria Wood As Seen On TV
Encyclopedia
Victoria Wood As Seen On TV was a British comedy sketch series starring comedienne Victoria Wood
, with Julie Walters
, Celia Imrie
, Duncan Preston
, Susie Blake
and Patricia Routledge
. The show was televised on BBC Two
between 1985 and 1987 and included sketches that became famous in the United Kingdom; these included one-offs like Two Soups (in which Walters, as an elderly waitress, takes too long to deliver two bowls of soup) and regular features like Acorn Antiques
(a parody of low-budget soap opera), as well as musical performances by Wood including her most well-known number, The Ballad of Barry and Freda ("Let's Do It").
The show was created when Wood was enticed away from rival television station ITV
in 1984. She wrote the whole programme, and also the synopsis of it for listings magazine the Radio Times
. The series has led to spin-off script books, video tapes and DVDs.
The show won BAFTA Awards for all its episodes and, in 1996, it was awarded all-time Favourite Comedy Series by the BBC itself.
Wood preferred to work with a regular repertory of actors she could trust. Since the show ended, she has occasionally revived aspects of it with these colleagues. A notable spin-off is Acorn Antiques, the West End
musical.
, was lured to the BBC with a promise of bigger budgets and more creative control than on previous television shows, such as Wood and Walters
.
To produce and direct the show, Wood chose Geoff Posner
, who had previously worked on successful and acclaimed British comedy shows of the early 1980s such as Not The Nine O'Clock News
, The Young Ones
and the pilot of Blackadder
. Equally impressed with her work, Posner said of Wood's gift for comedy, "She manages to examine people talking and capture speech-patterns and subjects that are everyday, but hysterical at the same time... it's quite unique to hold a mirror up to ordinary life and make it so special."
Going into production in summer 1984 – with studio recordings in September and October – the first series of As Seen On TV was intended for broadcast late that year. As a theatre tie-in, Wood arranged a short stand-up tour with the same name as the show, to capitalise on her television appearances around the same time. This backfired when the BBC put back the opening broadcast to early the following year.
Linking many of the sketches was Susie Blake
as a snobbish and arrogant television continuity announcer. Notable lines spoken by Blake include "We'd like to apologise to viewers in the North. It must be awful for them".
Patricia Routledge
starred as Kitty, a self-righteous middle-aged spinster from Cheadle
, who featured in a weekly monologue. To show the character's forthrightness, Wood had originally written Kitty's opening introduction as "Hello, I'm Kitty. I've had a boob off and I can't stomach whelks"; the "boob off" line was later changed to "I've given gallons of blood". The Kitty character shared similarities with a character in one of Wood's earlier sketch shows, Wood and Walters, Dotty (then played by Julie Walters).
Margery & Joan featured Wood (as Joan) and Walters (as Margery) parodying banal daytime television
magazine shows.
Gail and Carl was a regular sketch in series one featuring Andrew Livingston and Victoria Wood as a young, naive northern couple. For example, Carl, in response to being asked where babies come from, replies, "You want to get a pamphlet. We've got one at home about lagging."
The He Didn't? sketches that featured in the second series starred Wood as Kelly Marie Tunstall, a delinquent teenager standing at a bus stop telling her friend (Mary Jo Randle
) ever more fanciful stories. Each responds to the other after a ludicrous anecdote with the words
"'"He didn't?"
"He did!"
and Michelangelo
. The sketch parodied the soap genre with its bad acting, ridiculous dialogue and contrived plot twists. Wood, as a homage, based it on the long-running ATV
/Central serial Crossroads, and the BBC radio soap opera Waggoners Walk (1969–1980).
The sketches even led to a fanzine and appreciation gatherings, where fans would dress up as the characters. In 2004, in a poll on its website, Channel 4
voted Acorn Antiques the seventh best comedy sketch of all time. In 2005, Acorn Antiques was turned into a West End musical (see below).
Each episode of As Seen On TV also featured a spoof documentary on "slice-of-life" stories such as a girl who wanted to swim the channel and an old man moving into a home. Just An Ordinary School, for example, took a look at an exclusive girl's public school
, with one pupil claiming "there are all sorts of girls here, even coloured girls, though they tend to be princesses mainly".
Another spoof was of a musical detailing the life of Bessie Bunter, entitled Bessie! The musical starts as an Andrew Lloyd Webber parody with the setting of a girl's private school but they've included issues such as the Spanish Civil War and the McCarthy era. On being asked about Bessie's fatness, the producer (Sir Dave) replies "it is a sort of mental fatness". The lead actress, Carla, belts out in rehearsals one of the songs, "One Day", despite insisting she has "pneumonia". She says to prepare for the role she starts with the bra and then everything falls into place. Later, Bessie! is rewritten completely and the previous cast are sacked: it is, after all, a musical about "a big fat girl". Meanwhile Carla is crying and being comforted by her colleagues, but further upset by Sir Dave telling her to "get the **** out of here will you Carla, we don't really want snot all over the plush love" In this rewritten part of Bessie, she is played by Victoria Wood who sings an impossibly glamorous and upbeat number. However, she complains at the end that "you're going to have to change this floor".
Usually lasting around five minutes, the spoof documentaries were narrated by a usually off-screen "reporter" in the first series and presented for the most part by Duncan Preston in the second series, as "Corin Huntley". It was a continuation of style for Wood, who had previously produced similar pseudo-realistic spoofs such as The Woman Who Had 740 Children and Girls Talking for Wood and Walters.
The show also featured many, often acclaimed, one-off sketches, like Two Soups, where Julie Walters plays an elderly deaf waitress who takes an incredibly long time to take an order for two bowls of soup. In 2004, British television network Channel 4
(in a poll conducted on its website) awarded it "27th Best Comedy Sketch Of All Time". Walters has said "she [Wood] knows I like playing old women. Why? Because I am one! I love the shape of them."
Classic Coronation Street was recreation of 1960s Coronation Street
. It starred Wood as the show's gossiping Ena Sharples
, with Julie Walters as Martha Longhurst and Lill Roughley
as Minnie Caldwell, with Ena telling them the "gossip" she has heard about the show's plotlines for the next two decades. The sketch was written with a detailed knowledge of the soap opera's past: "That stuck up Ida Barlow
, who's no better than she should be... it'll not be too long before she falls under a bus! That Harry Hewitt'll likely get crushed under the axle of 'is own van, and as for Valerie Barlow – and if this isn't judgement for setting 'erself up in 'er own front parlour as a so-called 'air stylist then my name isn't Ena Sharples – from what I 'ear, its two clogs to a threpenny bit that she'll electrocute 'erself with 'er own 'airdryer." This sketch's accuracy earned Wood praise from Doris Speed
, who had played Annie Walker
in Coronation Street from 1960 to 1983.
Giving Notes featured Walters as the leader of an amateur dramatics company giving notes to her cast: "I can't say this too often; it may be Hamlet, but it's got to be fun, fun, fun!" Shoe Shop also starred Walters as a mad shoe shop saleswoman and Wood as her customer. In the sketch she delivers Wood a pair of high-heeled shoes, though Wood requested a flat pair. Walters snaps off the heels and replies, "flatter now".
Medical School had Wood as a nervous interviewee, applying to become a medical student. Asked what the last book she read was, she replies "Othello
. It's a book by William Shakespeare
, of the Royal Shakespeare Company
". In On The Trolley, Wood played a waitress in a restaurant, responding to any order of food with the repetitive phrases "Is it on the trolley?" and "Can you point at it?" This was Wood's personal favourite sketch in the series.
As Seen On TV also featured other musical styles: So Pissed Off With Love, a duet with Wood and Denis Lawson
; Keep On Shopping, an epic musical number about shopping; At The Chippy, with Wood, Walters, Meg Johnson and others singing in tribute to their local fish parlour; Marie And Clarie And Min, featuring Wood, Johnson and Hope Jackman as three old women on a seaside trip, as well as other numbers. The show also contained a skit on the old "fill in" footage often slotted into scheduling to cover technical breakdowns: "I'm Gonna Knock, Knock, Knock On Your Knocker". Comedy sketches also featured music, like the parody of the staging of a West End
musical, Bessie, and a send-up of the Judy Garland
–Mickey Rooney
"let's put on a show" genre in "I'm Counting Moonbeams".
Preferring to work with people she knew, Wood hired David Firman to be musical director for the series. Firman had previously been musical director for Wood's play Good Fun.
The series lasted for 12 regular half-hour episodes (and a final 40-minute special) between 1985 and 1987. All six episodes of the first series were broadcast between 11 January and 15 February 1985 at 9:00pm on Friday evenings on BBC2. They followed the same format with an opening stand up monologue from Wood, followed by a mixture of sketches, songs and spoof mini-documentaries, with regular soap opera parody Acorn Antiques
making its introduction. This first series reached 4.55 million viewers by the penultimate show, making it the tenth most popular programme that week on the channel. To Wood's surprise, the series then went on to win two BAFTA Awards (see below).
The second series of six episodes were broadcast between 10 November and 8 December 1986, this time on the (then) more popular Monday slot on BBC2. It followed a similar format to the first series. By the third week it was the number one most watched programme on BBC2 with 8.55 million viewers. Having scored an even bigger ratings and critical success than its previous series, its triumph even led Wood to be invited on that year's prestigious Royal Variety Performance
.
Between series one and two, Wood said she thought it was a mistake to do another As Seen On TV series, and had attempted to write a play instead: "I've been seeking to branch out, but it hasn't happened. I wanted to do something different before I went back on TV." However, she soon decided that the play was "too Alan Ayckbourne", threw it away and began writing the second run instead. She aimed to write 18 minutes of script a week. In the end it took six months to complete, an experience she did not enjoy. "You pour everything you've got into one sketch and you don't ever want to write another - only you realise there are fifty-nine more to go before you've got enough for a series, it's torment".
The series returned for a 40-minute special on 18 December 1987. Wood defined 'special' as "ten minutes longer and I've splashed out on a new bra".
She said of her decision to finish the show, "I love television, and if it was possible for me to work in it more, then I would; but because of the position I've put myself in of being the only writer on the show, I can't physically work in it that often. I've just had it with sketch shows for a bit – people have liked it, and I want to stop while they still like it."
The Radio Times Guide To TV Comedy described Victoria Wood As Seen On TV as having "a regular company of fine performers, good production values, incisive scripts and a snappy pace... the show rarely dipped below brilliant and featured numerous delights, such as Wood's hilariously authentic dialogue and her surprisingly stinging satirical characters".
Wood used a regular ensemble of actors in the series, Julie Walters
, Celia Imrie
and Duncan Preston
, with Susie Blake
and Patricia Routledge
doing weekly spots.
Julie Walters was a long term collaborator of Wood's, although unlike Wood and Walters, their previous television series together, only Wood's name remained in the title. This was because in the interim, Wood was getting viewers of it turning up to her solo stand up shows expecting to see a double act. This didn't stop Wood making Walters almost as prominent in this newer series. She played many two handers with Wood as well as other roles such as Margery the daytime television host, a mad shoe shop lady, the elderly waitress in the Two Soups sketch, and a transsexual hairdresser. Most famously, she was the char-lady Mrs Overall in Acorn Antiques. She later revealed that alongside her starring role in Educating Rita
, it's the part she's still recognised the most by the public for.
Duncan Preston (who appeared in Wood's 1981 teleplay Happy Since I Met You
) was cast in weekly roles. He had even turned down the chance to play Shakespeare and an offer of a world tour as Hotspur in Henry IV, Part One at the same time. Preston later said, "I was at a crossroads and I had the choice of going straight or going off at a tangent with Victoria, I chose the latter and she changed my life". Most famously playing the recurring role of Clifford in Acorn Antiques, he also advertised a men's bra, was "Corin Huntley" – a documentary presenter – and was the voice of the monster Crayola in Wood's parody of Doctor Who. Wood said of Duncan, "He hasn't been exploited properly in the show because I tend to write parts for women, which is fair enough, but it does mean that Duncan plays the bank manager or the man in the hotel. I don't like men's men. Duncan's mainly the sort of man who likes women, so you can talk to him about your ovaries and it causes no embarrassment". Preston said he was cast "because I was so tall".
Celia Imrie was also a long-standing friend of Wood, and had even been in the studio audience when Wood performed on the TV talent show New Faces
in 1974. However, it was only when Wood saw her act in a show by BBC Scotland
called Eighty-One Take Two that she was impressed enough to hire her friend for the show. Imrie played various roles throughout the run, like a co-presenter of McConomy (a spoof TV economy show), and most famously Miss Babs in Acorn Antiques. Imrie said in 2007, "Miss Babs is still what I'm best known for, even though I don't go around with bright yellow hair." During her run in As Seen On TV Imrie received a fan letter from playwright Alan Bennett
. "He wrote a card to me saying he adored Miss Babs. You can't imagine how thrilling that was. I still have that card today." Imrie though believes that the praise should go to Wood's writing: "Every word is of huge importance and crafted to perfection. It was a wonderful, happy accident that I met her."
Wood spotted Susie Blake in a musical at the King's Head Theatre and cast her in the role of the opinionated continuity announcer. Wood said of her casting at the time, "I didn't think of her particularly for the continuity announcer, but she came in and could do it, just like that. I'd love to cast her in a song-and-dance number – I feel so sorry for her always having to wear those terrible blouses". When As Seen On TV ended Blake said "I'm very sad that this is the last time we will all work together but I understand why Vic wanted to stop. Anyway there were only two series of Fawlty Towers and, as far as I'm concerned, this rates with it, so I'm sure it'll be shown lots of times".
Patricia Routledge starred as Kitty, the self-righteous spinster from Cheadle
in weekly monologues. Routledge had appeared in a monologue before in Alan Bennett
's 1978 play A Woman of No Importance. In 1999, as part of Comic Relief, Wood parodied Routledge in Wetty Hainthropp Investigates, a spoof of Routledge's BBC1 detective series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates
.
Semi-regulars in the show included Jim Broadbent
, who'd previously appeared with Wood in the London staging of her play Talent. He appeared in such parts as a sleazy press photographer and a telephone deodorisering engineer. Lill Roughley
, who Wood first spotted when she worked with her then husband Geoffrey Durham
in 1977, was given various roles, such as impersonating Coronation Street
s Minnie Caldwell. Mary Jo Randle
, as well as playing Kelly-Marie Tunstall's friend, appeared as an actress who hadn't worked for three years in the spoof documentary To Be An Actress.
Wood hired many actors she had previously worked with and felt she could trust, such as Peter Ellis
, Meg Johnson
, Kay Adshead
and Sue Wallace. Wood also hired several celebrities for the show including Frank Bruno
, Denis Healey
, Claire Rayner
, Pete Postlethwaite
, Maureen Lipman
, Hope Jackman, Molly Weir
, Henry Kelly
, Dora Bryan
and Anne Reid
(who would star with Wood again in her sitcom dinnerladies
in 1999. Kelly and Bryan also made guest appearances in the sitcom).
As Seen On TV was a highly acclaimed show in the United Kingdom by the time it ended in 1987. Wood, having just received a BAFTA for the first series, said at the time: "I was very pleased to win, but it really put pressure on me. I was already writing the new series and every time I looked at the award I kept on thinking that people would be expecting so much more now and I just wouldn't be able to live up to it. In the end, I just put the thing away." The series then went on to win BAFTAs for its entire run.
In 1996, the BBC celebrated its 60th anniversary with an awards ceremony titled Auntie's All Time Greats. In it, As Seen On TV beat Monty Python's Flying Circus
for "Favourite Comedy Series". It beat the same show again when it won 'best sketch show' in the Radio Times Comedy Poll in 2001.
Despite all the accolades As Seen On TV received (with many of them from the BBC), it was last repeated on terrestrial British television in 1995.
As Seen On TV was, however, repeated in a weekend marathon (from 3–4 November 2007) of Victoria Wood programmes on British satellite TV station UKTV Gold
.
. Secondly, Acorn Antiques was briefly brought back for an episode in 2001, featuring the original cast and Nick Frost
as an armed robber. In 2005 it was revived by Wood as a West End theatre production Acorn Antiques: The Musical!
, starring the original cast and directed by Trevor Nunn
. Limited to a 16 week sold out run, it then toured with a brand new cast, this time directed by Wood herself.
There has been two books published featuring scripts from As Seen On TV. Up To You, Porky (published in 1985) features scripts from the first series mixed in with extracts from Wood and Walters and Wood's stage show Lucky Bag. In 1987, the follow-up Barmy was published, featuring sketches entirely collated from As Seen On TV. Barmy features a Margery and Joan sketch specially written as an introduction to the book, where they review forthcoming novels. Also exclusive to this book are two sketches cut from the original broadcast, 'Lady Police Serial', a parody of the long running Juliet Bravo
, where Wood as Juliet chats to her Desk Sergeant Wilberforce. Also, 'Craft Shop', where the owner (Rosalind March) tries to tempt her customer (Celia Imrie) with the likes of "Ukrainian Prayer Shawls, woven by the mothers of Russian dissidents whilst in a state of euphoria, which doesn't happen very often which is why we've only got three."
For a series so lauded, its commercial release had until recently been mainly limited to compilations, with only a full commercial release of the entire series 20 years after the show ended. Initially, a best of series one VHS was released by BBC Video in 1986, with a sub-heading "The Very Best Now On Video". The series was then issued on DVD in 2002 as a 90-minute compilation titled Best of Victoria Wood: As Seen On TV. It was not until 2 April 2007 that the entire series (including the Christmas special) was finally released, in a two-disc DVD set. It was classified a 12 certificate, as it "Contains infrequent bleeped language and moderate sex references". In 1993, a VHS
a compilation with the Acorn Antiques sketches was released on BBC Video. A DVD reissue followed in 2005.
Audio highlights were made into two half-hour shows for Radio 4
. They were broadcast on 18 and 25 August 1992. Audio highlights of the show were also released over two cassettes by the BBC in 1991.
. All were misleading, with little or nothing to do with the contents of the actual broadcast. The entry for the first show on 8 January 1985 said:
These continued throughout the original broadcast run:
Other entries make reference to Mendelssohn
, Anita Harris
and others who would make no appearance on the actual show.
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...
, with 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...
, Celia Imrie
Celia Imrie
Celia Diana Savile Imrie is an English actress. In a career starting in the early 1970s, Imrie has played Marianne Bellshade in Bergerac, Philippa Moorcroft in Dinnerladies, Miss Babs in Acorn Antiques, Diana Neal in After You've Gone and Gloria Millington in Kingdom...
, Duncan Preston
Duncan Preston
Duncan Preston is an English actor probably best known for his appearances in television productions written by Victoria Wood. His best remembered roles are Clifford in the Victoria Wood As Seen On TV soap opera parody Acorn Antiques , and Stan in dinnerladies.In July 2010, Preston revealed he was...
, Susie Blake
Susie Blake
Susie Blake is a British actress.-Personal life:Blake trained at the Arts Educational School and LAMDA in London. She is the granddaughter of the actress Annette Mills and a great - niece of the actor Sir John Mills...
and Patricia Routledge
Patricia Routledge
Katherine Patricia Routledge, CBE is an English character comedy actress and singer. She is best known for her role as character Hyacinth Bucket in the British television series Keeping Up Appearances and Hetty Wainthropp in the British television series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates...
. The show was televised on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
between 1985 and 1987 and included sketches that became famous in the United Kingdom; these included one-offs like Two Soups (in which Walters, as an elderly waitress, takes too long to deliver two bowls of soup) and regular features like Acorn Antiques
Acorn Antiques
Acorn Antiques is a parodic soap opera written by Victoria Wood as a regular feature in the two seasons of Victoria Wood As Seen On TV, which ran from 1985 to 1987. It was turned into a musical by Wood, opening in 2005.-Television version:...
(a parody of low-budget soap opera), as well as musical performances by Wood including her most well-known number, The Ballad of Barry and Freda ("Let's Do It").
The show was created when Wood was enticed away from rival television station 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...
in 1984. She wrote the whole programme, and also the synopsis of it for listings magazine the Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
. The series has led to spin-off script books, video tapes and DVDs.
The show won BAFTA Awards for all its episodes and, in 1996, it was awarded all-time Favourite Comedy Series by the BBC itself.
Wood preferred to work with a regular repertory of actors she could trust. Since the show ended, she has occasionally revived aspects of it with these colleagues. A notable spin-off is Acorn Antiques, the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
musical.
Background
Wood, having spent most of her television career before As Seen On TV with the opposition television station ITVITV
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...
, was lured to the BBC with a promise of bigger budgets and more creative control than on previous television shows, such as Wood and Walters
Wood and Walters
Wood and Walters is a British television comedy sketch show starring Julie Walters and Victoria Wood for Granada Television and written entirely by Wood...
.
To produce and direct the show, Wood chose Geoff Posner
Geoff Posner
Geoffrey Posner is a British television producer and director. Posner has directed and produced some of Britain's most successful comedy shows since the early 1980s....
, who had previously worked on successful and acclaimed British comedy shows of the early 1980s such as 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...
, The Young Ones
The Young Ones (TV series)
The Young Ones is a British sitcom, first broadcast in 1982, which ran for two series on BBC2. Its anarchic, offbeat humour helped bring alternative comedy to television in the 1980s and made household names of its writers and performers...
and the pilot of Blackadder
Blackadder
Blackadder is the name that encompassed four series of a BBC1 historical sitcom, along with several one-off instalments. All television programme episodes starred Rowan Atkinson as anti-hero Edmund Blackadder and Tony Robinson as Blackadder's dogsbody, Baldrick...
. Equally impressed with her work, Posner said of Wood's gift for comedy, "She manages to examine people talking and capture speech-patterns and subjects that are everyday, but hysterical at the same time... it's quite unique to hold a mirror up to ordinary life and make it so special."
Going into production in summer 1984 – with studio recordings in September and October – the first series of As Seen On TV was intended for broadcast late that year. As a theatre tie-in, Wood arranged a short stand-up tour with the same name as the show, to capitalise on her television appearances around the same time. This backfired when the BBC put back the opening broadcast to early the following year.
Recurring sketches
As well as numerous stand-alone sketches and songs, the show also had many recurring items. Each show would open with Wood performing a stand-up comedy monologue, often using material she had already honed on her stage tours. Within the half-hours that followed, there were usually several fairly regular sketch items mixed in.Linking many of the sketches was Susie Blake
Susie Blake
Susie Blake is a British actress.-Personal life:Blake trained at the Arts Educational School and LAMDA in London. She is the granddaughter of the actress Annette Mills and a great - niece of the actor Sir John Mills...
as a snobbish and arrogant television continuity announcer. Notable lines spoken by Blake include "We'd like to apologise to viewers in the North. It must be awful for them".
Patricia Routledge
Patricia Routledge
Katherine Patricia Routledge, CBE is an English character comedy actress and singer. She is best known for her role as character Hyacinth Bucket in the British television series Keeping Up Appearances and Hetty Wainthropp in the British television series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates...
starred as Kitty, a self-righteous middle-aged spinster from Cheadle
Cheadle, Greater Manchester
Cheadle is a suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport in Greater Manchester, England. It borders the districts of Cheadle Hulme, Gatley, Heald Green and Cheadle Heath in Stockport, and the East Didsbury area of Manchester. As of 2001 it had a population of 14,261.-Early history:There has...
, who featured in a weekly monologue. To show the character's forthrightness, Wood had originally written Kitty's opening introduction as "Hello, I'm Kitty. I've had a boob off and I can't stomach whelks"; the "boob off" line was later changed to "I've given gallons of blood". The Kitty character shared similarities with a character in one of Wood's earlier sketch shows, Wood and Walters, Dotty (then played by Julie Walters).
Margery & Joan featured Wood (as Joan) and Walters (as Margery) parodying banal daytime television
Daytime television
Daytime television is the general term for television shows produced that are intended to air during the daytime hours on weekdays. This article is about American daytime television, for information about international daytime television see Daytime television....
magazine shows.
Gail and Carl was a regular sketch in series one featuring Andrew Livingston and Victoria Wood as a young, naive northern couple. For example, Carl, in response to being asked where babies come from, replies, "You want to get a pamphlet. We've got one at home about lagging."
The He Didn't? sketches that featured in the second series starred Wood as Kelly Marie Tunstall, a delinquent teenager standing at a bus stop telling her friend (Mary Jo Randle
Mary Jo Randle
Mary Jo Randle is a British actress. She played Jo Morgan in The Bill from 1993 to 1995 and she played Bernie Quinlan in The Lakes.Randle has also been seen in Holby City, Victoria Wood As Seen On TV, The Royal, Casualty, Doctors, Heartbeat, Inspector Morse, Dalziel and Pascoe, Bad Behaviour, Wire...
) ever more fanciful stories. Each responds to the other after a ludicrous anecdote with the words
"'"He didn't?"
"He did!"
Acorn Antiques
Acorn Antiques is perhaps the best-remembered regular item from the series. It was a spoof soap opera set in an antiques shop, which, despite its provincial high-street status, manages to supply an unending stream of works by Picasso, Leonardo Da VinciLeonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
and Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
. The sketch parodied the soap genre with its bad acting, ridiculous dialogue and contrived plot twists. Wood, as a homage, based it on the long-running 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...
/Central serial Crossroads, and the BBC radio soap opera Waggoners Walk (1969–1980).
The sketches even led to a fanzine and appreciation gatherings, where fans would dress up as the characters. In 2004, in a poll on its website, Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
voted Acorn Antiques the seventh best comedy sketch of all time. In 2005, Acorn Antiques was turned into a West End musical (see below).
Spoof documentaries
Independent school (UK)
An independent school is a school that is not financed through the taxation system by local or national government and is instead funded by private sources, predominantly in the form of tuition charges, gifts and long-term charitable endowments, and so is not subject to the conditions imposed by...
, with one pupil claiming "there are all sorts of girls here, even coloured girls, though they tend to be princesses mainly".
Another spoof was of a musical detailing the life of Bessie Bunter, entitled Bessie! The musical starts as an Andrew Lloyd Webber parody with the setting of a girl's private school but they've included issues such as the Spanish Civil War and the McCarthy era. On being asked about Bessie's fatness, the producer (Sir Dave) replies "it is a sort of mental fatness". The lead actress, Carla, belts out in rehearsals one of the songs, "One Day", despite insisting she has "pneumonia". She says to prepare for the role she starts with the bra and then everything falls into place. Later, Bessie! is rewritten completely and the previous cast are sacked: it is, after all, a musical about "a big fat girl". Meanwhile Carla is crying and being comforted by her colleagues, but further upset by Sir Dave telling her to "get the **** out of here will you Carla, we don't really want snot all over the plush love" In this rewritten part of Bessie, she is played by Victoria Wood who sings an impossibly glamorous and upbeat number. However, she complains at the end that "you're going to have to change this floor".
Usually lasting around five minutes, the spoof documentaries were narrated by a usually off-screen "reporter" in the first series and presented for the most part by Duncan Preston in the second series, as "Corin Huntley". It was a continuation of style for Wood, who had previously produced similar pseudo-realistic spoofs such as The Woman Who Had 740 Children and Girls Talking for Wood and Walters.
One-off sketches
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
(in a poll conducted on its website) awarded it "27th Best Comedy Sketch Of All Time". Walters has said "she [Wood] knows I like playing old women. Why? Because I am one! I love the shape of them."
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
. It starred Wood as the show's gossiping Ena Sharples
Ena Sharples
Ena Sharples is one of the original characters from the British soap opera Coronation Street, and was played by Violet Carson.-Development:...
, with Julie Walters as Martha Longhurst and Lill Roughley
Lill Roughley
Lill Roughley is an English actress who has appeared on British television since the 1970s. Her notable roles include Alice in Mulberry and Ella Dawkins in My Hero...
as Minnie Caldwell, with Ena telling them the "gossip" she has heard about the show's plotlines for the next two decades. The sketch was written with a detailed knowledge of the soap opera's past: "That stuck up Ida Barlow
Ida Barlow
Ida Barlow is a fictional character from the UK television ITV soap opera Coronation Street, she was played by actress Noel Dyson between 1960 and 1961.-Casting:...
, who's no better than she should be... it'll not be too long before she falls under a bus! That Harry Hewitt'll likely get crushed under the axle of 'is own van, and as for Valerie Barlow – and if this isn't judgement for setting 'erself up in 'er own front parlour as a so-called 'air stylist then my name isn't Ena Sharples – from what I 'ear, its two clogs to a threpenny bit that she'll electrocute 'erself with 'er own 'airdryer." This sketch's accuracy earned Wood praise from Doris Speed
Doris Speed
Doris Speed, MBE was an English actress, best known for her role as snooty Rovers Return landlady Annie Walker on Coronation Street, a role she played from 1960 to 1983.-Early life and career:...
, who had played Annie Walker
Annie Walker
Anne "Annie" Walker is a long-standing fictional character in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street. She was played by actress Doris Speed from the series' first episode in 1960 until Speed retired from the role 23 years and 1,746 episodes later in 1983.The character of Annie has been noted as...
in Coronation Street from 1960 to 1983.
Giving Notes featured Walters as the leader of an amateur dramatics company giving notes to her cast: "I can't say this too often; it may be Hamlet, but it's got to be fun, fun, fun!" Shoe Shop also starred Walters as a mad shoe shop saleswoman and Wood as her customer. In the sketch she delivers Wood a pair of high-heeled shoes, though Wood requested a flat pair. Walters snaps off the heels and replies, "flatter now".
Medical School had Wood as a nervous interviewee, applying to become a medical student. Asked what the last book she read was, she replies "Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
. It's a book by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, of the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
". In On The Trolley, Wood played a waitress in a restaurant, responding to any order of food with the repetitive phrases "Is it on the trolley?" and "Can you point at it?" This was Wood's personal favourite sketch in the series.
Music
Music featured regularly on the show, often with Wood singing self-penned songs accompanying herself on the piano. The best remembered tune from the show is the seven minute-long "The Ballad of Barry and Freda – Let's Do It". It concerns a couple, Barry and Freda; she is hungry for sex, he isn't. It climaxes with the lines "beat me on the bottom with a Womans Weekly, lets do it! Let's do it tonight!". The song has been performed numerous times by Wood in her live performances. Wood said of the number: "A joy to write, a sod to learn, and I daren't finish a show without it. The first time I performed it, a woman at the stage door asked, 'How long have you been cross-eyed?'"As Seen On TV also featured other musical styles: So Pissed Off With Love, a duet with Wood and Denis Lawson
Denis Lawson
Denis Stamper Lawson is a Scottish actor and director. He is known for his roles as John Jarndyce in the BBC's adaptation of Bleak House and as Gordon Urquhart in the film Local Hero, but is best known for playing the part of Wedge Antilles in the original Star Wars trilogy.-Early life:Lawson was...
; Keep On Shopping, an epic musical number about shopping; At The Chippy, with Wood, Walters, Meg Johnson and others singing in tribute to their local fish parlour; Marie And Clarie And Min, featuring Wood, Johnson and Hope Jackman as three old women on a seaside trip, as well as other numbers. The show also contained a skit on the old "fill in" footage often slotted into scheduling to cover technical breakdowns: "I'm Gonna Knock, Knock, Knock On Your Knocker". Comedy sketches also featured music, like the parody of the staging of a West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
musical, Bessie, and a send-up of the Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
–Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
"let's put on a show" genre in "I'm Counting Moonbeams".
Preferring to work with people she knew, Wood hired David Firman to be musical director for the series. Firman had previously been musical director for Wood's play Good Fun.
Episodes
Acorn Antiques
Acorn Antiques is a parodic soap opera written by Victoria Wood as a regular feature in the two seasons of Victoria Wood As Seen On TV, which ran from 1985 to 1987. It was turned into a musical by Wood, opening in 2005.-Television version:...
making its introduction. This first series reached 4.55 million viewers by the penultimate show, making it the tenth most popular programme that week on the channel. To Wood's surprise, the series then went on to win two BAFTA Awards (see below).
Royal Variety Performance
The Royal Variety Performance is a gala evening held annually in the United Kingdom, which is attended by senior members of the British Royal Family, usually the reigning monarch. In more recent years Queen Elizabeth II and The Prince of Wales have alternately attended the performance...
.
Between series one and two, Wood said she thought it was a mistake to do another As Seen On TV series, and had attempted to write a play instead: "I've been seeking to branch out, but it hasn't happened. I wanted to do something different before I went back on TV." However, she soon decided that the play was "too Alan Ayckbourne", threw it away and began writing the second run instead. She aimed to write 18 minutes of script a week. In the end it took six months to complete, an experience she did not enjoy. "You pour everything you've got into one sketch and you don't ever want to write another - only you realise there are fifty-nine more to go before you've got enough for a series, it's torment".
The series returned for a 40-minute special on 18 December 1987. Wood defined 'special' as "ten minutes longer and I've splashed out on a new bra".
She said of her decision to finish the show, "I love television, and if it was possible for me to work in it more, then I would; but because of the position I've put myself in of being the only writer on the show, I can't physically work in it that often. I've just had it with sketch shows for a bit – people have liked it, and I want to stop while they still like it."
The Radio Times Guide To TV Comedy described Victoria Wood As Seen On TV as having "a regular company of fine performers, good production values, incisive scripts and a snappy pace... the show rarely dipped below brilliant and featured numerous delights, such as Wood's hilariously authentic dialogue and her surprisingly stinging satirical characters".
Cast
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...
, Celia Imrie
Celia Imrie
Celia Diana Savile Imrie is an English actress. In a career starting in the early 1970s, Imrie has played Marianne Bellshade in Bergerac, Philippa Moorcroft in Dinnerladies, Miss Babs in Acorn Antiques, Diana Neal in After You've Gone and Gloria Millington in Kingdom...
and Duncan Preston
Duncan Preston
Duncan Preston is an English actor probably best known for his appearances in television productions written by Victoria Wood. His best remembered roles are Clifford in the Victoria Wood As Seen On TV soap opera parody Acorn Antiques , and Stan in dinnerladies.In July 2010, Preston revealed he was...
, with Susie Blake
Susie Blake
Susie Blake is a British actress.-Personal life:Blake trained at the Arts Educational School and LAMDA in London. She is the granddaughter of the actress Annette Mills and a great - niece of the actor Sir John Mills...
and Patricia Routledge
Patricia Routledge
Katherine Patricia Routledge, CBE is an English character comedy actress and singer. She is best known for her role as character Hyacinth Bucket in the British television series Keeping Up Appearances and Hetty Wainthropp in the British television series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates...
doing weekly spots.
Julie Walters was a long term collaborator of Wood's, although unlike Wood and Walters, their previous television series together, only Wood's name remained in the title. This was because in the interim, Wood was getting viewers of it turning up to her solo stand up shows expecting to see a double act. This didn't stop Wood making Walters almost as prominent in this newer series. She played many two handers with Wood as well as other roles such as Margery the daytime television host, a mad shoe shop lady, the elderly waitress in the Two Soups sketch, and a transsexual hairdresser. Most famously, she was the char-lady Mrs Overall in Acorn Antiques. She later revealed that alongside her starring role in Educating Rita
Educating Rita (film)
Educating Rita is a 1983 film of Willy Russell's play of the same title directed by Lewis Gilbert and stars Julie Walters, Michael Caine, and Maureen Lipman with a screenplay by Russell.-Premise:...
, it's the part she's still recognised the most by the public for.
Duncan Preston (who appeared in Wood's 1981 teleplay Happy Since I Met You
Happy Since I Met You
Happy Since I Met You is a television play written by Victoria Wood, and broadcast on ITV on 9 August 1981.It stars Julie Walters, Duncan Preston, Tracey Ullman and Jim Bowen and was directed by Baz Taylor as part of ITV's Screenplay series. In Happy Since I Met You, Duncan Preston, who would later...
) was cast in weekly roles. He had even turned down the chance to play Shakespeare and an offer of a world tour as Hotspur in Henry IV, Part One at the same time. Preston later said, "I was at a crossroads and I had the choice of going straight or going off at a tangent with Victoria, I chose the latter and she changed my life". Most famously playing the recurring role of Clifford in Acorn Antiques, he also advertised a men's bra, was "Corin Huntley" – a documentary presenter – and was the voice of the monster Crayola in Wood's parody of Doctor Who. Wood said of Duncan, "He hasn't been exploited properly in the show because I tend to write parts for women, which is fair enough, but it does mean that Duncan plays the bank manager or the man in the hotel. I don't like men's men. Duncan's mainly the sort of man who likes women, so you can talk to him about your ovaries and it causes no embarrassment". Preston said he was cast "because I was so tall".
Celia Imrie was also a long-standing friend of Wood, and had even been in the studio audience when Wood performed on the TV talent show 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...
in 1974. However, it was only when Wood saw her act in a show by BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...
called Eighty-One Take Two that she was impressed enough to hire her friend for the show. Imrie played various roles throughout the run, like a co-presenter of McConomy (a spoof TV economy show), and most famously Miss Babs in Acorn Antiques. Imrie said in 2007, "Miss Babs is still what I'm best known for, even though I don't go around with bright yellow hair." During her run in As Seen On TV Imrie received a fan letter from playwright Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
. "He wrote a card to me saying he adored Miss Babs. You can't imagine how thrilling that was. I still have that card today." Imrie though believes that the praise should go to Wood's writing: "Every word is of huge importance and crafted to perfection. It was a wonderful, happy accident that I met her."
Cheadle, Greater Manchester
Cheadle is a suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport in Greater Manchester, England. It borders the districts of Cheadle Hulme, Gatley, Heald Green and Cheadle Heath in Stockport, and the East Didsbury area of Manchester. As of 2001 it had a population of 14,261.-Early history:There has...
in weekly monologues. Routledge had appeared in a monologue before in Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
's 1978 play A Woman of No Importance. In 1999, as part of Comic Relief, Wood parodied Routledge in Wetty Hainthropp Investigates, a spoof of Routledge's BBC1 detective series Hetty Wainthropp Investigates
Hetty Wainthropp Investigates
Hetty Wainthropp Investigates is a genteel British crime–comedy drama television series which aired from 1996 to 1998 on BBC One. The series starred Patricia Routledge as the title character , Derek Benfield as her patient husband Robert, Dominic Monaghan as their lodger Geoffrey Shawcross...
.
Semi-regulars in the show included 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...
, who'd previously appeared with Wood in the London staging of her play Talent. He appeared in such parts as a sleazy press photographer and a telephone deodorisering engineer. Lill Roughley
Lill Roughley
Lill Roughley is an English actress who has appeared on British television since the 1970s. Her notable roles include Alice in Mulberry and Ella Dawkins in My Hero...
, who Wood first spotted when she worked with her then husband Geoffrey Durham
Geoffrey Durham
Geoffrey Durham is a British comedy magician and actor who was known for many years as 'The Great Soprendo'.-Early life:...
in 1977, was given various roles, such as impersonating Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
s Minnie Caldwell. Mary Jo Randle
Mary Jo Randle
Mary Jo Randle is a British actress. She played Jo Morgan in The Bill from 1993 to 1995 and she played Bernie Quinlan in The Lakes.Randle has also been seen in Holby City, Victoria Wood As Seen On TV, The Royal, Casualty, Doctors, Heartbeat, Inspector Morse, Dalziel and Pascoe, Bad Behaviour, Wire...
, as well as playing Kelly-Marie Tunstall's friend, appeared as an actress who hadn't worked for three years in the spoof documentary To Be An Actress.
Wood hired many actors she had previously worked with and felt she could trust, such as Peter Ellis
Peter Ellis (actor)
Peter Ellis is a British actor. Peter has worked extensively in Theatre and Television both as an Actor and Director. He is perhaps best known for playing the role of Chief Superintendent Charles Brownlow in the long running ITV drama The Bill.In 1983, Peter appeared in the play Trafford Tanzi,...
, Meg Johnson
Meg Johnson
Meg Johnson is an English actress who currently plays the role of Pearl Ladderbanks in ITV's popular soap opera Emmerdale. Prior to joining Emmedale, Johnson was a part of the now-axed UK soap Brookside, playing Brigid McKenna for three years...
, Kay Adshead
Kay Adshead
Kay Adshead is a British actress, poet, and playwright. Her television credits include Christine in the BBC television series Dinnerladies, Barbara Fletcher in Family Affairs, Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights, Victoria Wood As Seen On TV, Crime Traveller, Mother's Ruin, and One Foot in The...
and Sue Wallace. Wood also hired several celebrities for the show including Frank Bruno
Frank Bruno
Franklin Roy Bruno MBE is an English former boxer whose career highlight was winning the WBC Heavyweight championship in 1995. Altogether, he won 40 of his 45 contests...
, Denis Healey
Denis Healey
Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey CH, MBE, PC is a British Labour politician, who served as Secretary of State for Defence from 1964 to 1970 and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979.-Early life:...
, Claire Rayner
Claire Rayner
Claire Berenice Rayner OBE was an English nurse, journalist, broadcaster and novelist, best known for her role for many years as an agony aunt.-Early life:...
, Pete Postlethwaite
Pete Postlethwaite
Peter William "Pete" Postlethwaite, OBE, was an English stage, film and television actor.After minor television appearances including in The Professionals, Postlethwaite's first success came with the film Distant Voices, Still Lives in 1988. He played a mysterious lawyer, Mr...
, Maureen Lipman
Maureen Lipman
Maureen Diane Lipman CBE is a British film, theatre and television actress, columnist and comedienne.-Early life:Lipman was born in Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Maurice Julius Lipman and Zelma Pearlman. Her father was a tailor; he used to have a shop between the...
, Hope Jackman, Molly Weir
Molly Weir
Mary Weir, better known as Molly Weir, was a Scottish stage actress, most notable for her role as the long-running character Hazel the McWitch in the BBC TV series Rentaghost. She was the sister of naturalist and broadcaster Tom Weir.Born in Glasgow and brought up in the Springburn area of the...
, Henry Kelly
Henry Kelly
Patrick Henry Kelly is an Irish television presenter and radio DJ.Henry Kelly was born in Athlone, Co Westmeath, Ireland. He was educated at Belvedere College SJ, and at University College Dublin where he was Auditor of the Literary and Historical Society...
, Dora Bryan
Dora Bryan
Dora May Bryan OBE is an English actress of stage, film and television.-Early life:Bryan was born as Dora May Broadbent in Southport, Lancashire, England. Her father was a salesman and she attended Hathershaw County Primary School in Oldham, Lancashire...
and Anne Reid
Anne Reid
Anne Reid, MBE is a BAFTA Award-nominated English film and television actress from Newcastle upon Tyne, best known for her roles as Valerie Tatlock in Coronation Street and Jean in dinnerladies....
(who would star with Wood again in her sitcom dinnerladies
Dinnerladies
Dinnerladies is a British sitcom written, co-produced by and starring Victoria Wood. It ran on BBC One for 16 episodes from 1998 to 2000.-Plot:...
in 1999. Kelly and Bryan also made guest appearances in the sitcom).
Awards
| First series | Broadcasting Press Award | |
| First series | BAFTA | Best Light Entertainment Performance |
| Second series | BAFTA | Best Light Entertainment Programme |
| Christmas special | BAFTA | Best Light Entertainment Programme |
In 1996, the BBC celebrated its 60th anniversary with an awards ceremony titled Auntie's All Time Greats. In it, As Seen On TV beat Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...
for "Favourite Comedy Series". It beat the same show again when it won 'best sketch show' in the Radio Times Comedy Poll in 2001.
Despite all the accolades As Seen On TV received (with many of them from the BBC), it was last repeated on terrestrial British television in 1995.
As Seen On TV was, however, repeated in a weekend marathon (from 3–4 November 2007) of Victoria Wood programmes on British satellite TV station UKTV Gold
UKTV Gold
GOLD is the original channel of the UKTV network, broadcasting to the United Kingdom and Ireland. It launched on 1 November 1992 as UK Gold, and is currently available on Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk TV and terrestrial subscription via Top Up TV. It shows repeats of classic programming from the BBC...
.
Revivals
Although the show ended in 1987, elements of it have been revived by the cast from time to time. Wood and Walters both appeared as Margery and Joan in a sketch for Red Nose Day 1988 – A Night of Comic Relief, broadcast live. Acorn Antiques has been revived many times: firstly, Mrs Overall briefly returned in 1992's Victoria Wood's All Day BreakfastVictoria Wood's All Day Breakfast
A one-off, fifty minute comedy sketch show special, written by and starring comedian Victoria Wood. Broadcast on Christmas day 1992.The show was linked by Duncan Preston and Wood as husband and wife daytime TV presenters 'Martin Cumbernauld' and 'Sally Crossthwaite'...
. Secondly, Acorn Antiques was briefly brought back for an episode in 2001, featuring the original cast and Nick Frost
Nick Frost
Nicholas John "Nick" Frost is an English actor, comedian and screenwriter. He is best known for his work with Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg in the role of Mike Watt in the television comedy Spaced, as well as the film characters Ed in Shaun of the Dead, PC/Sgt...
as an armed robber. In 2005 it was revived by Wood as a West End theatre production Acorn Antiques: The Musical!
Acorn Antiques: The Musical!
Acorn Antiques:The Musical! is a musical about an antiques dealer, based on the parodic soap opera of the same name by Victoria Wood. It premiered in the West End in 2005, and starred Julie Walters and Celia Imrie...
, starring the original cast and directed by Trevor Nunn
Trevor Nunn
Sir Trevor Robert Nunn, CBE is an English theatre, film and television director. Nunn has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed musicals and dramas for the stage, as well as opera...
. Limited to a 16 week sold out run, it then toured with a brand new cast, this time directed by Wood herself.
Script books
Juliet Bravo
Juliet Bravo is a British television series, which ran on BBC1 between 1980 and 1985. The theme of the series concerned a female police inspector who took over control of a police station in the fictional town of Hartley in Lancashire.-Programme name:...
, where Wood as Juliet chats to her Desk Sergeant Wilberforce. Also, 'Craft Shop', where the owner (Rosalind March) tries to tempt her customer (Celia Imrie) with the likes of "Ukrainian Prayer Shawls, woven by the mothers of Russian dissidents whilst in a state of euphoria, which doesn't happen very often which is why we've only got three."
DVD, video and other media
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
a compilation with the Acorn Antiques sketches was released on BBC Video. A DVD reissue followed in 2005.
Audio highlights were made into two half-hour shows for Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
. They were broadcast on 18 and 25 August 1992. Audio highlights of the show were also released over two cassettes by the BBC in 1991.
Radio Times synopsis
At the time of the original broadcasts, as well as writing and appearing in the show, Wood also wrote its programme synopsis for the broadcast listings magazine the Radio TimesRadio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
. All were misleading, with little or nothing to do with the contents of the actual broadcast. The entry for the first show on 8 January 1985 said:
These continued throughout the original broadcast run:
Other entries make reference to Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
, Anita Harris
Anita Harris
Anita Harris is an English actress, singer and entertainer....
and others who would make no appearance on the actual show.
External links
- Victoria Wood As Seen On TV at BBC Comedy Guide