Victoria Wood - Classic or Dud?

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Victoria Wood - As Seen On TV comes out on DVD in March.

And what of Acorn Antiques, Pat And Margaret, dinnerladies??

― Ben Mott (Ben Mott), Monday, 29 January 2007 19:51 (eighteen years ago)

I love her. She's funny and great.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 29 January 2007 22:55 (eighteen years ago)

"As Seen on TV" is classic through and through.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 29 January 2007 23:10 (eighteen years ago)

even her 'An Audience With' is quite enjoyable.

― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 29 January 2007 23:12 (eighteen years ago)

I don't really get dinnerladies tho.

― God Bows to Meth (noodle vague), Monday, 29 January 2007 23:16 (eighteen years ago)

I miss this kind of gentle humour.

Classic.

― fandango (fandango), Monday, 29 January 2007 23:17 (eighteen years ago)

maybe not so classic for dinnerladies

― fandango (fandango), Monday, 29 January 2007 23:17 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, the mid-'80s sketch shows were ace.

I saw her last Friday, walking up Newman Street, carrying a heavy bag. And then I saw Jack D0ch3rty of Abs0lut3ly non-fame, looking very rough. I think I was most glad of the three that it wasn't 1989.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Monday, 29 January 2007 23:40 (eighteen years ago)

i think dinnerladies is the best thing she did yet

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 29 January 2007 23:50 (eighteen years ago)

not sure about that thing she did with Celia Imrie in the early-mid 90s

― vita susicivus (blueski), Monday, 29 January 2007 23:52 (eighteen years ago)

-what's the soup today dear?
-country vegetable
-what country, Taiwan?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=q90wUWVpops

― jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 00:10 (eighteen years ago)

I love dinnerladies. She was saying in some interview recently that she gets terrible stick about how dated it looks, but that was because the BBC wouldn't give her the money she wanted to make it properly, and she wanted it to be shot on film and have more than one set and stuff, but I like it fine the way it is. I kind of like a really restricted sitcom set where they have to work around the limitations.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 00:13 (eighteen years ago)

The kind of comedy you'd buy if it was on the shelf at Marks & Spencer: inofffensive, middle-class friendly, "gentle", easily digestable, suitable for ages 10 - 99, that juncture where bland begins to meet smug.

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 08:13 (eighteen years ago)

Worst offence - inflicting endless amounts of Julie Waters on the world, the worst playing to camera actress after Margi Clarke.

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 08:17 (eighteen years ago)

Bob, don't you work for the Labour Party?

― God Bows to Meth (noodle vague), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 08:18 (eighteen years ago)

Erm, the connection is?

(Please not let it be that Margi Clarke is a reflection of authentic gritty yet feisty working class women with deep intuitive wisdom and a heart of gold behind that brittle platinum facade)

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 08:23 (eighteen years ago)

inofffensive, middle-class friendly, "gentle", easily digestable, suitable for ages 10 - 99, that juncture where bland begins to meet smug

― God Bows to Meth (noodle vague), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 08:33 (eighteen years ago)

Uh-oh: CUNT INVASION...

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 08:47 (eighteen years ago)

Julie Waters - Roger's little-known sister?

Jack Docherty - the most ill-advised holiday ever taken by anybody?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 08:48 (eighteen years ago)

I like Julie Walters, but she's become such a British Institution that I think directors don't rein her in enough, maybe because they think she knows better than they do, I don't know. She reminds me of Al Pacino in that respect.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 09:32 (eighteen years ago)

Julie Walters IS Michael Corleone: "Ee, love, I know you want to teach young Freddie a lesson, but you'd best leave him be while his mam's still 'ere, eh? Now, one lump or twelve?"

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 09:42 (eighteen years ago)

Dud, apart from Dinner Ladies which is just about bearable, as her usual shtick is toned down. Smug, self satisfied and patronising. I saw a piece from the Acorn Antiques musical on Paul O'Grady last week and just about managed to avoid throwing up.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 09:45 (eighteen years ago)

I think it's the playing the piano and smiling which tips me over the edge.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 09:46 (eighteen years ago)

I agree with Billy, I don't think she's ever actually made me laugh.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 09:48 (eighteen years ago)

Jack Docherty - the most ill-advised holiday ever taken by anybody?

please to explain marcello - i don't know what happened to jack...

― i am not a nugget (stevie), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 09:59 (eighteen years ago)

Dudder than dud.

― Sir Tehrance HoBB (the pirate king), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 10:02 (eighteen years ago)

I think she's great, and I loved "Dinnerladies", so nyah.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 10:07 (eighteen years ago)

As Seen on TV more or less invented the spoof documentary, didn't it? They were always my favourite bits of the show. The whole feel of them is very like the first series of the Office.

― b ham (b ham), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 10:13 (eighteen years ago)

Jack Docherty used to have a nightly chatshow on Channel Five. Then he went on holiday and Graham Norton sat in for him. JD didn't have a job when he returned.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 10:15 (eighteen years ago)

aha! cheers mc

― i am not a nugget (stevie), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 10:50 (eighteen years ago)

Smug, self satisfied and patronising.

Stop projecting smugness onto something/someone who isn't smug (or self-satisfied).

― vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 10:52 (eighteen years ago)

John Peel's holiday to Peru probably more ill-advised sadly.

― vita susicivus (blueski), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 10:53 (eighteen years ago)

:((((

― i am not a nugget (stevie), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 10:58 (eighteen years ago)

i interviewed wood once -- she is very focused and distant

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 10:58 (eighteen years ago)

she is very focused and distant

Big f-stop?

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 11:02 (eighteen years ago)

classic, all the more so because right from the start she turned her back entirely on ever being cool. there wasn't much in the public domain- no wait, not much in the way of non-patronising, non-reductive culture/entertainment in the public domain for the demographic she represents-no wait, not represents, the one most readily able to identify with her material. menopausal women ain't cool, so they're meant to stay at home with woman's realm and some crocheting? haha fuck that! she broke some of the toughest taboos. and apart from that she's really funny.

Stop projecting smugness onto something/someone who isn't smug (or self-satisfied).

otm. do you actually know anything about her and her life?

― emsk ( emsk), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 11:03 (eighteen years ago)

I remember liking that song about going on her honeymoon with an entire brass band. And Acorn Antiques was great "I always think of you, whenever I'm watching the showjumping, grilling a tomato...." That being said I haven't seen anything by her in donkey's years, and I was always in the pub when dinnerladies was on.

― Matt (Matt), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 11:13 (eighteen years ago)

Someone has just mis-spelled Mrs O as Mrs M.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 12:16 (eighteen years ago)

i think she was good, never detected smugness and i am usually quick to.

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 12:19 (eighteen years ago)

i haven't seen her for years either but i used to love her, i think i still would.

― estela (estela), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 12:23 (eighteen years ago)

tbh i don't know what i've seen. not 'dinnerladies', just stuff from the 80s/early 90s. fond enough memories!

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 12:25 (eighteen years ago)

'An audience with' has a fantastic passing evisceration of what passes for Farce these days. Also great delivery "They showed this in my home town, there was an outcry. They said 'tch'."

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 12:29 (eighteen years ago)

classic. absolutely classic.

even the miserable sods at 'cookd and bombd' think she was the business and they don't like anyone hardly.

gentle? inoffensive?? my arse.

― pisces (piscesx), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 12:30 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46cwOX5Z3rg

― pisces (piscesx), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 12:35 (eighteen years ago)

Don't see what was wrong with Dinnerladies.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 13:20 (eighteen years ago)

So classic.

― Ruairi Wirewool (Ruairi Wirewool), Tuesday, 30 January 2007 14:39 (eighteen years ago)

five months pass...

"do i look like a woman who'd buy a tufted axminster?"

― jed_, Saturday, 21 July 2007 10:31 (eighteen years ago)

she broke some of the toughest taboos. and apart from that she's really funny

Her funnyness quotient is of course debatable and a matter of taste, but I've never seen VW as a taboo breaker in any way.

― Bob Six, Saturday, 21 July 2007 10:44 (eighteen years ago)

four months pass...

Best British stand-up comedian ever? Her old ITV stand-up gigs get repeated on UKTV Gold a lot, there's pure lulz in there.

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 11 December 2007 14:43 (eighteen years ago)

definitely funnier than Corbett

― blueski, Tuesday, 11 December 2007 14:48 (eighteen years ago)

she's funny but i found the piano playing sometimes unbearable.

and billy connelly is funnier, so 'no' to best british stand up.

― Ste, Tuesday, 11 December 2007 14:49 (eighteen years ago)

was dave allen NI or Eire?

― Just got offed, Tuesday, 11 December 2007 14:50 (eighteen years ago)

He was from Dublin

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 11 December 2007 14:54 (eighteen years ago)

Dave Allen from Ulster, the very thought of it!

― Tom D., Tuesday, 11 December 2007 15:01 (eighteen years ago)

I'm looking for me friend. She's got earrings shaped like sausages.
But they're not here.
They're HERE.

― ljubljana, Tuesday, 11 December 2007 22:34 (eighteen years ago)

she's a bit smug i reckon, sorry.

― pc user, Tuesday, 11 December 2007 22:40 (eighteen years ago)

five years pass...

watched this tonight at my gf's urging and it is hilarious. makes bobsix's comments above all the more baffling - i'm struggling to think of anything on UK TV right now that's this funny, this deftly political, this perceptive about class. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkWCwr7xdfU

― The @glennbeck have raisin b-lls and rice crispy d-ck (stevie), Tuesday, 26 March 2013 23:42 (twelve years ago)

Watched 6 minutes of it to give it a go- and not to my taste. On the plus side though - no piano playing and no Julie Waters.

― ex-ex-gay (Bob Six), Wednesday, 27 March 2013 00:25 (twelve years ago)

...until I skipped forward a bit. Urgh.

― ex-ex-gay (Bob Six), Wednesday, 27 March 2013 00:28 (twelve years ago)

three years pass...

RIP ;_;

― Romeo Daltrey (Tom D.), Wednesday, 20 April 2016 15:13 (nine years ago)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36094827

― Romeo Daltrey (Tom D.), Wednesday, 20 April 2016 15:13 (nine years ago)

i wonder if i'm the only American here who's never even heard of her

― we can be heroes just for about 3.6 seconds (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 20 April 2016 15:42 (nine years ago)

She was such a great, great writer, as well as performer.

― Jerry Lee Lewis: The Total Film-Maker (stevie), Wednesday, 20 April 2016 15:49 (nine years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBc1BncuJ84

"I want to be fourteen again, tattoo my self with a fountain pen….free rides on the waltzer off the fairground men for a promise of a snog….. the last night of the fair…..French kissing as the kiosks shut…..behind the generators with your coconut…..the coloured lights reflected in the Brylcream on his hair…..when I was funny, I was famous… "

Morrissey was a fan to say the least.

― piscesx, Wednesday, 20 April 2016 15:50 (nine years ago)

aw RIP

― a passing spacecadet, Wednesday, 20 April 2016 16:29 (nine years ago)

Sad. Always felt like she'd be one of those rare comedians would be funny irl rather than a huge irritant.

― Daithi Bowsie (darraghmac), Wednesday, 20 April 2016 16:35 (nine years ago)

RIP, utterly brilliant

― woof, Wednesday, 20 April 2016 16:46 (nine years ago)

Smarter, spikier and more important than any of her obituaries are likely to note.

― some men just want to watch the world Bern (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 20 April 2016 17:55 (nine years ago)

RIP, will always remember watching her singing "I can't do it" ("beat me on the bottom with your woman's weekly") on her 80s tv show.

― Just can't get Eno, ugh (ledge), Wednesday, 20 April 2016 19:50 (nine years ago)

She was a brilliant performer and always bright and funny and never remotely seemed like a celeb. RIP

― calzino, Wednesday, 20 April 2016 20:48 (nine years ago)

xp to morbius did she have a profile in us? Feel like acorn antiques although very very culturally specific would travel

― Kevin Ageusia Smith (wins), Wednesday, 20 April 2016 20:53 (nine years ago)

:( RIP

― Odysseus, Wednesday, 20 April 2016 21:16 (nine years ago)

Smarter, spikier and more important than any of her obituaries are likely to note.

kind of otm but I also think that death is the point where ppl will actually notice & say how brilliant she was and are forced to look properly at her - like I grab for Grenfell and Bennett and Thackray if I need starting co-ordinates, but I also know nothing quite fits because she was her own unique force and really fucking funny. RIP again, I want to watch some stuff this weekend.

― woof, Wednesday, 20 April 2016 21:42 (nine years ago)

Excellent, lovely, hilarious interview from 2007
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_QL664TNIg

― piscesx, Wednesday, 20 April 2016 22:44 (nine years ago)

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