''Victoria Wood'' (retitled ''Victoria Wood Presents'' from 2007 for its DVD release) is a series of six one-off situation comedies written by and starring

Victoria Wood Victoria Wood (19 May 1953 – 20 April 2016) was an English comedian, actress, lyricist, singer, composer, pianist, screenwriter, producer and director. Wood wrote and starred in dozens of sketches, plays, musicals, films and sitcoms over se ...

in 1989, who took a break from sketches, two years after her successful sketch series '' Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV''. Wood appeared as a fictionalised version of herself in all six episodes; she was generally identified only as "Victoria", but in the first episode was also addressed as "Miss Wood". Her real-life career was occasionally a plot point: in "The Library", it was said that she "worked in TV", and in ''Over To Pam'' characters recognised her as a comedian, though two confused her with

Dawn French Dawn Roma French (born 11 October 1957) is a British actress, comedian, presenter and writer. French is known for writing and starring on the BBC comedy sketch show '' French and Saunders'' with her best friend and comedy partner, Jennifer Sau ...

. Most notably, in the final episode, ''Staying In'', she was taken to a party to perform as a stand-up comedian. Her character sometimes broke the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

of TV and spoke directly to the camera, but not in every episode.

Production

Bored with the sketch format and with a yearning to recapture her previous success as a playwright, Wood came up with six individual sitcoms as a compromise. She admitted to finding the writing difficult. Though Wood was written as the central character, other lead parts were written with specific actresses in mind, such as

Julie Walters Dame Julia Mary Walters (born 22 February 1950), known professionally as Julie Walters, is an English actress. She is the recipient of four British Academy Television Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, two International Emmy Awards, a B ...

and Una Stubbs. She said of the characters, "I want people to like me and the people who play my friends, and not everybody else." Unlike ''As Seen on TV'', the show was not filmed in front of a studio audience, though the recordings were later played for an audience to record a

laugh track A laugh track (or laughter track) is a separate soundtrack for a recorded comedy show containing the sound of audience laughter. In some productions, the laughter is a live audience response instead; in the United States, where it is most common ...

. Wood regretted this decision as it deprived her of the "instant gratification" of an audience response, and described the filming as a "boring, diabolical and awful" experience.

Reception

The series was met with a mixed critical reception. The series started out with an impressive 13 million viewers tuning in, but by the next week dropped to 11 million. The ''

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'' called the show "tiresome stuff", while the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its Masthead (British publishing), masthead was simpl ...

'' said Wood's targets were "predictable and snobbish". Wood later acknowledged, "It wasn't as well written by me as it could have been, and I shouldn't have been in all the sketches." In retrospect,

Screenonline Screenonline is a website about the history of British film, television and social history as documented by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute and funded by a £1.2 million grant from the National Lo ...

was more positive in its review, saying, "Modest in ambition and scale but rich in wit and acuity, the six playlets showcase Wood's eye for human foibles and her distinctively eccentric characters."

Episode guide

Home media

VHS and DVDs

Script collection

On 13 September 1990, the scripts of all six shows were published by Methuen London as ''Mens Sana in Thingummy Doodah, and Other Nuggets of Homely Fun''. The book is dedicated "To all the Old Bags in

Equity Equity may refer to: Finance, accounting and ownership *Equity (finance), ownership of assets that have liabilities attached to them ** Stock, equity based on original contributions of cash or other value to a business ** Home equity, the diff ...

, most of whom were in the series". The book contains a preface by Wood about what it's like to make a TV programme:

References

External links

* * *
Radio Times Guide To TV Comedy on 'Victoria Wood'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Victoria Wood (1989 Tv Series) BBC television sitcoms 1989 British television series debuts 1989 British television series endings 1980s British television sketch shows Television shows written by Victoria Wood